It is that time of year when I get antsy and want to get rid of clutter and reorganize my life. I came across the blog idreamofclean.net via Pinterest, and I’m joining iDreamofClean and 9 other bloggers in the Spring Cleaning Challenge for a chance to win some incredible prizes! My home is in desperate need of some spring cleaning, and so here are a few of the areas I plan to tackle this next week!
How To Get Pee Stains Out of Mattress
Kitchen
Today, let’s tackle what you can do about all the shoes and papers in your life. Both items seem to take over my house and constantly drive me nuts, especially paper to the point of wishing there were no more trees to hack down!
Shoes, you gotta have them unless you live in a tribe somewhere in the Amazon, and Maryland is far from a jungle in that sense. I kept all our shoes in a big red tub, but this did NOT work for me on several levels. The main reason I did not like the basket idea was my nice shoes got scuffed up by all the kid and work shoes in the tub. I also wanted my kids to learn to put their shoes away nicely, and to not simply throw them in a pile like they were trash. I did not have a coat closet to use or even a usable space in my entry way, and the pre-made shoe cubicles would not fit my husband’s Army boots. I ended up getting a Closetmaid 9 Cube 36″ dark wood laminate cabinet. It was not designed specifically to store shoes, but it works perfectly for what I needed. You can get it in oak, white, maple or even dark wood color like mine. My kids now have a designated place in which to put their shoes, and that creates ownership and pride in their belongings. The cabinet is big, but then again we have a lot of shoes.
Solving my shoe problem oddly enough also solved my paper problem. Without use of more space in my house, I used one cubicle area to store my papers. I used a blue bin I bought at Target that fit perfectly. For the paperwork I needed to save and file away, I put it in the blue bin. Once the bin gets full I have a couple of other bins, and so I put a new one that is empty. The full bin goes down into our office to get filed away. This system works great to keep paper off my dining room table and other surfaces that were always littered with important papers.
Solving this shoe and paper clutter problem did not cost much and keeps my house much cleaner. My kids now know where to put their shoes, and we spend less time looking for a lost shoe when it comes time to leave. If you have a paper or shoe problem, then this easy and inexpensive idea could work for you too!
Tomorrow, I plan to talk about my builder-grade bathroom. This bathroom has no drawers or storage space of any kind. I will talk about everything I did with all the hair stuff, the medicines, the make-up, and other bathroom clutter. I came up with an inexpensive idea to make my bathroom items more accessible, and I did not need to break the bank to do it.
XOXO Amee
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