Believe it or not (and this will be especially hard to believe if you've been inside my house) but I actually enjoy sorting out cupboards.
I don't get around to doing this sorting as often as I need to. By the time I've done the more urgent tasks of picking things up off the floor and tidying up surfaces (if these jobs get completed at all), I've usually run out of time for the deeper organising. I have started to schedule 'organising things' into my weekly schedule; it's one of many activities that I rarely get around to if I don't schedule it in advance.
I recognise that if I had better systems in place for storing items, I'd have to spend a lot less time picking things up from the floor and horizontal surfaces. Now that the children are at an age where they can be helpful, this is particularly true. They are getting good at 'pick up 15 items from the floor', but the activity would be even more successful if they knew where to store these items once they'd picked them up.
I don't seem to be a natural at figuring out good storage solutions. Until yesterday most of my stationery items were stored in zip-up plastic bags in this box:
If a system is to work for me, then I need to be able to find and put away anything in a couple of seconds. Obviously that wasn't working with the 'pile everything into one big box' method. In fact, I discovered no fewer than eight rolls of tape hidden between bags in that box as well as numerous pens and pencils of all descriptions, and lids that don't match any of them.
Another difficulty is that there's no Office World around here. I have been looking out for storage solutions though, and was happy to find a three-drawer storage box for sale second hand this week.
This is what the cupboard looks like now. It's not beautiful, but I'm very excited that every member of the family should now be able to find and put away stationery items. Note the 'spare lids' box; I've recently discovered how essential this is to keeping our felt/marker pen collection going!
Of course I won't really know how well this system is working until I take another picture in a month and see what it looks like then. It surely has to be an improvement on the big-box-pile in any case!
I don't get around to doing this sorting as often as I need to. By the time I've done the more urgent tasks of picking things up off the floor and tidying up surfaces (if these jobs get completed at all), I've usually run out of time for the deeper organising. I have started to schedule 'organising things' into my weekly schedule; it's one of many activities that I rarely get around to if I don't schedule it in advance.
I recognise that if I had better systems in place for storing items, I'd have to spend a lot less time picking things up from the floor and horizontal surfaces. Now that the children are at an age where they can be helpful, this is particularly true. They are getting good at 'pick up 15 items from the floor', but the activity would be even more successful if they knew where to store these items once they'd picked them up.
I don't seem to be a natural at figuring out good storage solutions. Until yesterday most of my stationery items were stored in zip-up plastic bags in this box:
If a system is to work for me, then I need to be able to find and put away anything in a couple of seconds. Obviously that wasn't working with the 'pile everything into one big box' method. In fact, I discovered no fewer than eight rolls of tape hidden between bags in that box as well as numerous pens and pencils of all descriptions, and lids that don't match any of them.
Another difficulty is that there's no Office World around here. I have been looking out for storage solutions though, and was happy to find a three-drawer storage box for sale second hand this week.
This is what the cupboard looks like now. It's not beautiful, but I'm very excited that every member of the family should now be able to find and put away stationery items. Note the 'spare lids' box; I've recently discovered how essential this is to keeping our felt/marker pen collection going!
Of course I won't really know how well this system is working until I take another picture in a month and see what it looks like then. It surely has to be an improvement on the big-box-pile in any case!
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