MISSION: Laundry Area

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home.  I disagree.  I say it's the laundry room.  It has the power to bring your well organized home to a screeching halt.  If you don't get it tamed, you will encounter road blocks getting the rest of the home organized and running smoothly.  Today we are going to get it in tip-top shape.

STEP 1: The first step to a well organized laundry space is to clear the area out completely.  Empty every cabinet, every shelf, every wall hook.  At the end of step 1 your laundry space should literally only be housing the washer and dryer.  You want to have a crystal clear picture of the space you are working with.

STEP 2: The second step is to clean the space from top to bottom.  Sweep those cobwebs out of the corners.  Wipe down the light fixture.  Clean the machines themselves; inside and out.  Clean the walls and the cabinetry or shelving.  Clean the floors.  Clean the baseboards.  Clean. It. All.  

STEP 3: The third step is to sort everything you pulled out of the laundry space and divide them into three categories:

1. Items that just need to be tossed.  For these items, toss them in the garbage immediately.  Take it to the road for pickup right now.  Don't let this small step linger on for days.
2. Items that can be donated.  That clothes steamer you thought would be amazing and you've never used?  (Especially not now that we have all resorted to wearing PJs and athleisure wear until the end of time.) Donate it.  Toss all your donations into a box and put it in your car right now.  Drive to the donation box right now.  Check it off your to-do list.
3. Items that you are keeping.  Take it a step further and sort these items into items that need to stay in the laundry space and items that could better be stored in another area of the home.  For any items that are not directly related to doing laundry, or general cleaning, think long and hard if there is a better place to store them in the house.  For the items you decide should find a new home, take them to their new home immediately so they can get accustomed to their new environment and make new friends.

STEP 4: The fourth step is to take all those items you have determined need to remain stored in the laundry area and sort them into like categories.  This may look like:

        Laundry products

        Cleaning products

        Lightbulbs

        Batteries

        Overstock

        Papertowels, etc

STEP 5: The fifth and final step is to take each of these categories and put them in containers for easy access.  Put things like the ironing board, brooms, and mops on easy access hooks on the wall; every square inch of floor space you can save, go for it.  Put all your cleaning products in a caddy with a handle to easily cart around the house.  Put your laundry detergents and dryer sheets in pretty containers since you will be looking at them every time you walk in the space.  

You are all done.  Give yourself a pat on the back.  

And if these five steps are too overwhelming for a DIY project, give us a call at Simplified Life Organizing and we will get it taken care of for you!

                        info@OrganizeYourSpaces.com

                                        205-558-6559 

STEP 1: Collect all your spices together.  This means grab up all your jars of nutmeg and oregano and parsley.  In addition, grab the multiple bottles of table salt and black pepper; and any random salt and pepper shakers you have stashed throughout the kitchen.  If you have popcorn toppings, grab those too.  Get literally every spice and seasoning you have in your home.

STEP 2:  Marry multiples into one container, if possible.  Sort your spices to determine what you have multiples of.  If you have 4 half empty jars of oregano, marry those so you have 2 full jars.  If you have a jar of paprika with a single dash left in the bottle, toss the bottle and put 'paprika' on the weekly shopping list.  

STEP 3: Put duplicates to the side as "overstock".  Once you've sorted and married up the various spices, put the duplicate jars to the side.  This is your overstock.  It needs to be stored somewhere that you can access it when you run out of the primary bottle but it doesn't need to be stored at arm's length for cooking.

STEP 4:  Store the spices in matching containers & label them.  This is the most important step!  Some people may think, well that just adds another step to have to maintain going forward.  But I promise it will make your life SO MUCH EASIER for your day to day cooking.  Your options for storage containers are endless.  I personally love little glass jars with labeled tops, stored in a drawer near the stove or prep area.  You can also do little magnetic jars that can be stored on the side of the fridge for maximum use of space.  You can stick with the trusty spice rack on the countertop, although my OCD doesn't allow for much clutter on my counters.    Just get the spices organized in matching LABELED containers.  And make sure you get containers with a large enough opening that you can fit your measuring spoons down into them; you will usually need to measure out your spices, not just give it a little shaky, shake.

STEP 5:  Store frequently used spices in an easy to reach spot with the overstock spices stored elsewhere.  Like I said earlier, I LOVE a spice drawer.  I have all of my frequently used spices in a drawer next to my oven and prep space.  I have the backup spices in cute bins in my baking cabinet.  They are easy to get to when I need to replenish the glass jars, but they aren't front and center.  You could have the backups in a clear bin in your pantry or in the often underused cabinet above the microwave or fridge.  You won't need to access it often, but when you do need to access it you want to make sure you can reach it!

All done!  Congrats.  Now get to cooking.

And if these five steps are too overwhelming for a DIY project, give us a call at Simplified Life Organizing and we will get it taken care of for you!

                            Info@OrganizeYourSpaces.com

                                          205-558-6559

If your gift wrap supplies are a rubbermaid bin full of miscellaneous non-sense, follow these directions to get those supplies in order.

STEP 1:  Collect all of your gift wrap supplies in one spot.  Grab all those random rolls of wrapping paper.  The gift bags, tissue paper, bows, cards, boxes, and ribbon.  And don't forget the scissors, tape, and pens.

STEP 2: Toss out any supplies that are damaged.  Those crinkled pieces of tissue paper that have seen better days.  The ripped wrapping paper roll that has been stored in the bottom of a closet.  The bows that look like a cat sat in them.  Toss them in the trash.

STEP 3:  Sort your remaining supplies into like categories.

Wrapping Paper

Gift Bags

Tissue Paper

Bows

Ribbon

Boxes

Tools:  Scissors, Tape, Pens, etc

STEP 4: Store each of the sorted categories into their own container.  This doesn't have to be anything fancy.  This can mean tossing each category into a Ziploc bag.  Or individual Rubbermaid bins.  Or one of my all time faves:  stacking boxes like SnapWare or Stack&Carry.

STEP 5:  Finally, store all the individually organized containers in one easy to reach space.  This could be one large plastic bin in the closet or a shallow bin under the bed.  Or my favorite is a 'Gift Wrap Cabinet' in the laundry room or office area.  Just make sure you can get to everything, and have a work space to use it, easily and quickly.

All done!  Congrats.  Now get to wrapping.

And if these five steps are too overwhelming for a DIY project, give us a call at Simplified Life Organizing and we will get it taken care of for you!

Info@OrganizeYourSpaces.com

205-558-6559 

Cleaning sucks.  It sucks even worse if you have to spend the first half hour looking for your cleaning supplies, only to realize you're out of everything.  Follow the steps below to get your cleaning supplies organized so that this one particular downside of adulthood is a little easier to deal with.

STEP 1:  Collect all of your cleaning supplies from around the house.  Grab the toilet bowl cleaner out of the bathroom and the Windex under the sink.  Grab the pile of cleaning rags out of the laundry room and the broom from the basement.  Get everything cleaning related in one pile to start with.

STEP 2:  Throw out any empty bottles of cleaner or bottles that are leaking or have broken sprayers.  Throw out the cleaning rags that are basically 5 tiny threads hanging together for dear life.  If you find that you have 3 bottles of Windex, combine those down to one or two if possible.

STEP 3:  Now comes the secret weapon in organizing your cleaning supplies: sort the products into like areas.  Not like items.  Like areas.  Chances are you are grabbing products to clean the bathroom or kitchen.  But not both.  So sort them based on the room of your home you will be cleaning.

That means sort all the bathroom cleaning supplies together: the toilet bowl cleaner, the tub & shower cleaner, plus one of those bottles of Windex you had for the mirrors.  

Sort the kitchen cleaning supplies together:  the oven cleaner, the stainless steel cleaner, the countertop cleaner.  

And sort the living area cleaning supplies together:  the furniture polish and carpet cleaner, etc.

STEP 4: Now that you have the products sorted, store each category in a caddy with a handle.  This allows for easy transport around the house as needed.

STEP 5:  You'll also want a bin to store all those cleaning rags and for any other miscellaneous items.  The various parts to the vacuum cleaner.  The steamer that you never use but can't part with because you saw that one video on Pinterest about how easy it is to clean grout with the steamer.  Even though it isn't.  Anyway...

STEP 6:  Now store the caddies and bins in an easy to reach area.  Kitchen supplies under the kitchen sink.  Bathroom supplies in the bathroom vanity or closet.  Living area supplies in the hall closet.  Maybe you keep all of them on a shelf in the laundry room or have an entire hall closet dedicated to the cleaning supplies.  Just keep them where they are easy to retrieve when the time comes to clean.

All done!  Congrats.  Now get to cleaning.

And if these five steps are too overwhelming for a DIY project, give us a call at Simplified Life Organizing and we will get it taken care of for you! Info@OrganizeYourSpaces.com
205-558-6559