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Smart Ways to Organize your Home
Since the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of us have relegated most of our daily life at home. Kids to teens study at home via online classes or module learning, while the majority of the workforce had to work from home. For essential workers who had to continue working outside the home, it can be real cumbersome to come home without exposing the rest of the family to the virus. With all of these considerations, you would usually be forced to look into your current living spaces and look for ways to organize your home better.
For some who have the means or are simply feeling too cramped with their current living spaces, the option is to look and buy a bigger house and lot or condo for sale to accommodate your current lifestyle. But even if you have this option, the daily demands of life will still creep in and cause additional stress if you have a cluttered, poorly decorated, or somewhat disorganized living space.
The obvious solution is to organize your home. Home organization is beyond buying a few storage boxes, a bookshelf, or that Instagrammable pastel-colored trolley. Home organization is an efficient and orderly approach to your living space. To properly organize your home, you must factor in time, money, space, and effort to help us feel safe from the demands of daily life. This means that you need to organize your living spaces smart: apply efficient solutions that require the fewest number of steps and the least amount of effort. Otherwise, your solutions may only contribute to the clutter until you can no longer keep up.
We have come up with smart ways to organize your home room by room. You can apply them even if it is for a house and lot for sale you just bought or your existing space.
Your Entryway
If you don’t have an entryway, you can always install one with a few furnishings. Image from goodhousekeeping.com.
An entryway should have storage solutions to store your outer clothes, shoes, and other accessories. Install hooks for your coats, jackets, and bags, a shoe organizer or a shoe tray for your footwear, and a tall basket or holder for your umbrellas. A single bench is a great addition for people who need to sit down and take off their shoes and wear home slippers. A full-body mirror will make the space bigger than it is, and also help people assess what they are missing before going out the door.
The pandemic makes it extra harder to leave and arrive at home, so make sure you have everything in the entryway needed to reduce exposure. You can install a ledge as your grab-and-go corner, where you can place a box of hospital-grade masks, hand sanitizer or alcohol, and a disinfectant spray. If you use cloth or fabric masks with a filter, make sure you put them in a dedicated sealed laundry basket after every use.
If your entryway is not near a bathroom, make sure to hang a housecoat or bathrobe to wear all the way directly to the bathroom for a bath. Then follow the guidelines on disinfecting your entryway before you head to the bathroom.
Now, just because it is an entryway, you won’t style it either. If you have an open-plan living space, make sure your furnishings, wall decor, and paint are cohesive with the living space.
Living Room
Your main gathering space should not only be welcoming but should also be relaxing as well.
Keeping a living room organized can be quite a challenge. More so for open-plan living spaces or homes with limited space, the living room tends to have so many functions based on the family’s needs. How does one keep a living room tidy when you use it for entertaining, playing, reading, exercising, and relaxing as well?
First, you need to arrange your living room layout in consideration of the room’s functions. To do so, determine your focal point so you can organize your furniture and storage solutions around it.
If your focal point is your TV, place your furniture such that you can several see your focal point. For example, you can place your sofa opposite the TV, then place a coffee table in front of the sofa and additional seating on each side. If you decide to hang the TV, use your console table as storage for your entertainment system, gaming consoles, and other knick-knacks.
If your kids are fond of also playing in the living room, place a big soft rug or carpet in front of the TV, and get small, circular side tables instead, so it’s easier to move around. Buy a huge, zippered bean bag, and instead of using filling, store your kids’ stuffed toys there instead. You can use a trolley to store toys, arts and crafts, and other playthings. Do make sure that the trolley comes with cubes and other storage organizers to make packing up easier for the kids.
Home Office/ Homeroom
Installing your own book shelf is an ideal way to utilize your homeroom space efficiently.
If you need to make space in your living room for a home office/homeroom, you can use a tall bookshelf to divide the space. Section the bookshelf into two: the upper half for your books, office supplies, gadgets, printer, and other office things. The bottom part of the shelf is dedicated to your kids’ books, school modules, and learning materials.
Place the desk away from visual distractions, but near the window, so the people who will use it will not feel stuffy. Get a thin but long desk or commission a long wood plank to install your office/school desk so it doesn’t take so much room. Then simply use spare chairs at home or a bench for sitting. Add fluffy pillows for comfy seating.
Lift clutter from the desk by using pen organizers and paper trays or drawers. Instead of a desk lamp, install an overhead focus lamp with a flexible arm so you can position the lamp anywhere over the desk.
Instead of installing a bulky whiteboard or chalkboard, you can use a whiteboard or chalkboard sticker and stick it in the unused wall of your home office/homeroom. Get a small container for your chalks, whiteboard markers, and erasers, add double-sided tape on the side then place it on the makeshift board.
You can also think about transforming unused spaces at your home, like a small walk-in closet. Simply add shelves, a desk, overhead lighting, and an office chair, and you got yourselves a hidden office/homeroom space!
You can also utilize unused spaces like this closet. After work, simply close the closet door, and you’ll never know it’s there. Image from thespruce.com.
Dining Room/Kitchen
The key to a great dining room/kitchen is curation.
To keep your dining room and kitchen in order is to reduce what you have. You can start with excess Tupperware and plastic ware. If you do need one, get a durable, matching set and invest instead with reusable zip-close bags, plastic wrap, or tin foil.
This goes the same for your houseware. Keep only a number of tableware, including knives, kitchen utensils, cups, and glasses in accordance with the number of people in the household. Get rid of broken or stained ones, or ones that are out of shape. Keep one of every sizable pot and pan, and donate the rest. If you have china, keep the ones that are dearest to you and sell the rest. If you happen to lack certain items, that’s okay! When you have less, you’ll find more creative ways to use your belongings.
Once you have done the inventory, store them back in the cupboards. Avoid crowding the kitchen counters as much as possible, especially if you do not have that much counter space. Keep other items that you frequently use like knives, chopping boards, and other kitchen tools in hooks or magnetic strips. You can also use magnetic strips or install a small shelf for your spice rack. Place your most-used appliances like rice cooker, toaster, microwave, and toaster in a steel open shelve with dedicated power outlets. For dry food like cereal, beans, and nuts, store them in clean, labeled containers.
Clear, air-shut containers keep the moisture out of the dry goods. Moreover, you can also clearly see what’s instead, and avoiding unnecessary opening and closing.
When stocking your cupboard, stock it like every week how groceries do it. Place the newest grocery items the farthest, and the older stuff in front so you use the older stuff first. This goes the same for your food items in the fridge.
The unused wall space of your fridge can also act as vertical storage. You can fashion a magnetic board to jot down notes or a fridge cover with pockets to place bills, receipts, and other miscellaneous papers you like to keep track of. Make sure that you check them on a weekly basis to get rid of paper you no longer need.
Don’t forget about the dreaded space under the sink. Install a stackable drawer system to make it easier for you to access extra pots and pans, cleaning materials, tissue, garbage bags, and more.
Bathroom
The bathroom is one of the most overlooked living spaces at home. Create a haven by keeping it tidy, organized, and smelling like a spa.
The first step to organizing your bathroom is to keep it clean and spotless. To keep the water splatters from the rest of the bathroom, install a shower curtain. Add an air freshener or a citrus house plant to liven up and make space fresh.
If you do not have your bathroom cabinet, install a storage organizer over toilet rack for your fresh towels, air freshener, extra soaps, shampoos, and other sundries. Tools shaver and hairdryer should be stored in clear, labeled boxes. Install a hook or a bathroom rack behind the bathroom door to hang your bathrobes and towels.
Avoid cluttering your bathroom sink by putting everything on the wall. Mount a LED toothpaste dispenser to mount toothbrushes and toothpaste, Your soap and hand sanitizer should also be in mountable containers.
If you do your makeup in the bathroom, utilize a trolley with organizer cubes. This way, you also have the option to do your makeup anywhere if the bathroom is not available.
Closet
The first thing you need to do when you want to begin to organize your home is to organize your closet is to get the rest of the family involved. Schedule a time where the family goes through all of the clothes and help each member sort them in keep or donate piles. A good technique is to get rid of everything stained, ripped, in worse shape or wear, or that no longer fits, and then keep the rest. Then keep or mend items that can still be used for donation.
From there, make it a group activity to place all items of clothing back in their designated closet space. Hang items of clothing (top, pair of pants) and accessories that go well together on thin hangers. This goes the same way with underwear and beddings. Keep tops and bottoms together in drawers. Get rid of everything mismatched or no longer have a partner: underwear, socks, and more. Insert the pillowcases in their matching bedsheets. Use shelf dividers to keep everything separated and to prevent everything from toppling over.
As for bags, keep the number to a minimum and sell the rest. Add bag fillers to keep the items in tip-top shape, and silica gel inside to keep the moisture out. Do the same thing with shoes.
Then, dedicate a space or a closet to each family member, including the little ones. This ensures that every single one in the household is accountable for their belongings.
Bedroom
Keeping a kid’s bedroom organized seems to be impossible, but it can be managed when you make things easier for them.
It’s not easy to keep a child’s bedroom clean and organized, but by introducing smart solutions, you can even make it a fun habit.
The first thing you need to do is to get rid of excess toys or toys that no longer suit them. Cutting back keeps kids interested in certain toys, and their bedroom uncluttered. Your storage solutions should also be kid-sized, so it is easier for kids to put things away. Use stackable bins that are shallow and wide so they don’t need to dump everything out to find the stuff they want.
Teach them to organize things through play, cause this will set them up to be ready to organize your home. For example, install a basketball hoop over the laundry bin so they can shoot balled-up used clothes. Challenge kids to pick up as many toys on the floor in a given timeframe in under three minutes. Test them about their knowledge of the rainbow colors by organizing the books in their bookshelf by color.
Your bedroom is your final refuge from your daily life. Keep it that way with these organizing and interior decor tips.
As for the adult bedroom, introduce storage solutions that do not show or distract visually. Opt for storage under the bed for big items like a duvet or comforter. Keep the visuals easy on the eyes by using materials, artwork, and wall color in soft, cool hues.
Remove everything else that can keep you awake like the TV, laptop, or computer. But if you have to anyway, dedicate a space that you can section off.
Garage
Not all homes have their garages (like a condo for sale), but it is important that you do not treat yours like a storage shed.
Install vertical solutions on your garage doors. Use pulley-style systems for bulky items like your bikes or ladders. Use magnetic strips or horizontal strips to store things like hammers, screws, and saws.
More Smart Tips to Organize Your Home
1. Organize your home by making your garbage cans or waste disposal area visible.
The goal is to reduce the effort needed for finishing steps to ogranize your home, that even a child can do it. Place it in areas where everyone can see, like beside the work desk and kitchen counters, near the door or the sink. Also, make the trash cans easy to put the trash in. Opt for open trash cans or trash cans where you can open by stepping on a pedal. Label what types of items you can put in the trash so people in the household can dispose of them properly.
2. To organize your home, your inventory must conform to storage.
If your closet is full of clothes and shoes, then it is time to reduce. The same goes for all of your storage solutions: bookshelves, drawers, cubbies, bins, cupboards, and even the fridge. You want to make sure that every going through all of them, your storage solutions are not bursting full of items.
3. Take just three minutes each day to go through your house for items you no longer need.
Remember the saying “out of sight, out of mind”? This is true with home organization. Schedule sometime in the day with you carrying an empty bucket or bin and go through your home room by room. Pick up stuff that you think you and your family no longer need or use.
4. Create habits to organize your home.
Draft up an organizing and cleaning schedule for the rest of the family. Rotate the designations every week so everyone can take turns doing the chores. If they are not doing it right, make it easier for them by sharing your tricks or simplifying the chores.
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