Create convenient storage solutions

You want to find the best “home” for all items in your home. If items do not have a home, they become clutter. All items need to have a purpose, be used or loved, and have a home. Otherwise, why do we have them?

When trying to organize your home, you may move items from one area in a room to another, or one room to another.

Have you ever…

Relocated items from one place to another, and within a few days, those items have returned to the place where you had moved them from?
Been “cleaning up” or “straightening up” around the house and moved items that belonged to another family member and then that person gets upset and puts the items back where they originally had them?
Moved items and then forgot about them (unpaid bills, greeting cards to mail, items to take to the dry cleaners, etc.)?
Decided that you think some items in your home should be stored in a certain location, but other family members never return them to that location?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, take a deep breath and read on.

What’s the secret to end such madness? Create convenient storage solutions. Stop relocating the items and create storage where the items tend to end up anyway. If the storage solution or location is inconvenient, it will be not be used.

You may want everyone’s shoes to be stored in their bedroom closets. But if it doesn’t happen, create shoe storage by the doorway. You may really want all the toys to remain in your child’s bedroom. However, they always end up in the living room, so create a storage solution for toys in the living room (e.g. a storage ottoman that doubles as a coffee table, or a storage bench that can also be used for extra seating).

For me, I wanted an more organized way to store incoming mail and paperwork. I prefer for paperwork to be in the office; however, my husband likes to work on stuff in the living room and if his to-do items are not in sight, they are out of mind. He prefers for papers he needs to look at, bills we need to pay, etc., to be either on the kitchen table or the coffee table.

My solution: Two attractive paper trays that sit on the coffee table. The top tray is his to-do pile. I place items there that he needs to do something with. The bottom tray is for filing. When he is done with a paper, but we need to keep it, he places it in the bottom tray, and then I know to file it in the office.

This system works great for both of us. The papers are not scattered all over the coffee table, but they are still where my husband can easily access them. The paper trays offer a convenient storage solution.