Living Rooms,
Bathrooms,
and Beyond
Spotlight on Surfaces
Clearing the surfaces of the house is a powerful organizing tool. When you look at a decorating magazine, the main difference in those houses and what you may see in yours is the conspicuous lack of clutter on surfaces. This includes knick-knacks, trinkets, papers, photos, and the like.
When I first go into a house, I clear the floor of papers, shoes, clothes, toys and whatever else I find there that is out of place and put them in or near where they belong. Then I clear the next lowest surface nearest to the floor. That may be a footstool, a low table, or chair and clear those surfaces. Next we move up to the next highest surfaces, which may be tables, tops of televisions, or bureaus.
When we start doing difficult surfaces like counters and tables, I start at the right and move left. If necessary, I divide the surface into quadrants, clearing and wiping one quadrant completely before moving on. As I am taking things off, I say aloud where the item goes whether I am alone in my own house or working with someone in theirs.
Quadrant by quadrant, surface by surface, the job is done. The whole emphasis is on creating the visual impact of cleared surfaces. Every time you look back at what you have done, you see significant progress shining from the cleared surfaces.
Marsha Sims
Sort It Out
Miami, Florida
www.sortitout.net
In this chapter we will consider each main area of the house separately and work on improving each one with good results. The main rooms are where the bulk of our living takes place, where we circulate most. Storage and work areas will be considered later.
Overall, the whole house works together as one. What we do in one room will spill over to some degree into another. How well the storage and work areas are organized will impact the main rooms. It is like one of the handheld puzzles in which we slide one square after another trying to get them in numerical order. Each time one square moves, it affects them all.
Bare Bones Info
Zoning is a key concept when we consider organizing rooms. All rooms benefit from applying the idea, some more than others. Basically, developing zones means that similar items are grouped together in specific sections dedicated to certain activities. Examples would be an entertainment zone, baking zone, toy zone, or grooming zone.
Living Room and Family Room
Living areas vary from home to home. Some people who have a family room use their living room only for entertaining or formal family gatherings, such as opening Christmas presents. Others use it for daily living because they don’t have a family room. Whether it is a formal living room or a general family living area, it sets the tone of the house when anyone, including you, enters, because it is usually one of the first rooms you see. You want to decorate this room in a way that makes a statement about you and your family. The style, colors, accessories, and placement of furniture speak volumes.
Other living area zones are the conversation center, electronic entertainment center, display area for interests or photos, games and toys center, reading center, and sometimes storage. The availability of electrical outlets will determine the location of the electronic entertainment center and, if you put it in that area, the computer. The placement of these items will in turn determine where other items will fit.
Is your furniture arranged in zones to meet your needs? As you look around your living areas, ask yourself what few changes (20 percent) could make a significant difference. Do you need to rearrange furniture, get rid of pieces of furniture or accessories, buy furniture or bring pieces from another room or from storage? In most cases, the single most significant step for change is removing clutter and furniture. The more clutter cleared from the surfaces, the better. Adding or removing a large piece of furniture will have the greatest impact on creating an orderly appearance.
Pay attention to your emotions as you evaluate. What annoys you is as important as what makes you happy. Then ask yourself, If I could do anything, what would I do in this room?
Tips
Dining Area
Unlike most other rooms, the formal dining room has a single purpose and is dominated by a single furniture unit, the table and chairs. The table is second only to the bed in impact, because of its size. For that reason and because you can’t close the door to the dining room as you can the bedroom, the table is visually important.
In some homes, the focus is on the table and chairs alone. In others, a centerpiece and in some cases a tablecloth add to the ambiance. Most of the time a lighting fixture illuminates the table for dining. The table, chairs, and lighting fixture are the basics of function and beauty.
When there is room, a hutch and buffet are often part of the dining room suite and are invaluable for storage.
Formal dining rooms are used only for meals. But in homes where the dining area is an extension of the kitchen or living room, often the table is a place for paying bills, doing homework, playing games, and, in between, eating meals.
Look at your dining area. Has “extra” furniture, which could and maybe should be removed, crept in? Do you have the right size furniture for the area? Does it make the visual impression you want?
If you could do anything, what one change would you like to make in the dining area? Sometimes, and perhaps especially in the dining room, an appropriate 20 percent change makes a big difference.
Bedrooms for Adults
Bedrooms are usually pressed into multiple uses. Because they are out of public view, storage overflow from the house, exercise equipment, libraries, and home offices are located there. Using a bedroom for work activities changes its character and reduces the personal comfort it can offer. On the other hand, since the bedroom is the most personal room in the house, rightly used it can comfort us in a way no other room can.
The core furniture of most bedrooms is a bed, dresser, and bedside table. A TV set and telephone are probably there as well. Fit essentials in first and then turn to other considerations.
Because the bedroom has varied uses, you need to decide how you are going to manage the placement of furniture and other items. Ideally the bedroom should not be used as a gym, home office, library, or storage area for extra boxes. Remove anything that you feel you can either live without or put some other place. This may include exercise equipment or bookshelves holding unnecessary books. Get rid of clothes that are worn out or that you no longer wear. Focus on the surfaces of your dresser, bedside table, and any other surface in the room. In true Bare Bones fashion, getting rid of the right few things can make a huge difference in how much room you have.
Maximize storage areas. Underbed storage containers are available. Can you rearrange your drawers, grouping things together and storing them for easy access? Can you use the closet for storage of things that are now in the bedroom itself?
Look around your bedroom. If you could remove one thing, what would it be? Do you need to change any piece of furniture, perhaps exchange it with something in another room? All surfaces should be as clear as possible. Does the top of your dresser need decluttering? Do you need to buy a jewelry box or segment a drawer for jewelry? Identify one problem you can solve immediately.
Once the bedroom is salvaged for its true calling—a haven for your renewal—set up centers, such as grooming, dressing, reading, or entertainment centers, so that the appropriate items are grouped together. Finally you need to focus on beautifying the room. A lovely bedroom resists clutter.
IN THE TRENCHES WITH SMART HOMEMAKERS
From Adrienne:
Hello all. Today I am going to enter the room and for all of you wondering which room that is—it would be the one that has a big king size bed in it, 2 side tables, 2 lamps, a chair, and a television. In 95 percent of the households in America, it would be known as the master bedroom, but in my case, it is otherwise known as the storage building, the office, and the sleeping quarters when you can find the bed. It’s funny. There always seems to be room on the bed for hubby and kids, and dog and cats, but none for the mommy!! I am first going to locate said bed and strip the sheets, flip the mattress, and while I have the mattress up, I am going to vacuum underneath the bed. Then I will put all of the boxes (that store everything in this house that doesn’t appear to have a home) in the living room for right now. It’s like bill paying, robbing Peter to pay Paul. I will then attempt to pick up all of the papers and CDs and DVDs that are on the floor (due to children) and try to find where they belong, and I will trash the papers that do not belong. What fun!! Hopefully, at some point, I will be able to find the carpet that surrounds the room. If I do, then I will vacuum it.
So, my dear friends, I am off. I will check in with you this evening, because of course after the storage room comes the mowing outside. It has to be done today and I can’t ask the man with the ace bandage on his knee to push a lawn mower. You dare even suggest it!! He can walk the golf course, but push a mower, please!!
Tips
Guest Bedroom
Where space is tight, the guest room is often used for other activities. It may double as a sewing room, home office, exercise room, or whatever. But when guests arrive, it has got to have a bed and someplace for them to put their clothes. Follow the example of motels and provide shampoo, conditioner, and soap (maybe the same ones you brought home from the motel). Put out towels and blankets. Make room to hang up clothes in the closet and try to fix a place for an open suitcase. If you can, provide a TV, radio, and clock.
If you don’t have room for a bed in your guest room, provide for sleeping in some other way. Obtain a quality air mattress, which comes with a motor and is easily blown up, a roll away bed, or best of all, a bed that folds up into the wall that is often a part of a larger storage unit.
If whatever you do meets your guests’ basic needs and says, “I’m glad you’re here!” your guest room is doing just fine.
Bathrooms
It is especially important to organize the bathroom using classic organizational techniques. As in solving every organizational problem, three things are necessary when dealing with bathrooms:
Tips
Children’s Rooms
Many parents would say their chief problem is not children’s rooms but the children who live in them. That’s another story. But, in truth, if the room is organized in a way that works for the child who lives in the room, there is a much better chance that it will stay neat. If a room isn’t set up for success, even a child who wants to keep it organized has trouble.
Children’s rooms go through three basic metamorphoses, from baby to child to teen. The principles of organizing are the same. A child’s room falls easily into zones—toys, grooming, work, entertainment, and sleeping.
TOYS
Keep down excess. It is easy to gather too many toys and too much furniture to hold them. Start by sorting toys into groups—puzzles, games, stuffed animals, action toys, dolls, and whatever other groupings are obvious—and putting them into boxes, which you label to make the grouping clear. Have one box available for broken toys and incomplete sets to throw away. Have another for toys that have been outgrown or were never favorites and need to be given away.
Including the children in the decision making is often a good idea. If your child and you have a difference of opinion, place the toys in a separate box. Label it TO BE DECIDED LATER. Once these toys have been put into a box and removed from the room, they tend to lose appeal. After a while, let the child know you will soon be giving the things in the box away. Tell the child to take out anything he or she wants before you dispose of it. Now is the time. Usually the child won’t want anything, but knowing it’s possible to retrieve an item makes it easier for the child to remove it from the room initially.
If things go well, you will remove about 20 percent of the toys from your child’s room, improving your situation by 80 percent. Getting rid of large toys or equipment will give extra benefit.
Once you know how many toys you have to deal with, you can decide how to store them for easy use. Some people divide the toys into thirds. They store two of the groups and rotate them in and out from time to time. This system makes it easier to manage placing the remaining toys in the room and easier for the child to play.
Larger toys can be placed in the closet or out of the room in a storage area. Smaller toys can be stored on shelves, grouped together and boxed, or put in baskets, which are then labeled with words or pictures. Put coloring books, drawing paper, and crayons into drawers.
Avoid toy boxes like the plague. Children will happily throw their toys, large and small, into the box for quick cleanup. Lost puzzle pieces, toy parts, little trucks, broken crayons, and balls drop under the large toys never to be seen again.
FURNITURE
Furniture for the child’s room boils down to three basic types: the bed, dresser, and a place for toys or entertainment items. Somewhere in the house, perhaps here, there needs to be a table for studying and working on crafts or hobbies.
The balance of enough furniture for storage and decoration but not so much that it crowds the room is a chronic tension in furnishing rooms of any kind, but it is especially difficult in children’s rooms.
You will need to use all of the storage tips you know. Here are some:
ELECTRONICS
In today’s world, Mom and Dad need to make careful decisions about what electronics to put in the child’s room. Children of all ages are likely to have a radio or a music system of some kind. As they grow older, kids can accumulate a telephone (cordless, cell phone, or corded), television, and computer. If they had a refrigerator and hot plate, they would practically have their own apartment. Realize that being able to isolate oneself comfortably in one’s room does not create healthy family life and in some cases can cause serious problems. These choices need to be made carefully.
While we are on the topic of electronics in a child’s room, note the comments of Bill O’Reilly, who has written the book Who’s Looking Out for You? In Parade magazine he writes, “An effective parent will not allow a TV or computer in a child’s room. This is a dangerous world, and the danger is now inside the house. The exploiters want your kids. You must look out for them. Fight hard.”[1]
One study revealed the percentage of rooms of children ages eight through twelve that contained the following electronics items.[2]
Television set—64 percent
VCR player—43 percent
Video game console—42 percent
Telephone—22 percent
Computer—13 percent
As in other rooms, electronics in children’s rooms must be placed where there are outlets, which affects the placement of the rest of the furniture. Make a schematic on paper to decide where you are going to place the various zones.
KEEPING IT CLEAN
You have dejunked the room, gotten the furniture in place, and have established your zones. The one problem that has not been addressed is the habits of the child who lives in the room. When he or she follows the same five habits recommended for adults (see chap. 2), the room will stay organized.
And who is responsible for teaching those five habits both by training and example? It’s the same person who bought the furniture and set up the room so it will run in an orderly fashion. We all know who that is.
IN THE TRENCHES WITH SMART HOMEMAKERS
From Rachael:
I can remember the days when my children were under three, since my oldest hasn’t quite reached 7 yet. I would suggest organizing toys into categories. You choose what they play with for the morning/day/week. Then they put all those away and you get the new thing out for the allotted time— afternoon/day/week. Make them clean up before lunch and before dinner.
This child training business takes an awful lot of time that we could be doing something else. If your landlords ever dropped by and your house was less than perfect and they were less than understanding . . . well, you have crummy landlords. But just explain that you have been busy teaching your children how to take care of their things and it takes a little longer to get to your own things right now.
Kitchen
A kitchen is an excellent place to apply the principles of zoning. Dishes should be stored near the dishwasher. Pots, pans, and food should be near the stove. Some who bake a lot have a special baking area. Kitchens house other items, such as plastic storage containers, flower vases, and miscellaneous items. The first thing necessary is to group all of these items together and decide where to store them appropriately. When you group them, you will probably see a lot of things you have not seen or used in a long time.
Because the kitchen is the place where women nurture the family with food, it holds an emotional spot in their hearts. This makes us suckers for kitchen excess. Most kitchens overflow with widgets, both large and small, that were bought with hope for better, easier family care. Since hope springs eternal, women find it difficult to get rid of unused kitchen gadgets. To bring the kitchen under control, these useless items must go. As you know, simplifying by getting rid of excess (say maybe 20 percent) is a major step in organizing.
Once the items in the kitchen are well organized and stored, good habits will keep the kitchen clean.
KEEPING IT CLEAN
Organized people seem to pay special attention to keeping pots washed up and put away during the cooking process and cleaning the kitchen quickly after meals. Less organized people tend to drift at these points. The temptation to “soak” grimy utensils can become an excuse to delay cleanup. If you feel you must soak something, set the kitchen timer as a reminder to return to the cleanup process shortly and finish up that grimy thing. I’ve known things to sit hopelessly for days because the pot needed elbow grease, not more soaking. I won’t say in whose house I have seen this tendency because of the Fifth Amendment.
As a rule of thumb, when cleaning the stove top after cooking (you do plan to do that, don’t you?), let the cleaning solvent sit for half a minute or so to use its magical qualities to the max. That is not “soaking” and is considered not only acceptable but wise. The sooner you attack the grease in the kitchen after cooking, the easier it will release its sticky grip.
Hanging things is an organizing technique that orderly people use often. They do it to keep surfaces clean, but it also helps when there are storage problems. Here are some quick hang-up tips for the kitchen:
The backs of doors are very important for storage in the kitchen as well as other rooms. Put small wire shelves or racks for spices on the inside of cabinet doors. Racks that hold aluminum foil, bags, plastic wrap, soap, steel wool pads, and so on clear a lot of shelf space.
Cooking utensils can also be hung up, thus eliminating the clutter they cause in drawers. It is a good idea to hang measuring spoons on cup hooks inside a cabinet door. Hang pots on the wall, but be sure not to have so many things hanging on the walls in the kitchen that it begins to look cluttered. Since shelf and drawer space are at a premium in most homes, hang or stand up anything that can be hung or stood up.
Closely akin to hanging items is standing them up in containers. Both of these techniques work because vertical placement frees up the horizontal spaces of counter and drawer. In many cases they make the kitchen items more easily accessible.
A COOL WAY TO GO
The refrigerator is the most problematic area of the kitchen. If you have a neat little fridge that never gives you trouble, you will think the following ideas are excessive. But if you have spent time hungrily searching the refrigerator for a condiment, while hot food cools on the table, this approach will be a long-term blessing. Here is a place where the basic organizing approach really pays off.
First, group things together, all condiments, dressings, fruit, vegetables, meat—well, you get the idea. Designate different zones in the refrigerator for the various groups. You can do it by pulling everything out on the counter or just by rearranging it in the fridge.
Second, once you see clearly what you have in the refrigerator, simplify by getting rid of duplicates and things that have spoiled or have outlived their expiration date. Green, fuzzy stuff, dried-up food, food which is too old, and even “good” leftovers nobody wants need to be discarded quickly.
Finally, put the different groups of food into holders of various sorts. You will be surprised at how many appropriate baskets or boxes are available in stores today. You will discover square cornered containers are best. Because the refrigerator is so deep, the back of the box is often poorly used, harboring fugitive items for a long time. Your greatest difficulty will be finding containers that are deep enough to reach from the front to the back of the refrigerator to make maximum use of space. When you look for something that is in the condiment container, say mustard, you pull the container out like a drawer and there it is!—readily available even if it was “way in the back.” I write the names of what is in the jars on the lids so I can easily pick out sweet gherkins from dill chips when I look down into the container. Then I label the front of each container or “drawer” to identify the contents. For me, this is the Bare Bones Way. When the setup is complete, be sure to maintain it by returning the items where they belong in the proper container each time you use them.
You may think that this does not sound like the 80/20 rule of simplicity. But it is, because, once the system is set up, it will keep you from spending a lot of time looking for things in the refrigerator. After I set up my refrigerator into zones with labeled containers, my life became wonderfully simple.
Tips for the Kitchen
What Do You Really Want?
Look around your house and be specific as you answer these two questions.
What is your favorite part of the house?
Which part is the biggest problem?
Now take time to evaluate, on the scale below, all of the main rooms in the house to see which are most in need of improvement. Draw a scale like the one below to evaluate each room in your house. The storage areas will be considered later.
Living area (including family room)
Dining area
Bedroom(s) (list each)
Others
Bathroom(s) (list each)
Children’s rooms
Guest bedroom
The Bare Bones Way
As you have been reading about the various rooms, you have been deciding on the changes you want to make. Undoubtedly, there are many. The Bare Bones Way is to choose the ones that will make the biggest splash with the least effort.
Keeping in mind your brief evaluation above and the thoughts about your home that you’ve had, ask yourself, If I had three wishes, and money, time, and energy were no concern, what would I change in my house? This question will free you up to see what you really want but perhaps have not been admitting to yourself. You may already have an idea of what these three wishes are but you have not given them sufficient thought for ideas for change to crystallize.
To prime the pump further, walk around the house with a pencil and paper. Choose one thing in each room that you feel is a problem that needs to be solved. List that problem or in some cases problems. (Don’t bother listing problems concerning paper control because that will be dealt with later.)
Now choose three of the problems you will focus on changing. If you feel frustrated in choosing only three in a sea of problems, remember that we are using the Bare Bones approach, choosing the top 20 percent that will make a significant difference.
Now set out to accomplish these three goals and only these three, one at a time. If you have not yet done the three Cs, get the white boxes recommended and do them now in the first area you have chosen. Just in case they have slipped your mind, the Cs are:
Consolidate. Group things together that are alike.
Containerize. Put them in drawers, boxes, baskets, and the like that are appropriate for the items.
Condense. Get rid of the things you don’t want to put into the container once you see how many duplications, broken things, and excess you have.
Now tackle the first problem in the room you are working on. Perhaps it is a general storage problem. Do you need to rearrange the storage of items? Put things close to where they are used and are easy to access. How about rearranging the furniture? Do you need to get rid of something, perhaps a large piece of furniture? That’s one thing that makes a big difference! Do you need to buy furniture so you will have more drawers or shelves for storage?
Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Remember, we are streamlining our lives. If you solve just the few most significant problems, your life can be greatly improved.
After you care for the top three problems, choose three more if you wish. Keep going until the most crucial problems are solved. Ignore the smaller problems, the less important 80 percent, or do them later from time to time as you continue to maintain the house.
The projects you have decided to focus on are where you will place your time and attention. The toughest problem will melt in the heat of sustained focus.
The toughest problem will melt in the heat of sustained focus.
Decision Time—Choose Your Top 20 Percent
My first three primary goals in the order they will be tackled are:
1.
2.
3.
The next three:
1.
2.
3.
Of course, there will be others that will follow in the future, but the likelihood is that caring for six organizing projects will make a huge difference. Using the mathematics of Prieto’s 80/20 principle, three projects represent the most important of fifteen organizing improvements that could be done around the house and six represents the most important of thirty. To put it another way, these three to six projects will make a whale of a difference in your house.