Cleaning House

Admittedly, you probably don't want to read about the enormous task of cleaning my house top to bottom. Fair enough - I don't really want to write about it either! What I am trying to work out is how to make house cleaning easier. I figure that if our house is de-cluttered and everything is organized (as in everything has a place to be put back to) then cleaning would take less time and we would be less likely to avoid it.

Much easier said than done. For some reason I started the de-clutter and organize process with our junk drawer. Big mistake. It is mainly tools and loose nails and screws. It took forever to clean out, but now I am left with a bunch of things that clearly don't belong in the same drawer. Worse is that I have nowhere else to put them right now. So, they will sit on the floor beside the drawers until I can get to the store for some much needed items.

Here is my de-clutter and organize shopping list:

• hooks for hanging bags (ie. our dish cloth/towel laundry bag)
• small containers for collections of small things (ie. coin rollers, batteries, etc.)
• medium containers for collections of larger things or larger quantities of things (ie. candles, first aid supplies/medications, etc.)
• large rubbermaid totes for those larger items that never seem to have a place (ie. Adam's fishing gear, my craft supplies, pet supplies that aren't in use, gardening supplies that aren't in use, etc.)
• more 'under the bed' storage bins for seasonal clothing items or camping items
• baskets
• a magnetic container we can attach to the fridge to store spare pens (I remember having something like this for my locker when I was in school)

I think that's it. It sounds like a lot, but it will really help to have all surfaces de-cluttered and organized so things don't get left sitting on the coffee table for months for a lack of somewhere better to put them.