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I just read a friend’s Facebook post where she was asking how to clear her counters of all that paper clutter that comes in the mail and is brought home by the kids. I think this is a problem a lot of us have, me included. Some other sources of clutter in my home are all the electronic gadgets and cords, the toys that come out of rooms but never seem to get back to them, and the nicknacks that come from fast foods, treasure boxes, gifts, friends, and craft projects that just don’t seem to have a home.
Some basics suggestions:
1. Create a mail zone near the front door or where you bring in the mail. Have a recycle can so you can immediately dump all the junk mail. Have a small shredder to shred all those credit card applications and other personal information you don’t want in the garbage. Choose a file system. I like a small file box with or without a lid that you can short term file away things like: bills to pay, forms to sign, things to file in a larger file cabinet, and advertisements to look through. Perhaps even a tab for each child when they bring home schoolwork for you to look at.
2. Buy or decorate 1 foot square boxes for each person that can be a temporary storage place for things you find laying around the house. It helps with a quick clean up and puts all their things in one place where they can easily take a box to their room and put them away all at once.
3. Have a storage place for crafting items. Whether it is a hutch, roll around cart, basket near the crafting area, or box in a cabinet. If you like to crochet or knit while watching TV, put a basket near the couch that you can store your supplies in so that they can be in easy reach, but also contained in one place. Have a zone for children to hang up or display their crafts for a short time.
4. Electronics seem to be floating around my house. Again, have a basket or bucket to be able to put these in if they don’t belong to a specific person. A charging station where multiple electronics can be charged at once is a good idea.
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Now the trick is to remember and take the time to put all these things in their proper place and purge unwanted items.
Schedule times like 10 minute tidies, bill paying and filing days, monthly purges and stick to it until it becomes part of the daily/weekly/monthly routine.
Teach the children to put their paper in their special file for mom or dad to look at. Good habits now will help your children to not be clutter bugs when they move out of the house.
You might be interested in: What Gets Me into the Cleaning Mood
Here are some inspirational pictures for stashing your clutter:
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Thanks for the ideas for the ones I haven’t tackled yet. My ideal way of dealing with clutter is to throw it out or give it away, but that’s not always an option. Two of the best things I ever did were for the kids’ papers problem. I got a set of rolling drawers and each child has a drawer. Anything they think they want to keep goes in there. When it’s full, they need to clean it out. At the end of the year we go through and whittle it down to just a handful of the best and these go into their scrapbooks. The other thing, that still works now that they are 14-22 years old, is the bulletin board. I took a standard $5 bulletin board from Walmart and subdivided it into six page sized spaces (with a little extra left along the edge. I just used Sharpie to divide it. I added a name to each space, one for each kid plus one for my husband. Anything that we need to keep track of for a while goes on this bulletin board in their space. Maybe it’s a football schedule, maybe it’s disclosure documents from school, maybe it’s something they need me to read and sign. They just tack it up there, one on top of the other. We always know where to find it. I clean it off every few months. I really works wonders.
Happy Sharefest. I hope you have a lovely weekend.
Those are great ideas Miss Robin! Love the bulletin board with a section for each person. Thanks for stopping by!