Organization in my home is by far the one area that I lack talent in. My husband prefers a very clean house, as do I... however, two years with each of us furnishing our own apartments and eight years of marriage that now include a tiny 20-pound being that requires ten times more stuff, our house is rarely what I would classify as very clean. Cluttered, messy, dis-array.... these are words I would use to describe our house.
Sure, when you come to visit our house, it appears clean. That is because I have just shoved everything I could into every closed door space that was available.
It is not that I do not care, because I care very much. It is not that I don't have the time, because most of the time I have a little bit of extra time to straighten up and make things look nice. It is that I can't arrange things in my mind and then bring it to life outside of my head. I was not gifted with the talent of being able to look at a corner of my house and come up with some brilliant idea to organize an area that will remain fairly organized. Instead, I just browse the stores and find something that looks like it could create some organization, buy it, and try it. Therefore, my house is not themed, or decorated well enough to invite a Better Homes & Garden tour. In fact, it looks like we are still in college in this house. Concert posters mixed with family pictures, mixed with our own artwork, mixed with rugs that don't match each other or the walls, mixed with furniture that doesn't match anything, mixed with the piles of toys and junk mail and everyday papers that are laid around every day.
If I were made of money, which I am not, I would pay someone to come in and decorate my house and organize it all so that it would be what I desire and leave me with the ability to just have to maintain it all. Coming to the realization that I am not an organizer has been difficult for me, and for my husband. In the work place, I was very organized... but a tiny office is an easy task to keep organized. A large house with two adults, a tiny pack rat and a large hairy dog? Not so much.
So, how do you keep it all together? What are your organizing tips? How do you keep your house organized enough to know where the scissors are and where the light bulbs are? How do you ensure that your children do not get lost in a pile of junk in your home?
I love to organize . . . I think that's why I love coupons . . . because I can lay them all out and sort things. :-) We LOVE bags at our house. Andrew has a church bag with Bible and church things, a restaurant bag with toys and bibs and a cup and quiet things for the restaurant, a library bag for library books, a Cubbies bag for cubbies, and in the car we have an emergency bag with spare clothes, a cup and a diaper for emergencies. The bags are so nice because we can just grab one from the laundry room (the bag keeping room) on our way out the door depending on where we are going. I never have to worry if I have everything we need for a restaurant because that bag is NEVER out at the house . . . it's only for the restaurant. . . . Before the bag is put away on the laundry room hooks I make sure to replace anything we used out of it. So, that's the long way of saying our favorite way to organize is canvas bags.
ReplyDeleteHey, I just came across this link and thought it might help...i haven't looked at all the checklists yet, though.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/cleaning-checklists#slide_1
I'll try to think of some more ideas for you!