Bathroom Organization 101
Bathrooms can be either an inviting sanctuary or a cluttered minefield of bath products and beauty gadgets.
How do you keep them looking and functioning their best?
Start by making over your makeup. Separate your face-wares into two zones: the first should contain your “basic everyday face” makeup and the second should hold everything else. The purpose of this is to help you reach your essentials without rummaging through everything else. Do regular purges and wipe down your makeup as you go each day.
Stop the product overflow. It’s advisable to have one bottle backup of any product, but not to have five million bottles piling up with a little bit left in each one. Use all of these leftovers before buying any more! You’ll save money and de-clutter your space by getting rid of those excess bottles. You don’t need any more than one shampoo, one conditioner, one soap/shower gel, one shaving cream and one razor (per person) in the shower at any one time. If you received bath products for the holidays, just pick one product to use at a time. Store everything else out of sight.
Containerize basic supplies. Create more cohesive looking medicine cabinets, countertops and drawers by transferring basic supplies to clean, sanitized glass jars, which are perfect places to house cotton balls, cotton swabs and makeup sponges. Put small plastic containers in the drawers to house such things as contacts and extra razors. Your top drawer should contain those items used daily, including your brush, hair clips, hand mirror and your “basic face” makeup kit. Limit hair clips to those used most frequently and put all others in another storage zone.
Keep cabinets under the sink easy to navigate by using open baskets and plastic bins to group similar items. One container can hold all hair-styling tools. Another can store backup bath products. By maintaining zones under the sink instead of using a“one big melting pot” approach, you’ll more easily locate items. Wal-mart and Ikea have the best pricing on plastic bins, as do local basket shops. In the meantime, repurpose sturdy shoe or product boxes until you can beef up your collection of plastic containers.
With a little effort you can tame your bathroom.
By Maraya Pearson
Pearson, a resident of Westchase, is a professional organizer, specializing in home and life organization. More information about her can be found at www.healthyhomeceo.com.
Using Cooking Countdown for a Relaxed Thanksgiving
Is part of you dreading your annual hosting of Thanksgiving Dinner?
If you plan on hosting a gathering of pilgrims this month, there’s no need to fret. With a little organization, you can be that relaxed host or hostess that you have always aspired to be.
The single most important way to get organized for Thanksgiving dinner is to have a solid menu tied to a “cooking countdown” schedule. A countdown schedule simply entails investing some time before Thanksgiving Day to write out a meal plan and estimate the preparation and cooking durations for your dishes. Once you’ve got your plan, you’ll breeze through Thanksgiving Day and you’ll never go without one again.
Here’s how to do it. Before you make your schedule, first finalize which dishes you want to serve. Next, gather the recipes and look up their preparation and cooking times. Now take a sheet of paper and segment it into 15- or 30-minute increments or download the printable Thanksgiving Prep list at www.healthyhomeceo.com. First write in the time you want to sit down and eat, whether it is 3 p.m. or 6 p.m. With meal time now relatively set in stone (don’t worry – you still can have a degree of flexibility), you then work back along your schedule, writing down when each dish needs to be prepped, moved, cooled, heated or tossed; simply base your scheduling on their prep and cooking times. When Thanksgiving Day arrives, use your game plan and watch the meal come together effortlessly.
Even if you’ve served Thanksgiving dinner before, this technique will still prove valuable. First, it will make you stop and consider new recipes. Second, you’ll come away free of that nagging feeling that something is missing, which always happens when we rely solely on a loosely configured plan.
This year, use your cooking countdown plan and leave your mind free to do what’s most important during holidays – connecting with friends and family.
By Maraya Pearson
Pearson, a resident of Westchase, is a professional organizer, specializing in home and life organization. More information about her can be found at www.healthyhomeceo.com.
Take Your Closet from Crummy to Clean
Is your closet so messy you wish you could just stuff it into the back of a closet somewhere?
An overabundance of clothing and a basic neglect of hanging items back up cause much disorganization in many American bedrooms. October’s organizing challenge is to clean out your closet!
If your closets are a total disaster, start your organizing efforts by making room. After purging moth-ridden pieces and/or relocating the seasonal items, categorize and put everything away. Then use the following suggestions to keep your closets clutter-free.
Hang your clothes! Billions of people lack adequate clothing, so show yours respect. Hang your clothes or put them in a drawer immediately. Have discipline, turn the TV off and do a marathon folding session if needed. There should be no clothing piles anywhere in the house.
Install a series of hooks. To get items off the floor, install nice hooks for frequently accessed items such as robes, lingerie, purses and belts. Go to your local hardware store to acquire materials.
Categorize like with like. This basic organizing concept is key to finding things quickly. Sleeveless tops go with other sleeveless tops, pants go with pants and skirts with skirts. It’s easy to maintain this structure once zones are created. If budget permits, upgrading to all matching hangers also works visual wonders in a closet!
Get over old things. Regularly give away or consign clothes that are no longer used. It is better to give to others than to hoard unused items. A trick is to turn your hangers the opposite direction. After wearing an item, turn the hanger back around. At the end of the year, it will be obvious which items should be given away, relocated or sold.
Get your shoes out from underfoot. Use racks and hangers to organize your shoes. Stay reasonable and go with quality over quantity.
Use specialty hangers to maximize space. Use pants and skirt hangers that hold up to six bottoms at a time to free up several feet of space. You can find them at your local home supplies retailer.
By Maraya Pearson
Pearson, a resident of Westchase, is a professional organizer, specializing in home and life organization. More information about her can be found at www.healthyhomeceo.com.