Today's Blog entry is about home organization.
The most important thing to think about when organizing your home is what I call.....the Logical Flow.
Logical Flow has two important considerations: You have to start by thinking about where your hands are drawn to naturally or where you are naturally standing when you are doing something; and secondly, how often you use the item. Recently, I have organized three areas ......
- The Kitchen Gadget Cabinet
- This was an ongoing minor fight I would have with my roommate. I would keep a gadget on the counter, he would clean, and stuff it in any cabinet that had room, and then when I needed it I couldn't locate it. At first I meant for the gadgets to be permanently stored on the counter, but after thinking about the logical flow of using said gadget, I determined that I need quick access to them on a medium often basis. So I made the cabinet directly below the counter work area the gadget cabinet. When I need it, its only a hand grab away. I also put a plastic drawer in there that holds accessories.
- Cookie Sheets and Baking Pan
- This was something I'd been meaning to do for a while. I got one of these cool stand thingys , I had one before but I like this one much better because the wires are somewhat flexible allowing larger cookie sheets. Now the cookie sheets are store side by side like books in a cabinet above the oven. (Pic coming soon.) This leaves lots more real estate in the area where we keep pots and pans.
- The Laundry System
- My husband and I have been having major laundry fights for as long as we have been together. Its our largest home issue. The laundry system solves about 85% of them.
- In the logical flow considerations, it was decided that one or two hampers would be in the bedroom and bathroom, and as those fill up we would sort them into other hampers in the laundry room (which is also our garage so please excuse the mess in the pics), and immediately return hampers to the original place. so here is what we ended up with:
- Problems solved by this:
- Hampers are always where they should be. (Bedroom & Bathroom)
- There is enough hamper real estate for all clothing, so clothes won't be all over the place.
- There is no chance of things getting washed wrong - because of the clear labels, and things are already sorted.
- Bonus! Time Saved: It is no longer necessary to take 15 minutes before doing laundry to sort.
I also realized as I was setting it up that the labels needed to be on top because if one had to bend over to see the side labels, it would be too inconvenient to stick to the system. (Another logical flow consideration).
I preferred hampers that were thin and rectangle shape, so I could line them up in a row. You can see that the 'colors' category required two hampers, but it doesn't mess up the system since I put those right next to each other.
Ours are Walmart brand and were $6.49 each, but if you get the Sterlite brand they interlock for a dollar more.
All of these have been working great so far,
Thanks for reading and I hope this inspires you to organize something that you have been meaning to!
