Thursday, February 25, 2010

Organize the Already Organized

I absolutely should be cleaning right now...my aunt, cousin, cousin-in-law and 3 second cousins (or is it cousin once removed???) are visiting this weekend and our house looks like, well, like 3 kids and 2 busy parents live here.  Unacceptable, I tell you.  But, instead of cleaning, I decided to post this TIP. 

Years ago, I organized our linen closet to within an inch of its life.  I'm talking bins with labels, stickers, designated shelves, the works.  And that system has had its ups and downs but has basically held true to form.  For example, on the floor of the closet is a big drawer bin that holds cleaning supplies.  (Before you panic, the bin has a Mr. Yuck sticker on it AND the closet is locked).  That bin hasn't moved once since I put it there.  There is a bin labeled "Kids Medicine" and a bin labeled "Adult Medicine".  One shelf for towels, one shelf for bed linens and nary the two shall meet...See?   It's really quite lovely. 

However!  The problem is this...I haven't cleaned out this closet in forever!!!!  So, while I love to have cleaning supplies at the ready, I really only use 2 or 3 products which renders that 13 year old bottle of ammonia useless.  Not to mention all the things that leaked inside the bin creating quite the Petri dish of combustibles.  I found a few other things in the closet that struck me as odd....like 6 die (dice, dices, deeces??), a yo-yo, a bubble maker, pack of matches and a partially used bar of soap. 

I like to keep things.  This may explain why I've held onto a bottle of perfume that someone once told me they liked because it reminded them of their Grandma.  Or why I held onto a set of breast shells from my nursing woes of Joe (he'll be 7 next month).  Or the travel sized make up bags with broken zippers.  Or the expired medicines...

Breath easy people!  I've thrown out a ton of stuff and rearranged the placement of bins so that the cleaning supplies are off the floor and out of little hands' reach and all is right with the world.

So, my tip is this....Even if a spot in your home seems to be organized, if its been awhile since you went through it, maybe it would be a good idea to organize your already organized space.

You're welcome.  Carry on.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

this sounds exactly like our laundry room in my apartment... I love to organize and clean but don't even want to attempt it. I'm shamelessly waiting until we move out in May :)

HannahBear said...

Ah, Rachel - the very title of your blog made my heart pitter-patter. Great tip! Good stuff! Hmm... what can I reorganize in my house??? Oh there's so many choices! Maybe everything? I don't know if there's enough time...