Last summer we joined the neighborhood pool for the first time. I had visions of going to the pool as much as humanly possible, coming home to a clean house, having dinner and putting some tired kids to bed. Ahhhh! Doesn't that sound nice? What a great summer vacation that would be! Doesn't that sound like a fairy tale?
Here's what happened "in real life":
We went to the pool as much as humanly possible. We came home to a messy house. We ate dinner that was sometimes planned, sometimes not. I put some tired kids to bed.....most of the time later than I wanted to.
Why was the house so messy unlike in my fairy tale? Well, probably because we live in it. But, I am digging deeper than that. Where I used to work, we did the "Five Whys"....you keep asking why until you get to the root cause. Let's do that, shall we?
Humor me.
1) Why is my house messy? Because I have kids. Because stuff is laying out everywhere.
2) Why is stuff laying out everywhere? Because I have kids. Because it has not been put away.
3) Why has it not been put away? Because it's a pain in the butt to put stuff away.
4) Why is it a pain in the butt? Because there is not a specific place for everything and we just shove it some place....and that's not very satisfying.
A HA! We don't even have to go for five whys. There is not a specific place for everything.
I love functional things that also look nice....by this I mean I love a good organizational system that is pretty and functional.
Where am I going with this? I am already thinking about the pool in January. Probably because our weather sucks right now. It's gray. It's wet. It's cold. There were tornado warnings last week. When will the madness stop? I need a pool day. Stat!
I want more organization and now is the time to do it....when the weather is gross and we are inside anyway.
Let's get started. Check out the cabinet under my kitchen sink.
Need to see more?
Yikes! That's just out of control. I've been in a hurry and have just been cramming stuff in there. What can we do about that?
First I took everything out of the cabinet and put it in piles of like items. Cleaners together, plastic wrap/foil/baggies together, grocery bags together, paper towels together, dish detergent together, etc.,
Last week I had a party and I bought a new pack of paper napkins. Look what I found hiding in the back of my cabinet! And, the ones I found were even nicer than the ones I bought. Money wasted!
I found stuff to give away. I don't even own a Swiffer any more and the self clean on my oven is fine without oven cleaner. These were just taking up space in my cabinet.
Next I looked around the house for containers or other things to use to compartmentalize stuff. I love organization products, but I love using stuff I have even more. Ironically, I bought some of these for another organization project.....
Here is something else I already had. Poor Vicky has been demoted to holding my old grocery bags. Hope she doesn't get her panties in wad over that.
On the other door I put all of the foils, wraps and sandwich bags.
Look how much neater! I put all of the like items in containers and fit them in the cabinet.
TA DA!!!!
This one was not quite so impressed.....in fact, he said "I'm not interested in cleaning and beauty." That's a direct quote. He better watch it because I think someone small, white and furry is interested in his cookie....
So there you have it folks. For the moment, my cabinet under the sink is clean and organized. It has stayed that way for 2 1/2 days with no effort. That's the kind of organization I need. The kind that works. If it's too hard to keep organized, something is not right and you should try again. So, let's see if this one sticks!
Stay tuned because slowly I'm getting ready for that pool day.
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