Organising Tip: A Place For Everything

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Day 7 of #Write28Days Challenge

“A place for everything and everything in its place.”

This is to me, the most important tip in keeping our homes in order. The saying has been credited to Benjamin Franklin but no one is sure.

A Place for Everything

This saying is especially helpful for managing our homes and it helps to make housework easier to manage.

Organising Your Home

As much as you can, work towards organising your home in such a way that allows daily housework to be done in an easier manner so that you can work efficiently.

While we cannot change the physical structure of our homes (unless you are moving to a new home or are embarking on a major renovation project), we will have to work with what we have.

So we need to start by thinking through on what we want each room/area to do. And then think of how to best use that space. Once that is done, we can decide what items go into that space.

Declutter First

But before we can even think of organising, we need to do the dreaded decluttering. Yes, I know most people detest this word because it means they have to part with what they own.

But as Marie Kondo says, if it doesn’t spark joy, why keep it? Space is of a premium here in Singapore. And when you have a larger than a 2-child family, even more so.

Clutter cannot be organised and it shouldn’t have a place in our homes. It just provides a surface for dust to settle on, adding to your housework load.

Related Post: Decluttering Tips and Ideas

Organise Like-with-Like

Once you have decluttered, we should organise like items with other like items. For example, all our homeschool stuff goes into the homeschool corner/cupboard/room.

Sure, sometimes this is physically impossible. Like when we lived in our previous 2-bedroom apartment, we had bookshelves all over the house but the books belonged inside the bookshelves.

Homeschool books belong to the homeschool shelves. Fiction books belong with the other fiction books. Homeschool supplies (stationery/manipulatives) are kept on their own shelves.

Toys and board games belong in their own boxes or bags.

Medication and vitamin supplements belong in their own cabinets. And so do toiletries.

Everything Has Its Own Home

This is how we have everything housed in its own space. This is very helpful for not just you but for everyone because now they do not have to keep asking you where things are (well….one can always hope!)

In this way, when you do the nightly pick up (3-basic-rules-for-clean-home), all the items have a place to go “home” to at the end of the day. It will progress very much faster than everything being shoved into a corner or place.

No Piles

Sometimes the children leave stuff out because they really do not know where these items should go. This is especially so after a birthday or Christmas party.

Even for us, notice how we usually leave things in a pile (especially paperwork!) because we have no idea what to do with them? Having everything in its own place solves this issue.

Tip for paperwork: start a file and label it. Then at the end of the day or week, go through the file and process all the paperwork at one go. And try to opt for digital updates.

Less Impulse Spending

Hopefully, having everything in its own place also means that you will know at once if the item you are eyeing should make its home with you. You will know if you have space for it. Hopefully, this will reduce any impulse spending and save you money.

Tomorrow I will write about the resources we need to manage housework and homeschooling.

See you!

Related Posts

No, I Don’t Need a Larger House
Minimalist But Not By Choice

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