Summer Organizing Time!

Denise Caron-Quinn

by: Guest Blogger Wendy W Himes

Summer is upon us, and that means it’s time to clean up, clean out, and open our homes up to friends and family for some wonderful barbeques! But does the prospect of getting organized sound worse than going on a diet? Do you feel overwhelmed by your house? Garage? Bedroom? Closets? And are you reluctant to have friends and family over because of it?

Enjoy summer, enjoy your friends, and enjoy your home this season! We all get overwhelmed sometimes by our house (yes, even organizers) but here are some things we can learn to control the clutter with.

First, purge each room (one at a time) of unnecessary clutter, and pile items according to where they are going. Where they belong. EVERYTHING belongs somewhere. Decide if it is to keep, for Goodwill, or the trash. Be careful what you keep… purging each room is necessary so that when you realize that you have 9 sweaters that are too nasty to be seen outside of the house in, you will get rid of 8 of them. Line up Goodwill the next day for what you are getting rid of so that you won’t change your mind and go pilfering through your own charity pile. Do the room that is causing you the most stress first so that you can see positive results quickly and feel less overwhelmed.

Those large items that you are keeping might need to be stored. Here is the fun part. Now that you’ve created piles of the things that you want to keep and have decided where they belong, we get to go shopping! Make sure that you have measured the spaces where these containers will go first. One of my favorites is the under-the-bed-boxes. These long under-the-bed containers are wonderful for children’s art, memorabilia and old historical magazines that you want to keep for your children down the road.

Get clear, lidded boxes for under everyone’s beds, the garage, the closet, basement, crawl space, etc. You can use them for winter clothes, next year’s sized clothes for children, DVD’s for under the couch, Christmas decorations and one for each other holiday. (Seriously, if you have 4 Halloween boxes, you need to purge.) You can also get creative here and use antique boxes, (which I use everywhere at home), cute paper covered boxes, old wood boxes and brightly colored milk crates to use for toys in play areas. These colored crate/boxes are usually more appealing to the eye in children’s areas, and you can direct your children to put toys into these colored boxes by category. Say all dolls in this red box and all guns and swords in this blue one over here, etc.

I have put 15 fabulous boxes at my house that each store different items and no one is the wiser! When a decorative box has doubled for storing something not quite so decorative, I have beat the paper tiger!

I love to make my home and time work for me, and my clients’ home and time work for them. And you will love having an organized house for summer. When you are done getting it ready and feel tired but happy, have that summer bar-b-que.

I love to make my home and time work for me, and my clients’ homes and time work for them. And you will having an organized house for summer! When you are done getting it ready and feel tired but happy, have that summer bar-b-que! And find me on http://www.pieceofcakeorganizing.weebly.com or on Pinterest.

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