Organizing tips for your most private spaces
What are you hiding behind closed doors?
Quick, what’s the last place in your house that you’d want to show off for visitors? You know, the one room that’s always messy, purely utilitarian, and generally off-limits to anyone but close family members?
Most of us wouldn’t answer “laundry room,” because we hardly even think of that space as a proper room. It’s more of a necessary evil — a little bit of square footage that we grudgingly devote to a dreaded chore that never ends. For most of us, the best thing about the laundry room is the solid door that keeps it shut off from the rest of the house.
Well, one intrepid blogger did the unthinkable: She opened the door to her laundry room and let the whole world see it on the Internet. As you’d expect, it was a truly ugly space full of paint cans, empty buckets, bug spray and brooms.
Naturally, the point of this public humiliation was to show what a laundry room could be with just a little effort (and even less money). I’m a sucker for before-and-after photos, but this one takes the cake. The new laundry room has wicker baskets, glass jars, framed prints, and even flowers. The whole project cost just $3 (unbelievable!) – and it might make laundry day just a little more pleasant. (Organized Mom)
If you’re not quite ready to tackle the laundry room, how about your bedroom closet — another one of those spaces where you’re probably happy to shut the door and hide the mess. Here’s a great post with the before-and-after photos that I love, plus lots of step-by-step tips for a more rational, organized closet. The goal is to save time by making everything available at a single glance, as opposed to the daily “scavenger hunt” that some of us face. And the three guiding principles or this organizing project — prioritize, compartmentalize and standardize – can apply to any room in the house. (Simply Organized by Design)
And speaking of hiding your mess, have you ever seen those refrigerators with glass doors? What kind of sick mind invented those? I mean, glass-front cabinets are stressful enough, so I can’t imagine trying to keep the contents of my refrigerator all perfectly arranged for public display.
Well, here’s an interesting post on organizing your fridge, but it has nothing to do with aesthetics. Instead, Andrea Dekker says you can actually save money by organizing your food according to temperature, because the top shelves can be 10 to 12 degrees warmer than the drawers at the bottom (especially if you have a side-by-side model). If you notice that some of your food is spoiling quicker than it should, check out this post and start rearranging! (Simple Organized Living)
Photo credit: SimmiSimons via iStockphoto
