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by
Kim Tilley
I am not a super-organized person. I've
tried, and I do maintain a certain level
of organization, but I am no Martha
Stewart! But when things really start
bothering me, I do launch a massive
campaign to get things put where they are
supposed to be. These are the systems I
use. They are easy to maintain and they
work very well (and are mostly other
people's ideas!) My advice on organizing
is very basic: group by type; if in doubt,
throw it out; label everything because you
will forget what's in there; and organize
things so you can see them all at a
glance.
SPEED
CLEANING
by Jeff Campbell and the Clean Team -
"Speed Cleaning" is a wonderful
book/system and has really helped me cut
down on my cleaning time. I learned a lot
about how to organize my cleaning supplies
and work faster. The basic idea is to have
the right tools, organize it, and keep it
near you when you clean. They use a
cleaning apron, which holds most of your
supplies and a tote to carry the rest.
They also show you how to clean from top
to bottom, room to room, very efficiently.
Jeff Campbell owns a professional cleaning
business and has several books out on the
subject. "Clutter Control" is a great look
at organizing your stuff, "Good As New"
shows you how to maintain your stuff, and
"Spring Cleaning" helps you with just
that.
Clothing System from Tightwad
Gazette - Amy Daczycyn showed how to
organize kids' clothes in one of the
Tightwad Gazette books and it has helped
me to keep hand me downs, garage sale
clothes, and outgrown clothing for 3 boys
pretty organized. I also use the same
system for my own clothes (organized by
season, not size). You use cardboard boxes
(or you can get the plastic ones) to store
your child's clothing by size, gender and
season. For instance, Beau is now growing
out of size 6 clothing. When I need to get
the size 7 stuff out for summer, I have a
box labeled "7 summer". I keep these boxes
in one place and they are stacked so I can
see everything at a glance. When I get out
the summer clothing, I put away most of
the winter size 6 stuff he was wearing,
label the box and save it for my youngest
child, Connor, who is in size 3. I also
buy things cheaply for my oldest son Sean
and store them for the day he can fit into
them. He is in a size 8 now, and I have
boxes of 10s 12s and 14 for him. I can
inventory the boxes easily to see what I
need to buy them, though it is usually the
same thing- jeans, undies and socks! I get
around these with great sales, rebates,
and the Sears kidvantage program, since my
kids are constantly ripping out their
pants.
Setting up a Pantry - Even if you
don't have a big kitchen, you can still
have a pantry! Reclaim some space from
your garage, basement or a closet and use
it! I do a lot of bulk buying, so I had to
have a place to put it all. My cabinets
were just over flowing! I could not use my
garage and did not have free closet space,
but I do have a long and unusual laundry
room/bathroom. I put some shelves in there
and store a lot of my bulk buys and
canning supplies, as well as those unusual
"only use it once a year" types of pans
and cooking items. This has been a great
solution for me since the space was just
being wasted. Now I can find things
quickly without digging through and
rearranging my cabinets!
Craft Room - Everything in my craft
room is beyond second hand. Some of it is
trash-picked! It's not the most gorgeous
room in the house, but it gets the job
done. I like to use file cabinets for
patterns, old dressers for sewing patterns
and fabric, and jars and baskets for
supplies. Try to get into the habit of
organizing craft and hobby supplies so you
can see everything at a glance and do not
have to dig around.
Kitchen - Grouping like items is
just good common sense, and really works.
I have a baking center with all of my
baking supplies, mixing bowls and
measurers, a spice center above the stove,
where I can also reach my pots and pans,
and storage areas for dishes and
Tupperware-type stuff near my sink and
dishwasher. I also have a cutting area
with my knives and cutting boards. The old
"kitchen triangle" idea is an oldie but a
goodie too - your refrigerator, sink and
stove should be arranged in a triangle for
easier access and use of all three. All of
these things combine to make cooking and
clean up much easier.
Freezer - I like to "file" things
in my freezer, again the idea is to see
stuff at a glance. This is not always easy
in a chest freezer, and I sometimes have
to dig around, but I try to keep items in
the same place and stack them vertically.
We bulk buy our meat bigtime and get beef
from my mother in law's farm, so we have a
lot of meat that has to be organized. On
the bottom, I store these meats from left
to right: chickens, fish and pork, turkeys
and hams, steaks and roasts, hamburger.
These are all stacked as well as I can.
Other items are then stored in the top
baskets, or on top of the basic meats. I
still have to dig sometimes, but I usually
know where to look.
Kids' toys - I have found the
Rubbermaid boxes that stack to be a great
tool in organizing the kids' toys. I
divided the toys into categories, such as
western, space, cars, army, dress-up,
puppets, and food toys. They can also
stack the closed boxes to make things and
they can use the boxes as levels or tables
to put other toys. Old diaper wipe boxes
are fantastic for organizing smaller toys,
like action figures. Kellie (from the "M"
word) found pictures of toys on the
internet, printed them out and glued them
to diaper wipe boxed so her smallest kids
would know what went into the boxes. These
small boxes also fit well on shelves and
some of them look like Lego's- the kids
can build with them! We love that!
As far as actually keeping the kids' stuff
organized, it's a battle. I try to make my
kids put things away in the right places.
Sometimes I am successful, but sometimes I
am not! I think the basic thing to
remember about kids and their toys is that
if you are the one picking it up and
organizing it, the kids are never going to
learn how to do it, and they will never
want to! So it may be a pain, but push
them to keep things picked up.
Garage -Those wall holders are
worth the money in my opinion. I hate to
trip over snow shovels and other dangerous
items, and I certainly don't want my kids
to wind up in the emergency room from
hurting themselves on a rake or something.
The peg boards with the hooks are also
very nice. I think there are enough
dangerous things that need to be kept up
high and organized, that these systems are
worth their weight in gold. Even the most
vigilant moms cannot watch their kids
every minute of the day, and we don't want
any trips to the garage for a bicycle to
end up in disaster! So get those tools and
things up, organized and away from kids
and pets!
Web Resources
Check out these great websites for more
information on getting organized:
Clean
Team
Website
1-2-3
Sortit
Messies
Anonymous
Tips
to Keep the Spring Clean
Feeling
© Copyright 1999, Kim Tilley
Did you like this article?
Rate
it.
About
the
Author:
Kim
Tilley is the mother of three boys, ages
9,6 and 2. She is the online editor for a
local tv station and the editor of
Frugal
Moms.
She is also a tightwad at heart. Her
interests include cooking, crafts,
gardening, computers, and saving money!
When not typing away at the computer, she
entertains herself by chasing kids and
finding ways to create something out of
nothing! Visit Kim's website at
http://frugal-moms.com
Mail
this article to a friend (or yourself)
You will be returned to this page after
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