The #1 foundational tip for organizing & decluttering is everything needs a home!
Think about the things you spend time looking for. It usually means that they don’t have a home.
Are there things that you never find in the same place twice? Items that are being stuck here, there and everywhere? These are the items that don’t have a designated home.
To help you create a home for things ask yourself these questions:
- What else is like this item?
- Where am I likely to want to use this item?
- How often will I use this item?
- How easy does it have to be to retrieve this item from its home?
Let’s brainstorm together, and think about logical homes for a few everyday items!
Your purse
How about a basket inside the front door, or a hook in your front hall closet?
Your keys
Maybe a receptacle on the inside of your front door. My front door is metal and I have a small wire mesh basket attached there to hold my keys. Murray hangs his on a hook inside the front hall closet.
Ketchup, mustard, coffee cream and other refrigerator items
If everything needs a home then that includes items in your fridge as well. You might want to even consider labeling the spots so all the family members know where to return things. Let’s take the ketchup bottle as an example. If it is always in the same spot everyone knows where to grab it, and return it after a meal. You will never open up a 2nd bottle in error, because you couldn’t find the first one and thought that you were out of it. If items in the fridge are always stored in the same spot, it also allows you to do a quick scan as you make your grocery list and add any items that are getting low.
These are just a few quick examples, but you get the idea. Think about every item in your house and be sure that it has a designated home. Label the homes! A label maker comes in handy to label the fronts of shelves inside of cupboards, the lip inside of a drawer or above hooks in closets and cupboards.
Remember…….get this catch phrase stuck in your head! Everything needs a home! You will be well on your way to an organized space!
Food for Thought
How cool is it that the same God who created mountains, oceans and galaxies, looked at you and thought the world needed one of you too?
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