Using Time Wisely

Organized to save money, energy, and time

You are here: Home / Archives for Household / Organizing

The Multi-Functional Laundry Basket

by

Staying organized does not require purchasing special containers or tools to get the job done. Using a cardboard box or a laundry basket can help you accomplish your goal. I prefer the sturdy option of a laundry basket to a cardboard box that can be ripped, bent, and crushed. Besides the holder of our clothes, our laundry baskets have been used in the following ways:

TO ORGANIZE:

Hold items that need to be placed in another room. When I clean or pickup a room, I stay in that spot until the task is completed. If I find items that do not belong in that room, I put those objects into my laundry basket. I then transport my basket to other rooms to deposit the items in their designated spots.

Transport items from upstairs to downstairs and vice versa. During the Christmas season, I use the laundry basket to transport wrapped gifts from my upstairs’ bedroom to the downstairs’ living room. If I had to carry all the gifts down, I would need 3-4 trips for one laundry basket load.

Safeguard sorted items. Using laundry baskets to sort papers, toys, books, videos, etc. can save you time. If you get interrupted, you can pick up the basket and put it on a table, counter, bed, or dryer. Then little ones or other helpers can be deterred from assisting with your project or checking out the contents of the basket.

 

Riding in the laundry basket

TO PLAY:

Train a child to walk. Our children have used the laundry basket loaded with books to assist them in walking. The toys with wheels moved too quickly for them, but the heavy laundry basket was slower and easier to move when working on balance.

Create a great hiding place. Our kids enjoy playing Hide-and-Seek. At this time, all of our children are small enough to hide under the laundry basket at least once during the game. My oldest daughter could hide there each time. She loves curling up and watching through the holes.

Become a type of transportation. Getting pushed in the laundry basket or pushing another sibling in the laundry basket is a great form of entertainment. With a long hallway downstairs and some extra energy from Dad and Mom, the kids can get a great, fast ride. In the picture to the right, my son is pushing my youngest daughter down our hallway. The pillow behind her back helps to keep her upright and comfortable during the ride.

A crib for the baby dolls. Our little toy pack-n-play is too small to hold all the baby dolls in our house. Since all the dolls need to sleep at the same time, the laundry basket is deemed appropriate to accommodate them.

My multi-functional laundry baskets are part of our family. Those baskets hold clothes, gifts, toys, people, paper, and lots of other objects. Have you found your laundry basket to be multi-functional? If so, please comment on what other uses you have for your laundry baskets.

10 Steps to Organizing a Bookshelf

by

Do you have a tendency to start a project without finishing it? Is it because the project became too big? If you find that you have a lot of projects begun but none finished, then start small. I mean really small. Let’s start with a shelf on a bookcase. You can take 5 minutes to organize one bookshelf. Are you ready? Here we go:

10 Steps to Organizing a Bookshelf

1.       Take everything off the one shelf and place it on the floor.

2.       Dust, clean, and polish the shelf.

3.       With the items on the floor, throw away any trash.

4.       Create piles: items to donate, items to sell, and items to keep.

5.       Take the items to keep and group into similar items: books, notebooks, videos, games, CDs, etc.

6.       Decide how much space is needed for each pile and designate a place for the items on the shelf.

7.       Place the items back on the shelf.

8.       Take items to donate and place in your vehicle.

9.    Place items to sell in a designated spot for EBay, Craig’s List, garage sale, etc.

10.     Relax and admire your clean and organized bookshelf.

Congratulations! You can complete an organization project from start to finish! Just take your organization one step at a time, little by little, and in short amounts of time. You will see progress as you finish manageable tasks and use your time wisely in finishing those projects. Happy organizing!

Sorting the Mail

by

Does mail pile up at your house? Have you found a way to keep on top of the paperwork? I have heard organizers suggest keeping two containers by the front door. When you get the mail, all junk mail goes in one container.  Then items to read/pay/act upon get placed in the second container. The idea is that the junk mail gets taken out with the trash. Then the active pile gets read once a week.

The above system may work for some people, but I choose to deal with mail each day. I have found the following list works for me:

1.       Hubby brings in the mail and puts it on the kitchen counter when he gets home from work.

2.       As I am making dinner, I open the envelopes and sort through the mail.

  • Junk – goes in the trash
  • Bills, movies, statements, etc. – placed in one pile on top of my bread maker

3.       When the family retires upstairs for the evening, I bring the pile from the top of the bread maker and take it to my desk.

4.       After putting my children to bed, I file the paperwork in the appropriate place.

  • Movies – go on my husband’s desk
  • Bills – date added on calendar and statement placed in “bills to be paid” section of file
  • Receipts, rebates, etc. – added to original paperwork and filed in filing cabinet
  • Coupons – placed in binder or folder

I handle the mail in small sections of time. In doing so, my mail pile stays small, manageable, and organized. What tips have you found to be helpful in keeping the mail pile manageable?

My Organized Nightstand Drawer

by

As I went to put away some prescription samples, I found there was no more room in my nightstand drawer. When this happens, I must clean it out. I cannot  just stuff the extra items in a drawer and close it. Leaving an area unorganized bothers me until I  take the time to clean it out and make room for the needed items.  In this case, I  cleaned out the drawer immediately.

To organize my nightstand drawer, I followed these steps:

  • I made three piles: (1) items to keep, (2) items to toss, and (3) items to give away.
  • Then I placed the items to keep back in the drawer and had plenty of room.
  • The items to toss included expired medication, which I disposed of, and empty boxes from used medications, which I threw away.
  • The items to be given away were placed in a bag to be distributed later.

Now there was plenty of room for the prescription samples. I placed these in the nightstand drawer and surveyed my clean, neat, and organized drawer.

Does disorder bother you, too? Like me, do you organize as you put items away, or do you need to set a schedule to organize?

Organized Toy Placement

by

During a weekend dinner party, I believe most of our toys were removed from their designated spot by one of the nine little ones. All the children had a great time and helped to pick up the mess before going home, so we awoke to a clutter-free living room. Though the mess was cleared away, my children could not locate their favorite toys. To my children, the suggestion of reorganizing their toys was a bit overwhelming. To ease their dilemma, I placed the toys back in their designated homes with a little system.

THE PROCESS

I began on one wall of my living room.

  • I removed toys that did not belong in that space and placed them on the floor in front of the couch (center of the room).
  • I then put the toys away that did belong in that section.

I then moved to the next area which is a small bookshelf.

  • I found items in the pile on the floor in front of the couch that did belong in this area. I put those items away.
  • Any other items that did not belong on the bookshelf were added to that mound in front of the couch.

I continued this process along the three walls of my living room until all the toys were put away.

I then put away the remaining toys in front of the couch.

THE RESULTS

By going through each section of the living room, I was able to put together a train puzzle, place all the Potato Head accessories in our green basket, sort the vegetables and fruits from the play kitchen, and find a loose magnet in a fishing pole which my fabulous husband fixed.

Having a designated spot for each item made the pick up quick and thorough. My children helped sort the items and put them away. After completing the thorough reorganization of my living room, my children were able to find their toys and play. When they finished enjoying their toy, they remembered to put it back in its designated place, so they could find it again later.

Do you have an assigned place for each item in your house? Do your family members know the placement chosen for each item? Having a special place for each item saves me so much time cleaning up. You can save time as well and accomplish a quick pickup in 15 minutes or less.