Using Time Wisely

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Maintaining: Kitchen Cleanup – Part 1 of 3

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When my kitchen is a mess, I cannot cook or prepare a meal until the mess is cleaned up. There is something about a messy kitchen that drives me nuts. (Yeah, I know . . . I’m probably nuts already, but I get worse when my kitchen is a disaster.) To help me stay on top of the food, dishes, and stuff placed on my countertops, I follow a different cleaning routine after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In each part of this three part series, I will share one of my three different routines for keeping my kitchen clean. I’ll begin with my breakfast routine.

Breakfast Routine:

  1. Clear off the table. After being excused from the table, my two older children carry their dishes to the counter by the sink. Paul and I usually clear off the rest of the table.
  2. Wipe down the table.
  3. Put away any leftover foods.
  4. Rinse each item and place it in the left-hand side of the sink.
  5. Clean all the countertops.

At the conclusion of this routine, I have a clean table, countertops, and right-hand side of the sink. Spending time cleaning up saves me time and energy. My time is saved at lunchtime from having to cleanup from breakfast. I can just start lunch preparations without working around a mess. I also save energy since I don’t need to scrub off dried on food. For me this system helps me to spend my time wisely.

Though I have a routine in place, there are days when this routine does not get finished. Some of those days are when I’m running late, the baby needs assistance eating, a spill needs to be cleaned up, or I just choose to leave the dishes until lunchtime. On those days, I attempt to get the dirty dishes rinsed. This one task saves me the most time.

Remember this breakfast routine works for ME, but it may or may not work for you. These are just my tips for helping me stay organized. Next week, I’ll share my lunch routine.

Organization: My Pantry

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As I continued to grow my stockpile with all the great deals to be had at my local Bi-Lo and Publix, I found my pantry overflowing and in dire need of organization. Since I could not find a place for the items I had purchased, I decided to rearrange and reorganize my pantry.

Overflowing, disorganized pantry

When I begin an organization project, I follow the same basic system. I work top to bottom and from one side to the other. In this case, I opened my pantry and started on the top shelf.  I removed all the items on the shelf. I then decided how much space was needed for those items, and then I neatly placed those items on the shelf. The top shelf of my panty houses all the extra spices, flour, cake mixes, frostings, brownie mixes, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and other baking needs.

I used this opportunity to rid my pantry of expired foods. On the second shelf, I found expired salad dressing, and later on the floor, I discovered expired juices. These items were removed from my house and disposed of.

Since I was removing all the items, one shelf at a time, I organized the products when returning them to the pantry. I chose to place the newest item (the expiration date is the farthest away from the dates of similar items) at the end of the line for those products. This way, I was placing the older items purchased in front of the newer items. Then when I need a jar of mustard, I will reach in the pantry and select the first mustard I find.

After completing the organization for the top 4 shelves, I came to the floor of my pantry. I again removed all the items. While I was sorting the items into like categories, my 15-month-old went exploring. She found a nice hiding place in the pantry where I was working. She enjoyed sitting and watching Mommy work.

Learning how to organize

All the items had been removed from the shelves, sorted into similar piles, and placed back neatly in the pantry. The finished project allows me access to the product quickly which helps me use my time wisely. I love knowing what I have in the pantry and what I am missing. I kept a grocery list handy while I organized, and I wrote down items we had used and needed to replace.

Completed organized pantry

What happens when your pantry needs to be organized, but you cannot work on this project for an hour? Try organizing one shelf at a time. Just like organizing the bookshelf, you can complete this task by using your time wisely. You will also save money, energy and time as you will know what you currently have, get what you need easily, and quickly get your products in hand. Wow . . .  multitasking, you can organize and get your grocery list started. What are you waiting for? You can complete another project. Just take it one step at a time. Happy organizing!

Organization: Coat Closet

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Were you able to get that bookshelf organized? I hope you were able to follow those 10 steps and complete your project. Having a finished task brings me great joy since I can find what I need without clutter. When I cannot quickly get to my items, I waste energy and time. Digging through a mound of games in our coat closet to locate one game costs me valuable time.

Our downstairs coat closet had quite a bit of empty space. To maximize that space, my brother-in-law kindly installed white wire shelves. I love having shelves to hold our family games that we play often. The games with little pieces can be stored on top shelves out of little one’s reach. I can also easily get to a game in a stack of 5 games without disrupting an entire stack of boxes. When my children request a game, I can usually go to the closet, locate the game, and get it out. The problem comes when my children and/or husband help put the games away. After the games have been repeatedly pulled out and put back, the closet mysteriously became disheveled.

After wasting time searching for a requested game, I decided to use my time wisely and organize the coat closet. Here is a before picture showing the lovely mess in the coat closet.

BEFORE:

Disorganized Coat Closet

To organize the contents, I did the following:

  1. Took out all the games.
  2. Sorted them into piles: large, medium, and small.
  3. Placed the random game pieces found on the floor with the appropriate game. If I could not locate the game, then I put the extra pieces in a container. As I found those games, I took the extra pieces from the container and placed them in the game box. Then I placed the game in the small, medium, or large pile.
  4. Designated a home for each game. The larger games were placed on the floor whereas the smaller games were placed on the shelves.
  5. Put games in designated places. When all the games were put back into the closet, I had plenty space. The result was a clean, organized coat closet.

AFTER:

Organized Coat Closet

Entire closet neat and organized

As I open this closet door and see the neat shelves, I can easily scan the shelves and locate the game I want. Keeping this closet organized is helping me save money (refraining from purchasing a game we already own), energy (retrieving the game needed without moving items out of the way), and time (getting in and out of the closet quickly). Spending my current time organizing helps me spend my future time wisely. Though you may have organized that closet in the past, keeping it organized requires maintenance. Enjoy the process and happy organizing!

The Multi-Functional Laundry Basket

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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

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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!