Baby Steps to an Organized Home:
Arrange Neatly
Now, is your trash cleaned out, your extras and unnecessaries donated or disposed of in some way, your space wiped clean, and your new storage units ready to go? It's time to arrange what you are keeping back in your space.
But don't just shove it all back in! Remember Baby Step #2, where you decided on a place for everything. Now is the time to put the things in their places. Some will go easily in place. Some will take arranging and rearranging until you see the best fit. Remember, you may still need to pare down more if it's not all fitting.
Keep those items most often used in the easiest to reach spots: up front, on top, or by itself.
Label! Your family cannot actually read your mind, and you might forget where something goes too. Labels keep your decisions obvious. I have used a Dymo label maker for many years.
Fold linens to fit the shelf. And put linens on the shelf with the folded side out. This way you know where one towel or sheet ends and the one under it begins. Have you ever slid your hand under a sheet to pull only it out, but two sheets come out, both unfolded? Folded sides out prevent this.
Just a side note: When you put away clean laundry, always put the clean items at the bottom of the stack so your clothes and linens get rotated for even wear.
But don't just shove it all back in! Remember Baby Step #2, where you decided on a place for everything. Now is the time to put the things in their places. Some will go easily in place. Some will take arranging and rearranging until you see the best fit. Remember, you may still need to pare down more if it's not all fitting.
Keep those items most often used in the easiest to reach spots: up front, on top, or by itself.
Label! Your family cannot actually read your mind, and you might forget where something goes too. Labels keep your decisions obvious. I have used a Dymo label maker for many years.
Fold linens to fit the shelf. And put linens on the shelf with the folded side out. This way you know where one towel or sheet ends and the one under it begins. Have you ever slid your hand under a sheet to pull only it out, but two sheets come out, both unfolded? Folded sides out prevent this.
Just a side note: When you put away clean laundry, always put the clean items at the bottom of the stack so your clothes and linens get rotated for even wear.
Back to our bathroom cupboard: We designated our new drawer to be the spot for backup containers of beauty products: facial scrub, shampoo, deodorant, etc. The drawer was not the place for the still-homeless cleaning supplies and bath tissue. Ideally, a second drawer unit on top of this one could have housed the bath tissue rolls. Then our spray bottles of cleaning products could have stood either in the center of the cabinet between the two towers, or in its own box on top of our new drawers. The ideal doesn't always work out, so we went to option #2. We raided another closet for a plastic shoebox (clear and white to match), lined up the spray cleaners in it, and put it on top of our new drawer unit. Then we stacked the bath tissue next to it. It works well enough, and the cupboard is much easier to use now.
1 comment:
What an inspriation you are to all us women. Thanks for taking the time to explain all this fun stuff to the organized want to be's.
Mary Jo
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