Need a day off?
Sometimes it is satisfying to use a 'day-off' to organize your life. In this case, to organize areas in your home that tend to get cluttered and messy over time. Here are suggestions by professional house cleaners at MOLLY MAID.
Gift Wrapping Cupboard:
- Take everything out of the cupboard.
- Create boxes, bags and bins for all the different products. For example, put all the wrapping paper rolls into a hanging suit bag. Pull all the tissue paper into a shoe box. Find a container for ribbons, another for gift tags and greeting cards, and another for tape and scissors.
- Label all the different bins and stack them so you can find what you are looking for easily and quickly.
- If this cupboard is a craft cupboard for kids too, put tiny items such as beads into jars with lids (old jam jars are good), and use larger jars or plastic bins for larger items such as rubber stamps.
- Place markers and chalk in wide tins that make it easy for kids to see all colours at once.
- Store projects such as half-knit scarves in open baskets so you'll know where to find them.
Kids' Toys:
- Ask your kids to help sort through their toy box or area. This is a good opportunity to teach them that giving to others is a good thing.
- Choose where to send items, whether it's the local Salvation Army or a homeless shelter. Be sure your kids go with you when you donate them.
- Put toys into the toy box or cupboard and remind kids to put them away after every play!
Linen Closet:
- Pull out everything and sort bath towels, hand towels, face cloths, sheets, etc., into piles.
- Determine what is worth keeping (to still use, to become rags). It's common to limit yourself to three sets of sheets per bed and as few as three sets of bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths per person in the household. You'll also need one or two sets for guests.
- Put everything back in orderly piles, and remember, anytime you get a new set, retire an old one.
Outdoor Garbage and other Bins:
- Review the situation – do you need to have a special storage container built to accommodate garbage, compost or recycle bins to keep them away from pests such as raccoons? This will also help to keep the area clean and tidy. Otherwise, be sure lids can be locked on.
- Keep everything sweet-smelling by sorting garbage properly and by cleaning containers on garbage day once everything's been picked up.
Kitchen Counters:
- Take everything off the counter and put it on the kitchen table.
- Sort and divide items into: things you love and use, things you don't need or use, and a 'maybe' pile.
- Wipe the counter clean and put the 'love and use' item back in an orderly way. Still too many items? Go through them again. Perhaps there's a drawer or storage closet nearby that you could use for a few of the items?
- For the items you don't need or use, recycle them, put them into a bag to give to a charity or friend, or trash them if they can't be used anymore.
- Put all the items in the 'maybe' pile into a box, date it with today's date, and store it out of sight for half a year. In six months, open it and if you never needed any of the items, get rid of them.
MOLLY MAID, the largest residential cleaning company in Canada, can help keep your entire house clean. Contact us today for more information!
