Archive for Home Organization
16) Organize Your Memorabilia
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Where do you store all of your memorabilia? If you’re like many, this could pass as your garage. Now amongst this mess of clutter surely there is more than just some keepsakes. The problem is that you fear losing the important because it is mixed in with the unimportant. So you do nothing.
My goal here is to give you a few tips to organize your memorabilia from a minimalist’s perspective.
Limit yourself to how much you can store away. If most of the items are small like books, framed pictures, binders, crafts or sports keepsakes; then pick too small Rubbermaid bins. You can either buy see-through ones or label them- your choice. I’m not splitting hairs here. If the items are larger get one large Rubbermaid bin, the kind people store Christmas trees in.
Take items like sports shirts, hats and jackets; cut out the emblem, logo or team name and give them all to someone who sews or knits. Have them create a blanket or throw rug. It doesn’t matter what, use your creativity.
Take items like papers, awards or certificates and capture them digitally; then have a backup strategy for your digital images. I’m not getting into this because there are a million ways- choose one and do it. Flickr, Picaso, backup with a flash drive, a second portable hard drive, just try something to start with and you can change it later.
My wife loves to scrapbook, so this helps us store lots of photos and purge down the rest. If you don’t like to scrapbook then people will do this for you for a fee.
I keep a file folder in our filing system and call it Posterity. I put golf score cards, pictures, travel information, kids art projects and many other things in there. Occasionally we go through and frame these things or scrapbook them.You could do the same.
As a minimalist type, I like to keep just the really neat memorabilia on the walls or out for decorations. The rest goes in the bins. The rest is sold or given away. If you put everything neat on the wall or the shelves then nothing gets noticed. Imagine walking into a room though with just one amazing mind blowing print. I bet your guests would mention it. Be hard not to.
9) Organize Children’s Toys
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This should be a fun topic right after your children have opened a bunch of Christmas presents. Try taking them away now.
We have established some simple rules on the front end to cut down on the number of toys our children get.
1st) We ask everyone to only buy one gift per child. We have a big family so this still doesn’t cut it, but it helps.
2nd) We get rid of (give away or sell) one item for each new item that enters our home. This applies to toys just like everything else. It helps us curb the madness of materialism and consumerism that has run wild in this country. I’m not preaching as I have been guilty of this attitude in the past. No more though. We’ve decided for the simple life.
After applying these two rules, we can at least have a fighting chance to tame the clutter that is toys.
Will you occasionally sit down to a Dora doll in the middle of your back on the couch? Sure.
Will you step on a firetruck in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom? Sure.
Will you reach for a newspaper or magazine and get clippings from a coloring book? Sure.
However, it will be much less often if you follow this checklist.
- Use the kindergarten model for setting up your home. This means each area of your home has a purpose and activity associated with it. I actually think this is easier with one floor than with two or three and I’ll explain why shortly. For example, our three children do crafts and play with play dough in the basement in my wife’s craft area.
- Rough housing toys like balls and big cars and the small trampoline are in the basement. Our children spend time here in the winter mornings when they can’t go outside and play with similar toys.
- Toys like puzzles, books, games and movies are upstairs in their bedroom/playroom. Our goal here is to get the kiddos bathed, let them unwind and then allow them to do something calm before bed.
- On the first floor in our home, they have toys like doll houses and castles and a jungle man play set for our son. While my wife prepares meals or feeds our 9 month old, these types of toys really engage the kids and don’t require someones assistance. Often they use their little imaginations and play for an hour before they even notice they don’t have mommy or daddies full attention.
Now this is just the way we arrange toys. The key is the Kindergarten model. When we leave one area, for example the craft area, we must clean up all the crafts and put them back in their home. When we leave the basement play area, we must pick up all the balls and cars and blocks. This way the children associate specific activities with each area and they learn the habit of putting things back which will serve them later.
To clarify, why could it be easier to do this on one floor? Well most classrooms are one room and may have 25 children. They manage. Less is more in this case. The more room you have the more you will fill. The less you have, the more creative you can be and the less clutter you can accumulate. Imagine one room where each corner had a specific task. No steps to climb with three children. No taking toys to different floors. Simple is much better. I have been on mission trips to the Dominican Republic several times and they have very little room and little to play with, but they are some of the most joyful children I’ve ever encountered.
Here is the rub. Your children would rather play with cardboard boxes, cooking utensils, bins, balloons and just about everything but the toys they have anyway.
7) Organize your fridge
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Does your fridge resemble this when you open it up?
I can’t stand opening up the door and staring into a jam packed fridge. It doesn’t get much worse for me than this. I realize this is dramatic, but it’s the thoughts racing in my mind.
What’s in here? A bunch of spoiled out of date food- maybe this stems from my week long bout with food poisoning as a teenager.
Where is the salad dressing or ketchup or pickles? Hidden from sight without moving twelve things, spilling two drinks and dropping a Tupperware container of leftovers on the floor.
What do we need from the store? I have no idea. Just buy everything you think we might need and we’ll cram it in there with all the outdated, expired stuff we already have.
Here are 7 quick rules to keep your fridge tidy.
- Buy less stuff at the store. Only stockpile things that can be frozen like meats, veggies or items that get stored in a pantry. Don’t go any farther out than a month or two. Don’t buy six months worth of crackers or coffee.
- Only cook what you’ll eat, or eat the leftovers in the following day or two. After that throw them out. If this offends your stewardship then buy a dog and make the dog happy.
- Give items in your fridge a home. How about: condiments on top shelf- milk, eggs, yogurt, cheeses and butter together in drawers and on their own shelf- leftovers and ingredients for today’s meal on there own shelf, fruits in one drawer, veggies in another, meats in another- frozen stuff sorted with like items in the freezer.
- Take things out and put them back where they go. Don’t just look for the open space.
- Clean your fridge out whenever you take out your garbage. Not every time. Whenever you take it for pickup. We only have to do this weekly but usually cook what we need or eat the leftovers quickly.
- When you store things always consolidate- take a huge casserole dish with one serving left and put it into a small container. When you come home from the store- take things out of their boxes, bins, and containers to save room with storage in the fridge.
- Be honest. With all things in organization, eliminate what you do not use regularly. By the time you use the 5th different type of cream or dip, odds are it will be green with mold. Save yourself the disgust of opening it and toss it now.
