Everybody’s life is a little different and our needs vary. Based on the homes I’ve been in, however, these are things that everyone needs for easier, less stressful, more comfortable living.
5. Laundry hamper in every bedroom
We think that all the people in our home will take their clothes and towels and bedding to the laundry area, right? But how often are clothes all over the floor in our bedrooms and bathrooms? Instead, we place some kind of laundry hamper in each bedroom. An inexpensive laundry basket or mesh bag will work just fine to corral the laundry in between wash days. I really like a hamper on wheels for easy travel to the washer. If you're feeling extra organized, you can split up the loads as you go in this type of hamper, but I just dump everything in throughout the week, then sort it on laundry day.
4. Place for already-worn-but-not-quite-ready-for-washing clothes
Most of us wear our clothes more than once. We want to make sure we know which ones we’ve already worn so we end up with The Clothes Chair or, worse, piles all over the floor that we walk over with our dusty feet. How about instead we have a designated place for our in-between clothes? We can have a space on top of a dresser, a section of a closet shelf, or a hook on a door. Or, we can use the hanger method. If it’s clean enough to wear again, then it’s ok to hang back in the closet, so we simply flip the hanger so we know we’ve already worn it once.
3. Memory box
We all have stuff that we want to keep for the memory but we don’t want to put out on display. Many of us end up stashing these things in junk drawers and in the back of closets. Those treasured things end up rumpled, stained, or torn. Instead, we can use a memory box. It could be a button box or a foot locker. Whatever is handy will work. This helps protect our things and it serves to limit the amount of things we keep. Not all things are true treasures and having a set amount of space for our memorabilia helps us choose what we really value.
2. Landing/Launch pad
Many of us run around the house looking for our keys or wallet. We dig under the pile of mail or in the couch cushions, desperate. Instead, we all need a place where our out-the-door things go every day. Maybe it’s a big bowl on the kitchen counter, or a set of hooks by the door. If we get into the habit of putting our keys, wallet, purse, masks all in the same place every day, we save ourselves the scramble and stress of searching for our things.
1. Daily tidy to-do list for everyone
Our homes can get away from us pretty quickly if we don’t have a daily practice of care for them. All able people in a home need to be a part of that care. Maybe each person only makes sure to bring all the dishes into the kitchen each day and hangs their wet towels back up. Whatever the level, everybody has a hand in making a peaceful home. In that spirit, making a list of what needs to be done and who is going to do it will help us out a lot and, if you have young ones, teaches them how to care for their own homes someday. If you want some help starting that list, here's few charts for some basic tasks that could be done in your home.
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