Keeping the Castle » Organizing and Clutter Control

5 Tips for Organizing Your Kitchen

Karen Weideman — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:04:29 +0000

Kitchens tend to be a dumping ground for everything. We walk in the door and drop our keys, purse, mail, and shopping bags on the counter. We put away the groceries and somewhere in our subconsciousness find it ok to leave the mail there. Next thing we know, we have a few little items scattered throughout the room.

I am guilty of disorganization in my kitchen. I am trying to get better though. Here are a few kitchen organizing tips.

1) Put things away when you’re done using them. If we did this with everything our lives would be so much cleaner and organized.

2) Buy functional organizational tools. Don’t just buy some baskets because you think you can use them. Access your needs and space. Decide what will work and then make the purchases. Yesterday, I bought some little plastic baskets for my kitchen drawers. I bought them for the scissors, clothes pins, kid’s medicine cups and syringes, and other small items. They were pretty inexpensive too; some were 2/$1 and some were 3/$1.

3) Give a new home to things you rarely use. If you rarely use the vegetable steamer and waffle maker, then consider storing them in the garage or basement. I have a little storage container that I use for storing cookie cutters and other infrequently used utensils. It keeps them from getting in my way and junking up my kitchen drawers.

4) Have a clean up time before dinner. Each night, have a short clean up time before you begin dinner so that you can put away all the little things that are lying around. This will help keep your kitchen clean and will also make for less clean up later.

5) Try the 15 minute rule. Set the timer for 15 minutes to clean, pick up, and organize. Sometimes we put off tasks because they seem so overwhelming. If we know that we only have to clean for 15 minutes, then we’ll be more likely to get in there and tackle projects.

What kitchen organizing tips can you share?

image sxc.hu

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Stocking Up For Next Year

SP Bragg — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:20:10 +0000

I’m not quite ready to let Halloween go as of yet. This is the perfect time to hit the mall and pick up all of those Halloween decorations that you wanted for this year, but never got around to getting. Well you are in luck, prices I noticed just yesterday, have been slashed by at least 50% and at one card shop, all their Halloween goodies where marked down by 75%! Now you can’t sneeze at that! Grab what you can and stash it in the Halloween Box that I talked about yesterday.

Just have to tell you… I spotted the coolest Halloween coffee mugs at the dollar store. That’s another great place to pick up all your seasonal necessities.

Tomorrow, we turn our thoughts to making November the best November possible.

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My Favorite Organizing and Housekeeping Posts

Maricar — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:47:05 +0000

There are quite a few posts about clutter control and housekeeping that I go back to again and again. There is just so much information and inspiration in these posts that one reading, or two or five, is not enough.

Here are three of my favorite posts from all over the web, just perfect for your weekend reading .

Finding the Right Tool for Organizing Toys

Maricar — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:29:36 +0000

Ever since I saw this video on organizing kid’s rooms and toys, I’ve been planning to re-do my own system for my kids’ toys. Originally, I wanted to start with this:

and pair it with several of these:

But then I found this baby on clearance:

It’s $60 originally, but was on sale for 50% off. The cashier then accidentally peeled off a bit of the finish way down at the bottom, so she gave me an additional 10% off. So it’s $27 for the entire thing, and it was already assembled.

All the colors got my kids excited (and I hope they’ll be as excited about putting their toys away in this). I like the open bins and that there are 2 different sizes. I’ll share more of the before and after of my toy organizing system in a while.

images from Sauder, Sterilite and my personal collection 2008

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Ideas for an Organizing Olympics

Maricar — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:02:02 +0000

I’m all excited about watching the Olympic Games. There’s just something special about this event and the coming together of the world’s best athletes. Maybe we can channel the excitement from the Games into our homes? I find that I’m often inspired by products and ideas into coming up with a “Hey, I can do that!” moment.

Here are some items that have inspired me lately to think about how I can organize my home better:

* Book Buggy from Levenger. This is perfect for the room where you do a lot of reading. Store your favorite books on it and pull it near your favorite chair for hours of reading. It’s on the wheels to it’s easy to push back to the wall when you’re done! DIY idea: Install casters on a lightweight bookshelf.

* Cottage Locker from LL Bean. This is my absolute dream organizer for a mudroom. Individual cubbies make it easy to store and find coats, shoes and bags. DIY Idea: Install hooks on walls for hanging coats and hats. Place a low sturdy shoe cabinet beneath the hooks to have a place to sit while putting on your shoes.

* Creativity Wall System with Chalkboard Cabinets, from Pottery Barn Kids. The low shelves make it easy for kids to store and access their things. I love the chalkboard cabinets! DIY Idea: Convert any surface to a chalkboard with chalkboard paint, available at most home improvement stores.

* Trofast storage combination from Ikea. There is so much potential here. Organizing clean and folded clothes in the laundry is one.

* Mesh Wall Bureau, available at Amazon.com. This is one of the simplest ways to organize a desk or a mail/message center. Incoming papers, bills, mailing supplies, note paper, paper clips, scissors, pens and pencils can all find a home in this unit, which comes with wall-mounting hardware.

Amazon affiliate

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How to Teach Kids to Clean Up

Maricar — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:32:31 +0000

My hope is that someday, my kids will be able to clean up after themselves. Meanwhile, they have to be taught the why’s and the how’s.

These are the things that I try to do to get them on the path to being neat and organized.

* Make it fun with a clean-up song (Barney’s is great) or a rhyme. This works specially great for preschoolers.

* Work on small areas at a time. Kids get overwhelmed when they have large areas to clean up. Dividing the chore into small tasks, like one type of toy at a time (cars, stuffed animals, books, etc.) make it easier to handle.

* Have a routine. Teach them to put things away after using them, and before starting another activity.

* Give them a sense of ownership and responsibility by having them pick up their own things.

* Be specific in your instructions. Instead of “Clean up all the toys”, say “Put the trains in the box”.

* Younger kids need you to work alongside them. This will have to go on for a few years, but the effort will be worth it.

Creative Commons image by decor8 on Flickr

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The Organized Laundry

Maricar — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:49:06 +0000

The laundry room is one of the spaces in a house where organization is almost an afterthought. However, keeping this space organized helps in making this chore easier to accomplish. Here are some tips:

* Use tall narrow hampers or wide hampers that are stackable like these from Rubbermaid. Storage should always be vertical whenever possible, and hampers are no exception. Going vertical saves on floor space.

* Sort clothes as soon as they are taken off. A hamper with three compartments (white, lights and darks) works well for me. I can see immediately whether I have enough for a full load. Laundry goes faster when clothes are pre-sorted.

* Utilize the space above your washer and dryer. It’s the perfect place to store laundry supplies like detergent.

* Keep a small hamper in your laundry room for catching dirty kitchen linens and towels.

image via Rubbermaid

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The Winners of Mabel’s Labels Neat Freak Combo

Maricar — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:10:24 +0000

For this giveaway, I have Mabel’s Label’s Neat Freak Combo for three lucky winners. I used random. org to give me three random numbers out of the 160. And those numbers are:

The winners are…

#76:

Cindi
May 31, 2008 at 2:17 am

Hello! My husband loves to cook and likes his spices and such to be at hand! The labels for cannisters, spices and bins are fantastic! Please enter me in your drawing. Many thanks,Cindi

#149:

Rachel
Jun 4, 2008 at 10:25 am

These would really help me get organized

and #70:

CAROLYN
May 30, 2008 at 8:27 pm

Y NOT ME!

Congratulations! I’ll be emailing you to get your snail mail address. Thanks to everyone who joined.

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