The Holidays and the overload that goes with it,is becoming a distant memory. The New Year is here and what better way to start the new year than with an organized Home. If we have anymore snow days, we can easily implement our goals by preparing ahead of time with the following ideas and products.
The Tell Tale Signs
Everyone knows what is lurking behind closed doors or right in plain sight. It may be inside your bedroom closet, kitchen cabinets,on the countertop,all over your bathroom or in your drawers,its Clutter. Sometimes its not a matter of too much stuff, it could be a problem of too much of the wrong stuff or not the right item to store it on or in. What we leave around, leaves us clues as to how we are using the space and eventually what we lack in organizing that space. The Tell Tale signs will help us to finally figure out what we need in our spaces, what function it will play and how to organize it.
The best way to determine which Tell Tale Sign you are showing, is to ask yourself first, what the Function of that area is. Look at the items you have in the space, it will tell you how you want to use that space. If your dining room for example, is always full of paperwork, bills and magazines. Why not create an area for that paperwork that is organized, out of sight and easy to manage. If there is a mix of everyones things, you need to seperate out what will remain in the room,based on function. If all items within that space support the function, than you need to move onto the second factor
The second Tell Tale Sign is not having the right organization containers. Do you have adequate storage pieces, furniture and containment? Go through what is in your space and create your three piles. One, to keep, one to donate and the third, garbage. Now you can organize what is left to keep, into like piles and find ways to contain,store or display them.
For example,the Entry, some people have a front door and a garage door. The main entry usually has closets, an area for a table, ect. The garage area may not have any storage. In this example, the garage door is the main door used daily,and it shows. There are piles of coats,shoes,backpacks,and misc.items all over the place. Ask yourself what do you really need in this space.
We know we need a place to either hang or store coats, a place to store or corral shoes, a place to sit, a place to leave keys,and a place for the items we need for the next day. Count up how many coats are needed daily, put the rest in a closet close by. Have a storage bench that also has storage for shoes, or gloves and hats. Use multi purpose pieces of furniture, especailly in smaller spaces. You could hang favorite photos of each family member and a hook on the wall. It serves as decoration as well as function. Organizing what we are keeping into the right containment, and it will keep you organized. Everything will have a home.
Evaluate what your Tell Tale Signs are telling you, then work on Function, then containment. See if you can repurpose anything in your home, Make a list of what you may still need and the maximum size of each item,piece of furniture or container. Then you can have the right function and the right type of storage needs for every space in your home.
Continue through the home, do it by pile,drawer, area and room.. Soon you will have created a home that is organized and functional.
Paper,paper Everywhere.
This has to be my biggest clutter problem, paper. Here are few tips on how to handle it. Please feel free to comment on ways you controll the paper in your home.
The first is mail, it must be sorted daily. Junk,bills,read, file. If its junk, it either gets shredded or put in the garbage. I keep a shredder in the cabinet close to my front door. I file my bills in a handled decorative box. All my bills, stamps,calculator and pen stay in this box. Its easy to tote to where ever I feel like paying my bills at.
Magazines,I read, rip out articles or pictures and recycle the rest of the magazine. Whole magazines are in one big basket. You can also divide them into catagories if you use them for reference and put them in magazine holders. If it needs to be filed, it goes in a pile and then gets put away in its proper file. Filing needs to be done weekly.
A great investment would be a paper scanner- www.Neatco.com approx $200 or www.amazon.com Fujitsu scansnap S300 approx $250
Tax papers- use an accordian file with at least seven sections. The seven years of tax returns with supporting paperwork can be stored in one place. Update- yearly.
Kids Papers- limit the number of art work pieces you keep. Papers go in a file and are edited monthly/ yearly and placed in a book for each child. This book goes from kindergarden to high school, It has a place for papers,notes on what they liked, teacher name,,best friend and foods they liked. www.lillianvernon.com
Keep a small note book in your junk drawer for notes, ideas, phone numbers, grocery list. It will keep information in one location instead of lots of sticky notes or small scraps of paper everywhere.
Keep take out menus, important phone numbers, school information and household info.in a three ring binder in protective sleeves. A decorative cork or magnet board, either on the wall or the inside of a cabinet door provides a place for invitiations, permission slips, to do list, ect.
Build bookcases floor to ceiling and above doorways. Go Verticle instead of horizonal, it will give you more storage space. Books can be organized by color, size or subject. Lay them both horizontal and verticle and add some decorative items on top.
www.Containerstore.com & www.westelm.com have so many great paper organizational items as well as many other containers. (baskets, bins, trolleys,drawers, boxes,files)
There is a storage solution for every decorative style. ( leather, canvas. paper, glass, fabric,wicker,ect.)