How to Organise Your Household in One Weekend

How to Organise Your Household in One Weekend

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Posted 2013-05-18 by SupahAnniefollow
[SECTION]A Place for Everything[/SECTION]

Do you want to make your home life easier, more organised and stress free? Do you want more time on the weekends to actually do fun activities with your friends and family? Then keep reading, this article can help you organise your house, your sanity, your family and therefore your life. I will give you hints, tips and tricks on how to organise your home by going through each area of the house.

I hope these ideas help you, if you have any other great ideas I would love you to share them in the comments section, thanks.



[SECTION]Items You Will Need[/SECTION]

- containers, tubs, nice boxes, baskets or buckets
- 3M removable hooks. You can buy these at supermarkets or Kmart. They come in heaps of different sizes, they won't damage the walls and you can move them. You can even get clear ones now.
- old rags, old socks and old toothbrushes
- rubber gloves, at least five or six pairs
- Spray & Wipe and glass cleaner. Just buy one of each and put into cheap spray bottles. Make sure you label them though.
- spray bottles
- Blue Tac
- pens and pencils
- a magnetic notepad and some paper
- pegs
- plastic containers
- family calendar
- highlighters
- inbox tray
- filing cabinet, filing folders or accordion style expanding file case
- under bed containers and shoe holders
- a stapler
- baby wipes

[SECTION]Kitchen and Living Room Areas[/SECTION]

Throw out anything out of date and anything you will never use. Group things together so that they are easy to find e.g. all cans together, all sachets together, all condiments together. Clear containers are a great idea. They look good, stack well and you can see what's in them.

Organise your cupboards by grouping things together too, e.g. one cupboard for baby food, one cupboard for appliances.Find your nicest mug and put pens, pencils, a ruler and some pegs on the side of it. Use pegs to close things you have opened like cereal or biscuits.

Put your pantry doors to use. On the inside put up a family calendar and house cleaning chart using Blue Tac and hooks. You can get family calendars where you can put each person's name and their activities for that month. Each person could have a different coloured highlighter so you can tell who's who. You can also use this space to Blue-Tac bills that come in. Remember to add these to your calendar and when you pay them take down that bill.

Create storage space in your living areas. Use baskets, tubs or cupboards. Get some baskets that fit underneath your coffee table. Get a stand or container that will hold all the remotes. Have a key bowl either on your breakfast bar or near the front door. Have an indoor and outside mat for both your back and front doors. Find a magazine rack that will fit newspapers too.

Have a basket or tub that is for things that need to go to rooms up the hallway or upstairs. Once this is getting full take it with you next time you need to go up there and put the things where they have to go. Saves you heaps of trips. Put a magnetic notepad on your fridge and use Blue Tac to attach a pencil, each person can write items needed on the shopping as they use them.



[SECTION]The Study[/SECTION]

Get yourself a filing cabinet. You don't need to get a fancy one - try Target, Kmart, Big W or buy it second hand from online trading places like Gumtree. If you can't fit one or if you don't have a study you can use one of those expanding files instead.

Use folders to create sections and make sure each section is labelled. Write down all the sections you will need such as bills, banking, tax, work, receipts, warranties etc. Now go through all your paperwork. It sounds daunting but here's the thing - for any bills or bank statements you only need to keep the current one that is due (this should now be inside your pantry door or pinned on a noticeboard or whiteboard) and the previous one. Shred all the rest - you won't believe how much lighter you will feel. Don't simply throw them out as your personal details are on them. Better yet, if you use email change all your bills to email. Most companies prefer this paperless option and its good for the environment. Staple, peg or clamp paperwork together. Put all your organised paperwork into your files, trying to aim for a drawer per person.

Donate books you no longer want or need to charities and/or book fairs.Get a nice inbox tray where you can put mail and paid bills into if you don't want to file them straight away or you need to refer to them later. But be sure to look through this once a week so it doesn't become a mountain.



[SECTION]Bedrooms[/SECTION]

Use your space wisely. Could you fit under bed containers, flat shoe organiser, boxes? How is your wardrobe? Try cheap wooden or plastic stands for your shoes or those clear shoe boxes. If you have some wall space available or inside cupboard doors or even on the back of the bedroom door add hooks for handbags, dressing gowns, scarfs, belts, hats etc. There are great hangers out there these days. Try the Hickson Hanger or a compact closet hanger which can hold 8 items on the one hanger.

Store your work clothes separately from your casual clothes and put all your jackets together. It makes things so much easier.

Always keep a notepad and pen near your bed in case you think of something during the night you can just write it down and go back to sleep without worrying that you might forget it.

Buy jewellery hangers to put up your jewellery safely and out of the way.





[SECTION]The Playroom[/SECTION]

Use tubs, baskets, cheap canvas bookcases, ice cream containers, and plastic storage drawers on wheels to put all the toys into. Label things using sticky labels or cardboard. Put up hooks to hang hats, book bags, bags for puzzles, posters, homework charts etc. Get a netting bag for all sport things. Put a cheap shoe organiser over the door to put pencils, crayons and smaller toys into. Cover the whole floor area in soft wipeable mats.

[SECTION]The Laundry[/SECTION]

Make washing clothes easier by having more than one laundry basket. Have one for sheets, one for towels, one for underwear, one for baby/children's clothes. Put labels on them so that each person can simply throw their things into the right basket. Then when you go to put on a load its already sorted.

Similarly, have a few washing bags that are different colours or patterns. You can hang them from removable 3M hooks or from the washing machine taps.

Here is where you will really make use of hooks. Put an over the door hook on the back of the laundry door where you can put shirts that need to be ironed. Place another couple of hooks on a wall for spare hangers to go on. If you have kids put up another hook for their little hangers to go on. When you want to do the laundry everything is there, ready to go. If possible put up a thin washing line from one side of the laundry to the other. Here you can hang up underwear out of sight or use it to hang up little things like socks. It is also useful if it happens to be raining. You could also put up a household cleaning chart on the wall in here. Right above the laundry baskets will remind people of things that need doing as they put their clothes in the baskets.

As you bring in the washing fold it before you put it in the basket. Have a pile per person in the basket then simply carry the basket to each persons room and put their pile on their bed to be put away. Make a rule - if clothes are not in the laundry baskets they won't be washed.

[SECTION]Bathrooms[/SECTION]

If you don't have enough space for towels, use over the door hooks or a removable hook will also hold up a hand towel. Keep another hand towel hanging on a hook or over the shower. This one can be used for quickly cleaning up water on the floor before someone trips.

Put a squeegee in each shower and ask each person to give a quick wipe down of the shower after they are finished. Doing this means not having to clean the shower as often.

Want to clean the shower without having to rub and scrub like mad? Try Shower Witch. You simply have a shower, leave the shower wet, and spray Shower Witch all over it using the trigger provided. Then rinse off the next time you shower - easy!

Organise your bathroom drawers and cupboards by adding little boxes to separate things and different areas for each person. In the top drawers put the things you use the most.

Put up a hair dryer hanger close to where it is to be plugged in. Have something that you can keep at least three spare toilet rolls in so that you don't have to be refilling them constantly.

Put your toothbrushes in toothbrush holders that stick to the mirror rather than putting them in a container. You will then have more bench space. Put little hooks inside the cabinet to hold nail scissors, clippers and tweezers. Keep a digital clock in each bathroom so that people don't run late.

[SECTION]Cleaning[/SECTION]

Create a family cleaning chart. Put who is doing what and when they need to be done and how often. Make it bright and colourful and laminate it if possible. Make copies to put around the house for all to see like the fridge, laundry, back of the toilet door etc.

Create various cleaning containers to put around the house (use a basket, a tub a bucket or even an ice cream container); one for each bathroom, one for the kitchen, one for the living rooms. Each cleaning kit needs rubber gloves, a rag, spray and wipe, window/mirror cleaner,old toothbrushes and a couple of dusters. Old socks can be great dusters by simply slipping them over your hand like a puppet. You will be able to fit in any tight spots and right around ornaments and photo frames. If those cleaning supplies are on hand you are more likely to use them.

Put a bag of a couple of dusters in each of the rooms. Have baby wipes available around the house. You can get really cheap ones, they are already wet and its easy to quickly wipe floors, benches or hands whenever needed.

As a family make a cleaning chart of what could be done on what days. Try to have cleaning free days, especially on the weekends. Keep extra garbage bags in the bottom of your bins ready for the next time.



[SECTION]Shopping[/SECTION]

Try shopping online. Woolworths and Coles have selected stores where you can do click and collect and it's free when you spend over $30. You order your items online, pay for them online, then pick a time to go and collect it. That's it. It's great! No spending an hour walking around the supermarket trying to deal with a trolley that has a mind if its own, then lining up to put all the items through the checkout only to put them straight back into the trolley afterwards. You just collect your shopping from the customer service desk and its already in a trolley ready to go.

You can have it delivered if you don't mind paying a bit more. The best part is you can save your shopping lists on their website and it will remember your favourite items and remind you if something is missing.

Do you find it hard to carry in the shopping? If so try putting the shopping in a laundry basket that is on a laundry trolley, then you can just push it along right to your door. You can also get a special big hook that you can slide the shopping bags onto a carry them in altogether much easier without hurting your hands. Buy one of those car boot organisers to put your shopping into. This way they won't move around.

Keep some biodegradable bags in your car and a chiller bag for your frozen things. Attach a trolley token to your key ring so you always have it with you.

I hope these ideas improve your home life and allow you to have more time to do fun things with your family. Follow these steps next weekend with your family and prepare to feel, proud, organised, refreshed and at peace. Good luck. Any other ideas?

#family
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89675 - 2023-06-11 08:11:07

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