Clutter happens. Unfortunately for most people, it keeps happening over and over again! This is because we are all taught how to clean up as children, but no one ever teaches us how to prevent the junk from piling up in the first place! Minimize the clutter and time spent cleaning in your home by taking these preventative measures. Tried and true tips from the Organization Experts at Only Slimline Hangers.
A Space for Everything
Keeping things picked up is impossible if you don’t have a space for everything. Try to organize one problem area per day or week until your whole house is equipped with a space to put everything. Avoid creating “miscellaneous” categories anywhere. Make a space or container for things that fall into strange categories, like things to send to school, things to donate, and souvenirs. If you don’t have a place for the miscellaneous items around your home, then you’ll end up with clutter, as well as boxes and drawers full of junk.
Prepare for the Inevitable
Some things are going to pile up no matter what you do because you live in your house! Making a temporary holding place for certain items will help you to keep things from getting out of control. For example, create an area by the door for your purse, phone, keys, coats, hats, scarves, gloves, bills, newspaper, and other things that you don’t want to forget when you leave the house. I keep a trash can and a shredder hidden in a cabinet by the front door so that junk mail and trash don’t make it past the front door. When I come in, I open my bills, throw away the envelopes, and put the bill that I have to pay and things that I need to address later, in a container by my keys and phone. The trash is gone, everything is open and easy to look through, and I don’t end up with a pile of junk mail by my computer anymore.
Use a Home Rolling Garment Rack
A laundry rolling rack is so incredibly useful in a home setting. Roll it around to collect dirty laundry from every room in one trip. Use it to hang clothes to dry that you don’t want to put in the dryer. Hang things right out of the dryer so that wrinkles just fall out. Divide the hanging items by room and then roll it around putting things away, again in one trip. Laundry doesn’t have to be hard. You can avoid piles of clean and dirty laundry by making it so easy to keep up with.
Have a System for Putting Things Away Later
I have two L-shaped baskets that live on my stairs. If I’m busy downstairs and don’t have time to go up, I toss things that need to be put away up there in the bottom basket. The next time I go up, I grab the basket and quickly put everything away. I use the other basket for the same thing at the top of the stairs. If I’m cleaning the downstairs, I toss toys, books, clothes, and other items that go upstairs into the basket. Then I can just call the kids down and tell them that their part of the cleaning process is to put away the things in the basket. No more endless trips up and down the steps!
About the Author: Rick Miller is on the staff of Only Slimline Hangers, a leading online resource for velvet hangers which are space saving hangers, non slip and slim. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.
