One of my biggest goals for this year is to get my house organized. It seems I've been moving from house to house for 6 years, never staying in one place long enough to get truly unpacked and organized and I'm tired of living out of boxes.
I found a cleaning agenda on the Internet (sorry I can't find the blog now) that helps you get/keep your house clean, even deep cleaned, by doing a small project every day... Here's a synopsis of the agenda. The actual print out has more detail. Let me know if you would like a copy and I can email it to you (I downloaded it from the blog).
Monday - Laundry Day (This doesn't work for me, I have to do laundry every day)
Tidy the House
Vacuum main room (I sweep as I have hardwood floors)
Tuesday - Bathrooms
Wednesday - Surfaces (dusting, wiping things down etc)
Thursday - Organize/Clean out something.
Friday - Tidy the house
Vacuum all rooms including stairs.
This seems to work pretty well, I've only been doing it for a couple of weeks and don't hit it all every week, but at least I have a goal. Now, back to organization. Last Thursday I started an organization project that has taken me all week to complete (mainly due to my work schedule and other obligations), but I finished it this evening and I want to share it with you. Not only is it something everyone can probably utilize somewhere, it is very inexpensive too!
Now, this is not the first time I've used this concept, (I will show you some other examples at the end) but it is the first time I've utilized it to this extent... You see I have this kitchen drawer; it is huge 28" wide by 20" deep. You can't find organizers for something that size, which makes it impossible to find the utensil you need when you need it.
I
was discussing the problem with my 8 year old, running an idea by him
that I had come up with. A quite complicated idea that involved buying
wood and building a divider. He said "Mom, why don't you just use boxes
like you did for my desk?" Thank goodness children think simply. I
couldn't believe I didn't think of that myself! So I dug through the
pantry and searched the house for boxes, and even found a box at work
that would work for some of the bigger items.
I
placed each box in the drawer and drew lines around it with a sharpie.
(Please excuse the dye mark on my hand, I had been helping my husband
in the shop that day).
Next, using a box cutter (you could also use a Stanley knife) I cut along the lines.
In most cases you can stop at this point, but since this is a heavily used kitchen drawer, I decided it needed a little more attention. So I wrapped each box in contact paper. This step will make the boxes sturdier and make it easy to wipe them out and keep the drawer clean. If you are planning to cover your boxes in contact paper, I highly recommend and abstract pattern, I used the "granite" pattern and it worked great because I didn't have to worry about lining things up and could patch any mistakes with scraps. It took two 9 foot rolls of contact paper to complete this project. That was the only expense.
Viola!
The finished project. Now, I said I've done this before, The following
drawers need a little attention as they haven't been redone since the
last move and some of the boxes are missing.
Dominic's
desk is actually a computer desk without a drawer, we utilized boxes on
the keyboard tray to make cubbies for all his school supplies.
We
also have a hutch that has been utilized as a catch-all and TV stand in
the past but now holds the vivarium for Dominic's bearded dragon,
Dexter. In the past this drawer held mostly batteries and candles, and
I'm thinking the batteries will again call this drawer home once I begin
to organize the drawers in the laundry room.
I
hope you found this idea helpful. Stay tuned to follow me on more
organizational adventures as I work toward my whole house organization
goal this year!
Christine
Thanks! I love this idea, but I'm thinking the boxes need to be glued or contact papered to each other to keep them in place longer.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good idea. Thanks!
ReplyDelete