What can you do in 15 minutes?
What can you do in 15 minutes to organize your kitchen? Many things! Just spending a little time each day can and will make a big difference!
What can you do today in 15 minutes? 
Clear out one cupboard - the other day, while I was watching Oprah, I decided to clear out our cup cupboard. This cupboard had been bothering me for some time. We had a bunch of old sippy cups and “to go” coffee mugs with no lids! It literally took less than 15 minutes to clear out. Even my husband noticed how organized it was! Get rid of the dishes you are no longing using, the dishes that are missing partners or are broken.
Purge the Junk Drawer - You don’t need to organize it all at one time, just take a few minutes to throw away anything you no longer need. Old menus, old notes, check for pens that no longer work.
Clear out the Utensil Drawer- I am so guilty of buying the latest and greatest utensil thinking I may use it. I have not once used my lemon zester! Time to take inventory, donate, and keep what you love and what you use!
Do One Large Sweep- Set the timer for 15 minutes and go through as many cupboards and drawers as you can and donate all of the old appliances you no longer need, want, or are broken.
Clean the surfaces of your refrigerator- Having a clean refrigerator makes a difference. I suggest taking out old food right before your trash day. Take a damp washcloth with a little soap and clean the spills.
Pantry- I hate to admit this, but sometimes food is wasted at our house. And it is always a good idea to check the pantry for stale potato chips and moldy bread. You can do this very quickly, and then take note of what did not get eaten and don’t buy it again! Or at least make sure the bread is eaten quicker!
Spices- Take a few minutes to do a little spice inventory, what do you have, what are you low on. Re-organize them. Sometimes depending on who is cleaning up the meal, the spices sometimes get put back in the wrong spot, now is the time, to make sure they are all together.
What are you going to do today?
Happy Organizing!
Organizing Products For The Utility Room!
We have a schedule. We know how and what to delegate to family members. The next step is to talk about organizing products for the utility room. I have seen a lot of utility rooms in my business. I have seen large rooms, small rooms, closets, and garage walls being used.
No matter how big or how small your area is there are some essentials in every utiltiy area. If you have anything to add to the list, please share!
Trash can – For the tags, dryer lint, and the misc. trash you may find in pockets. I was surprised how convenient it is to have a trash can in your utility area. I believe it is a must have! 
Bins to contain laundry supplies- Depending on your space, these can come in all shapes and forms. The point is to keep all like items together in one spot. For example one bin may contain all stain removers, one bin may be all laundry detergents. 
Lazy Susan – Can be very useful in utility rooms for items used frequently. It is an alternative from using a bin.
Think up- If you are working in a small space, look up, adding a couple of shelves can really make a difference in your storage space.
Think thin- The portable stacking shelves to the right can easily fit in between the washer and dryer. It doesn’t take much space, however you can fit all of the essentials.
Sorting Hampers – If you have the room, sorting hampers can contain your laundry. Rather than having a bunch of clothes on the floor, you can sort and put them in the hampers. If you are not able to finish all of the laundry like planned, it looks more contained and tidy.
Hanging Rack – You can buy inexpensive hanging racks for your utility room and then when you are done they fold easily in between the washer & dryer. 
Iron Organizer - You can find these that go on the back of the door or on the wall. Very handy to keep the iron and board together, without taking up a lot of space.
There are many great products available. The most important thing before buying product is to assess your needs and your space. Measure and know what is going into the product then buy.
All of the products shown can be found at The Container Store.
Happy Organizing!
Family and Laundry!
In the last post we talked about setting a schedule to get the laundry done. Now we focus on getting other family members involved in the process!
There have been many times in my home where I it was left to me to get this done. Now I have to say my dear husband is a great help and actually enjoys doing the laundry from time to time. And if someone has a nasty stain, he is the one to go too! But when I decided to get my children involved in the process, it really did made a difference. It actually took less time and the chore felt less daunting.
Depending on the ages of your children will factor on how much they can actually help. But I believe the earlier you start the better! Children has young as 2-3 years can help sort clothes.
Here are a few tips:
- Make it the child’s responsibility to bring the clothes to the utility room.
- Have your children sort the clothes by color. This is a great learning opportunity for smaller children. Have them separate towels from the clothes. What in this pile does not look like the others? So many great lessons to be learned!
- If your children are old enough- have them be responsible for their own laundry. My sister has two boys, both teenagers, she tells them, the weekends are yours, you do your laundry anytime during the weekend. If they don’t do it, they suffer the consequences. And believe me, they have! Unfortunately, so have the people around them!
- Once the laundry is complete, have every family member put their own clothes away. Set you your children’s closet and dresser drawers so this is easy for them to do. The top drawer is all socks and underwear, the middle is pajama’s, the bottom are pants and t-shirts.
- I have heard different ideas for the towel dilemmas we may encounter. One is to have each family member have their own color towel. Again, if your kids are older, they are responsible for their own towels. It eliminates any fighting between siblings. I also had a reader suggest towel charms for each family member. Another way to keep track of what belongs to whom.
- If you are teaching your kids to do the laundry, place a list of directions on how to run the washer and dryer. Have pre-made bags of detergent ready to go. Have a list of items that do not go into the dryer.
Tips on socks! This is a huge sore spot in my family! My husband wants to have the socks for everyone to be rolled up and put together. I understand this is easier. My issue is the time. I don’t have time to put everyone’s socks together. His argument is it takes time to find the matching sock. True. My solution: buy all the same kind of sock in the same colors, no more wondering if they match, because they are all the same. So the next time you go to buy socks, remember it will be easier if they are all the same! But we still have some issue with my daughters socks. I have delegated this matching and rolling socks to my husband. He is now in charge of socks. You can also delegate this task to your children. They may have a lot of fun, searching for the missing sock. You can also pin socks together before washing them. This makes it easy because they are never apart from each other.
How do you get your family involved? If you have a great tip, please share! We would love to hear from you!
Happy Organizing!
Coming up: Recommend products for your Utility Room!
Build a Laundry System!
Recently I asked my readers, “what is your biggest organizing challenge?” Laundry fell into the top 2 headaches we have in running our households!
We all have it and most of us dread it!
To eliminate the nagging feeling of when is the laundry going to get done… Think about creating a system for your laundry. Creating a system means creating a schedule.
Here are a few ideas to get you started!
- Decide on a schedule - do you prefer to do laundry during the week or leave it for the weekends? There are pros and cons for each. Doing a little each day means having your weekends free. On the flip side waiting until the weekend, means you do not have to worry about it during the week. Some like to do a little bit of laundry everyday. Others have designated days for different loads. For example; Mondays- towels, Tuesdays – adult clothes, Wednesdays- children’s clothes. The point is to have some kind of schedule you can follow as a guideline. This will not always be the same every week as schedules change, but it’s a good starting point.
- Once you set a schedule, make sure your family is aware. If you have decided Friday is the day, make sure all of the laundry is in by 8am! Family involvement will help maintain your system. More on this later.
- Do laundry from the beginning to the end. This does not matter if you haven chosen one day or every day of the week. Finishing from beginning to end means all clothes washed that day are put away. By making it a priority to complete the loads means you will not accidently leave anything in the washer! And your utility area will stay neater and be more organized!
- Make sure each family member has their own hamper. To eliminate some of the sorting, do the laundry by family member rather than putting all the clothes together. First load belongs to Suzy, second load belongs to Johnny, and so on. Buy hampers that are divided into sections. Teach your family to put the whites in one section, darks in another. It can eliminate you from doing all of the sorting.
Quick Tip: Some will say to start your washer before you leave for work, and then when you come home, put in the dryer. Well, I am one to not recommend this. About 2 years ago, we had a flood in our house due to the washer machine. The water never stopped filling up. I was home, so I lucky caught it in time to where it did not cause too much damage..I can’t even imagine if I was not home, what the outcome would have been. My tip: Run all of your appliances, washing machines, dryers, and dishwasher only when you are home!
What is your system at home? Do you have something to share? Believe me, mom’s all over are looking for ideas! We would love to hear yours!!
NEXT BLOG POST: Getting your family involved in helping with the laundry!
Coming Up at TCO!
I am trying something new. I wanted to bring a little more structure to my blog posts. So for the next few weeks I have chosen different themes to talk about for the week.
This week, I am going to be discussing The Laundry Room! When I asked mom’s to tell me their biggest challenges, this was one that came up over and over again!
Starting Monday, February 1st, read about: Laundry Systems. Coming up: Family & The Laundry, and Recommended Products.
If there is a particular topic you would like to see … Please let me know…You can comment on this post, you can send me a note on my site, you can send me a direct message at nikki@takecontrolorganizing.com, or send me a direct message on Twitter@TCOrganizing. Let me know! And I’ll keep working to make this site a destination for organizing tips and tools that help you keep your house in order!
Happy Organizing!
