Autumn, while not officially here is upon us. The kids are back in their various Hudson County schools, and it’s time to get things organized. The Jersey City/Hoboken weather will be cooling, giving us the impetus to clean up, paint up and fix up! Here are some tips for organizing things in your home.
Almost everyone has at least one junk drawer. Instead of throwing things in haphazardly, make lots of compartments in it. Another thing many people have are small gift-type boxes that seem too nice to throw away, but don’t have a specific use. Take those boxes and clip them together inside your junk drawer to make it a multi compartment receptacle for various items.
You’re a frustrated chef who just knows you can become famous if Food Network would only come and taste your wares, but you don’t know what to do with your various saucepans and skillets. One solution would be a ceiling mount on which you can suspend long hooks for the pans. Another would be a pegboard on the wall with the larger holes and sturdier hooks for them.
Libraries are great. However, some people don’t want to return books once they have them in their hot little hands. They feel a need to purchase their books rather than borrow them. So where should they put these books once they buy them? Take a look at the doorway, perhaps between living room and dining room. Would some shelves for books be a nice frame for that doorway?
If you accumulate the plastic grocery bags you get at the supermarket so you can reuse them, storing them can be a problem. Someone has come up the the brilliant idea of using an empty tissue box. Just stuff them in, and reach in and grab one through the pop-up hole when you need one. Clever, no?
Another thing that can seem to multiply in your closet are handbags and purses. Accessories that match your shoes and such can pile up fast. Try using shower curtain hooks on a clothes bar in the closet. The bags can hang there, and be more accessible than they would stuffed in a box on the floor.
With children, keeping the crayons and other art supplies and small toys can be a real challenge. You can purchase various sizes of see-through plastic containers to hold crayons, paints & brushes, checkers, chessmen, and any number of toys. The kids can see what they’re getting, and not have to rummage through a huge toy box. These containers usually come with snap-on lids.
What organizational tricks of the trade do you like?
Edward