Keeping a house in pristine condition is tough. Some days, no matter what you do, it seems like you are constantly cleaning this and that. Here are a bunch of fun tips and tricks to free up your time for the more enjoyable things in life:
General Household Tips
- Hide a cluttered bookshelf with a spring-loaded curtain rod and a set of curtains.
- Use filing cabinets for a TV stand.
- Use clear plastic shoe-boxes to store knick-knacks and other odds and ends.
- Organize your house by task so that the things most relevant to each job are where you’re most likely to use them. This might be obvious for things like laundry and crafts, but what about a mail station, homework area, or just storing linens in the laundry room?
- Figure out where things normally get dropped and set up an appropriate place for them as close as possible to that point. This will improve the chance that they’ll end up where they belong, and decrease the distance the things that don’t make it home have to go to be put back.
- Label it! Labeling is not just for file folders – get a label-maker (or several) and keep it handy all around the house. Kitchen shelves, storage containers, bookshelves, coat racks — there are millions of places where a smart label can forestall endless amounts of clutter. My variation of clear shoe-box idea above (#3) is to use plastic pencil boxes for all manner of tiny stuff; they lock slightly to make tidy stacks on my shelves, and a lovely label on the front keeps everything instantly accessible.
- Designate a “launchpad”. This is an area in your house, preferably near the door, where coats, jackets, shoes, backpacks, purses, keys, and everything else you need to find easily next time you leave the house stays. Think of it a transition-zone between outside and inside — almost like an airlock.
- Set up a “bucket” at your “launchpad (a milk crate, basket, or an actual bucket) for each person “.
- Use a 4-tier “Stadium Rack” for spices, allowing you to always see everything easily without taking up much space.
- Set up “clutter bags” in every room. Keep a reusable shopping bag — there are plenty of attractive ones available for super-cheap these days — in every room; when stuff from elsewhere around the house starts building up, throw it into the clutter bag until you can sort it out.
- Store trashbags inside the trash can, under the current liner. That way, you (or whoever takes the trash out) have a fresh bag handy every single time.
- Set up a shared online calendar between you and your partner, and allow access to your close family, child-care providers, and anyone else who might need to know where you are at any given moment — or what events are coming up that they might need to plan for.
- Use behind-the-door shoe holders for storage of tiny or awkward stuff. The cloth kind have 20 or so pockets that are ideal for craft supplies, cleaning products, tools, and office materials.
- Take care of dishes immediately after meals.
- Run the dishwasher frequently. Large households often never get to that mythical state where the clean dishes are put away, the dirty ones are in the dishwasher, and nothing is stacked up in the sink. Modern dishwashers are designed to detect the size of the load, so there’s no reason to wait until the washer is full to run your dishes.
- Take pictures of sentimental objects before giving them away or throwing them out. Like that T-shirt from that concert you want to when you were 20 years younger and 3 sizes smaller. You know you won’t ever wear it again, but hold onto it because of the memories.
- Set up a library/rental box. Store your library books and rented videos in a box in your living room or other place near where you’ll use them, and keep your library cards and video rental cards there as well. That way, you’ll always be reminded if anything’s due when you go to collect your rental cards.
- Color-code your family. Assign a color to everyone in the house, and buy everything for them in that color: towels, toothbrushes, cups, water bottles, lunch boxes, slippers, whatever.
- Keep your “go bag” in the car. For example, all the stuff for family outings (aside from food) can be stored in the truck, freeing up space in the house and keeping it with you for spontaneous fun time.
- Use an accordion organizer to sort kids’ project paper. Sort by color and/or type of paper.
- Use bed risers to increase the space under your bed.
- Use drawers, not counters, for storing bathroom stuff. Or keep all your toiletries in one box or basket on the counter — easy to move for cleaning the counter.
- Use a cork-board and pushpins to hang jewelry. Keeps everything visible but out of the way.
- Use a travel jewelry organizer that goes over a hangar. Also keeps jewelry visible and out of the way — and thieves aren't likely to look for your jewelry among your hung clothes.
- Keep a basket by the stairs and add out-of-place items to it. When the basket’s full, take it upstairs and put everything away.
- Fill a box with stuff you’re unsure of and pack it for a year. Make sure you put the date on the outside. If you don’t use anything in the box for an entire year, you don’t need it and can get rid of it.
- Put a whiteboard in your garage where you’ll see it when you come home and when you get ready to leave. Put to-do lists, reminders, and other important information on it.
- Find creative uses for containers. For example, ice cube trays are great for storing all sorts of tiny objects — any they stack easily.
- Keep a rack by the door for keys. But make sure they’re not visible from the front door/window.
- Pull bookshelves out slightly to hide cords for gadgets in the back.
Courtesy of: Dustin Wax at Life Hack (http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/50-ways-to-make-your-home-more-organized-more-attractive-and-more-efficient.html)
