The No-Clutter Zone

Take a really close look at that picture below. Can you tell what it is? Any guesses?

table

A kitchen table? That’s correct! Now, where might you find a kitchen table as clutter-free a this? Only in a stage home? Yah, that’s exactly what I thought, too. UNTIL, I declared our kitchen table a NO-CLUTTER ZONE. So, that kitchen table in the picture, that CLEAN kitchen table, that CLUTTER-FREE kitchen table, that would be MY kitchen table! Guess how long it’s been that way? One day? Nope. Two days? Nope. One week? Nope, not even just one week, but SEVERAL weeks. I honestly can’t believe it.

For the past year plus, I’ve been on a quest to declutter our home. I’m going at a snail’s pace, but, hey, at least I’m moving forward, right?! Anyway, one article or book or something I read suggested to start small and declare one space in your home a no-clutter zone. We chose our kitchen table as our starting point.

Because our kitchen is a no-clutter zone, nothing can be placed on the table that doesn’t belong. If you bring mail into the house, it needs dealt with right then and there (or placed somewhere else in the house, preferably the mail pile…Don’t get me started on the mail pile. Sigh. This is another area I need to work on!). If you use your laptop on the kitchen table, when you are finished, the laptop goes back to its home on the desk. If you bring home groceries and unload them on the kitchen table, the groceries do not stay there for days, they get put away (preferably) immediately. You get the idea. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, stays on the kitchen table! It’s genius ;).

Now, on to declare the next no-clutter zone!

What will be your no-clutter zone?

Linen Organization

Our linen closet has been a mess for quite a while now. It houses all our extra sheets, pillow cases, blankets, towels, and random household items like pillows, light bulbs, toilet paper, paper towels, games, etc. The unorganized sheets were bothering me the most.

While trying to decide how to organize the closet, I remembered there was a box tucked away in our basement, labeled “plastic zipper bags.” This was just what I needed to organize our sheets (sometimes it pays to be a bit of a pack rat :)).

Now, every sheet set and pillow case has a labeled home. I also need to label the sides so I can easily see what’s in each bag without pulling it off the shelf. I’ll do that one of these days. I’d also like to make the labels a little more stylish – I’ll do that one of these days, too.

Oh, I also put a nail in the closet to hold our floor cleaner (you can see that in the first picture). That worked out well.

I didn’t think to take a before picture, but here’s the after:DSC01043

DSC01044

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How have you organized your closets?