The Basket System Makes Clean Up a Breeze

You pick up a child’s toy, book, or stray sock for the tenth time in a few hours and stare up the flight of stairs. If you put it down, it will end up finding its way back to where you picked it up, but running all over the place is wearing you out. You need an easy solution that helps you clean up clutter fast.

Photo: SXC/Cris DeRaud

We’ve found quite a bit of success with a basket system. It makes cleaning up go a lot faster and even stops the messes from happening in the first place.

I have a mail basket, a school paper basket and a newspaper basket on a shelf under the kitchen island. Items go directly in those baskets without touching another surface when they come in the door. Then, when I have a few spare minutes, I read and sort.

When I go through the house cleaning, I tote a few baskets with me. In each room, I toss things for each kid or adult in a separate basket and drop the baskets on the bottom stair steps. They get their stuff and put it away or it belongs to me. I think they’ll eventually stop leaving things around at all, but, even if they don’t, it sure saves me a lot of trips up and down the stairs!

Do you use a basket system to help make clean up easy?