Tips and Tricks Thursday

Tips and Tricks for keeping your home clean and organized:



For awhile I was getting emails from Peter Walsh. Some of you may have seen him on Harpo. He is an organizing genius. The other day I was browsing Harpo’s website and reading his tips and tricks for organizing the kitchen. Get this people, he said you shouldn’t have a junk draw! I told Hubby he said, “Where are you supposed to put your junk?” I know Jen is going to be appalled. She has several junk drawers. He also suggested putting our your utensils in a box and then when you use one take it out and put it back in the drawer. If you don’t take a utensil out of the box for a month, you don’t need it. When I was cleaning the kitchen this weekend I looked at the dusty spoons we never use and thought, we might use them for something someday! I guess that is how you end up on hoarders.



Peter's Basic Principles of De-Cluttering

Establish a vision for a room and agree on it.
Decide what will help you achieve that vision and what will not.
Purge your extra stuff.
Sort F.A.S.T.:

Fix a time and stick to it. Haul out any item that fits in one of the following categories:

Anything you haven't used in a year

Stuff that doesn't belong

Trash
Next, sort what's left into broad categories like bicycles or tools. Then organize them in separate zones in the room.
After you are clutter-free, create new routines to stay that way.




Anyspoon, organization expert Mr. Walsh suggests taking 15 mins every day to tidy up at the end of the day. This sounds good in theory, but by the time I workout, shower, eat dinner, watch tv, do dishes, make lunches, floss my teeth, I am tired!!!!

Who needs professionals when you have Megs7827?

I met my husband when I was a sophomore in college. I didn’t know until I met him that people did their laundry just to keep their basket empty.



I don’t remember doing laundry when I was in high school so I guess my mom did it. I don’t know how she decided what to wash or when she decided to do laundry. I do remember having a huge pile of laundry in my closet. I probably put the pile in a bag and moved it to college with me, because I remember that huge pile being in my closet in college. (My uncle that also blogs I'm sure will comment on his fear of my cloests.) I avoided laundry at all costs. If I had no clean underwear, I went out and bought more. I only did laundry if there was something I owned that I wanted to wear that was dirty. Or I would do like all college students and take bags home and have my mom do it.



I think at first Hubby didn’t notice my pile. Or maybe he thought it was cute and endearing. At some point he felt the need to bring it to my attention that my pile was abnormal. He informed me that it is more normal to have all your clothes clean and hanging.



I have pretty much been converted and do laundry pretty regularly.



We moved about 6 months ago. When the weather started warming up a few months ago I couldn’t find a couple pairs of my favorite sandals. Somehow a familiar pile was starting to form in the closet.



This weekend I decided to tackle the closet. I wanted to get it organized enough to walk into and was hoping to find my missing shoes. Somehow we had collected a lot of towels and I guess I didn't wash some sheets from when our friends came down at spring break. That is what most of the pile was. I also found a box that contained the missing shoes. Someone put it in the closet when we moved and I never unpacked it.

So I am really ashamed to be posting these but here you go.

Before
*The pile. Towels, suit case, etc.

*My shelf for sweaters and under tanks.

*My "dresser". I will not blame my messyness on not having a dresser. But I don't have a dresser. Hubby gave up a drawer but I kept forgetting to get my stuff out of it so...


After
*I no longer have to hide in shame!

*Organized sweaters and tanks.

*My shoes that were lost in a box!