11 storage rules that will help you clean less often

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We write a lot about how to clean. But cleanly not where they clean, but where they do not litter. How to organize storage of things so that you have to clean up to a minimum? This article provides general guidelines to help answer the question.

1. Have you bought it? Throw it away

No, not buying directly into the trash can. When you decide to bring a new thing into the house, you need to make room for it. Sometimes for this you need to throw something out. And do not think that you have nothing to throw out. How many things do you have in case "What if tomorrow is war?" Will old boots help you in war? To put something new, you need to throw out the old one. How to get rid of junk, we wrote many times.

Naturally, this does not apply to all situations. For example, if you have moved to a new apartment, it is difficult to throw something out of it. But when your home is complete and you are about to buy something else, you need to think about a place for things. This is especially true for T-shirts, shoes and mugs. If your hands are reaching out to buy a new one, conduct an audit to throw out one.

Again, no fanaticism. Jewelry does not need to be taken to a pawnshop, and books should be handed over to the library. Collections of things are great if you use them all the time and have a separate storage space.

2. The order starts at the corners

The organization of any home begins with the organization of warehouses. Garage, basement, attic, storage room, mezzanine. Reconsider what lies in them, and ruthlessly throw away everything that bothers you. A lot of space will be freed up. If you live in a small apartment, you need to periodically shake up drawers, cabinets and all dark corners littered with things that you do not use.

When thinking about the layout of things, move from general to specific, considering several levels of storage:

• For general use. It has its own specificity, because people constantly pass through these places in crowds. And if everyone uses the same closet, someone will definitely ruin the orderly order. Therefore, shared storage systems should be as simple and convenient as possible.
• Personal space. Here, no matter how hard you try, unification will not help. Everyone will work the way they want.
• Small spaces. These are separate boxes and boxes, spaces under sinks, and so on. In them, you can also arrange things in a separate order.

3. You can buy a wardrobe, but you cannot buy an order

There is a trap in the quest for good organization of space that is easy to fall into when shopping. If you are looking at storage systems and are going to purchase some magic cabinet with a million ergonomic shelves, you think that it will solve all problems.

You don't think that just the very fact of buying a simulator will force you to train every day?

Storage systems are a great solution, but you need to choose them based on the parameters of the house and your habits. And remember that the most ultra-modern projects will not put things in place and take out the trash without your participation.

4. Number and number again

If you are well into your thirties and your job has nothing to do with technology, you may still only keep what you can hold in your hands. It's time to move things into virtual space.

You won't be able to scan your skis and gear, but a lot of what fills your boxes can be digitized.

Again, we're not trying to change the line if you like the smell of the pages or the sound on vinyl. But, if you are not a collector, it's time to move to e-books and cloud storage.

Digitization will save you from the deposits of documents and photos in albums that will fit on a hard drive or in your folder in the cloud storage.

5. Grouping - the beginning of order

When deciding where to store things, group them, stack like and like. The more logical and simpler you can distribute objects into groups, the easier it will be to live with them and maintain order.

Collect items in your home by type and store them next to each other. You will surely have items that defy classification. Here for them you will create a separate box "Miscellaneous and sundry".

6. Your place

It is not enough to consider how often an object is used and to which group it should be assigned. Some things may have their own storage conditions. Something should not be left in a humid room, some under the sun's rays, some require good ventilation. Find packaging for every item in your home that meets these requirements.

7. Without fanaticism

It's easy to overdo it when organizing space in your home. Each nail does not need to be put in a separate box if you only have five nails and two screws in your house. Too rigid separation of groups of things leads to the fact that it takes too much time and effort to maintain the space in the correct form. Sorting mugs by color is already a sign of disorder, not a love of order.

8. All moves are recorded

Do you want everything to be neat, safe and sound? Fine. Have to go through all the drawers, boxes and shelves in search of one scarf? So-so perspective.

Now imagine that all supplies, for example, toothpaste, are in the cabinet on the left side, and on the left door is written: "Toothpaste, soap, shower gel, shampoo." The search is simplified - this time. It is more convenient to immediately put things back in place after purchase - that's two. Well, you always see when the stocks of one are coming to an end - that's three.

Storage labeling is a must, especially when it comes to seasonal clothing and long-term storage items. If you have a box with something very important under your bed for years, but you no longer remember what it is, take it out and write what is inside.

9. Keep things where they can come in handy

It seems that this is advice from the Captain Obvious, but no one does it anyway. Keep a collection of scarves close to your front door so you can choose an accessory before you leave, and hide the camping gear that you last retrieved a few years ago. This will make it easier to put things into place.

A consequence of this rule: things must be moved throughout the year between different rooms and shelves, depending on the season.

10. Everything according to plan

Doing a five-year plan over the weekend sounds tempting. But you won't be in time. True, the correct organization of space is not done in two days, it needs to be thought over and introduced in stages.

Gaps in the ergonomics of the apartment appear gradually. Sometimes we don't even see the mess until we come close to this place and try to find something there. Today you didn’t hang up your jacket, because it’s inconvenient to hang it, yesterday you spent half an hour looking for the right document, which was in the wrong drawer, the day before yesterday you got a bump when you opened the closet door and got caught in a collapse of things. Solve problems as they arise. Make a plan for transforming the apartment (at least for a year ahead, no one is rushing you) and do everything in turn.

Go through the house from time to time with a pencil and notepad. Draw a floor plan and use a marker to mark the areas where debris accumulates most and debris forms. Deal with them first.

11. View from the side

If your sofa has been standing in one place for the last 10 years and every morning you start with the fact that you touched this very sofa with your little toe, maybe it makes sense to change something in the arrangement of things?

Collect opinions. If you do not live alone, then other family members also have their own ideas about what and where should lie.

Do you know that everyone has a friend whom you can come to at any time of the day and find that the house is perfectly clean? Ask how he does it. Repeat.

If, of course, he does not scrub the floors for two hours a day, this is no longer a life hack.:)