How to Organize Your Home

Rhiannon: I'm looking for things in your home that you know you have but you just cannot find like your keys, maybe a remote, even an iPod, well, you’re not alone. The average person waste nearly an hour every single day doing just that. That’s why Lesley caught up with an author who can show us how to stop wasting our time and get organized.

Lesley: Here was Stacey Platt who is professional organizer and author of What’s A Disorganized Person To Do. She’s going to show us some one hour project and how to de-clatter our home. And I see we’re going to start with the kitchen sink. That’s pretty messy job, is not it?

Stacey: It’s usually for a lot of people. Most people have just all kinds of things looking under there.

First thing I like to do when I have people organize underneath the kitchen sink is take everything out. Clear the space completely. It’s good time to clean it so you can use like two parts water, one part soap. If you need a little extra scrubbing, you can add a little baking soda in there. And then I like to use vinyl flooring. It makes it look really nice. And if you spill, it’s very easy to clean up and it’s very inexpensive. It’s really easy and inexpensive thing to do.

Lesley: What is this for?

Stacey: Well, this is a great product to use under the sinks especially under the kitchen sink.

Lesley: Now, what about cleaners like is there a shelf life or should we be concerned about keeping them too long?

Stacey: There really is, yeah! First of all, when you’re looking to the scar like anything that’s changed its color and basically, products do not last much longer than three years, wood polish, silver polish, two to three years, bleach, laundry, detergent, six to nine months. In my book, there’s actually a whole chart on the shelf life of cleaning products.

Lesley: Well now, of course we’re in the bathroom and I see you’ve already organized the medicine cabinet, that looks gorgeous.

Stacey: Thank you. I want to start by containing little things. This, if left on the shelf, really just it looks so clutter than messy so I like to contain these things in these little acrylic containers. I always like to think about how to make use of unused space—give you access to all this vertical space. You can store stuff underneath, for instance bottles are too big to fit.

In the medicine cabinet, I encourage people to decant into smaller containers. This happens to be travel. Exactly! So, it saves time. And I like the magnetic strip. This is really neat.

Lesley: Also, a way to never misplace the tweezers.

Stacey: I also like to try to make use of other household objects. So for instance, this is a little shower curtain ring and I used it to store hair bands and use it to get one off and then with a little adhesive hook again, it’s making use of unused space.

Lesley: Now, I do not see any medicine in your medicine cabinet.

Stacey: That’s right. If you notice on most medicines, it says “Store in a cool dry place” so, the bathroom is actually neither cool nor dry. It’s humid. Yeah like better to store them in the kitchen, always out of the reach of kids.

Lesley: Now, of course another product you recommend is a travel box. What exactly is that?

Stacey: When you’re packing and it’s often quite stressful when you’re leaving town for a trip. And so the travel boxes go to place in your house where you have all your travel needs. I have of course my passport and a lifetime supply passport photos. I have my Homeopathic Jet Lag medication. I travel frequently to LA and India so I have a folder for each and India have Indian—currency for when I get off the plane, I have money. And then LA, I just keep things that I need when I go there. I think I was born with organizing gene.

Lesley: You’re born with organizing gene.

Stacey: I was born with an organizing gene.

Lesley: Really? Is everyone born with that?

Stacey: No. Some people are not born with organizing gene.

Lesley: And what do they do?

Stacey: Actually, organization is something that anybody can really easily learn.

Lesley: Is there any advice that you will give that would motivate someone to get more organized?

Stacey: I would. It’s true that a cluttered environment produces a cluttered mind. So, if we can un-clutter our space then our mind naturally follows.

Lesley: That’s a very good advice. Thank you so much.

Stacey: You’re welcome.

Lesley: And for Better, I’m Lesley. So Rhiannon, I got a question for you. Do you have the organize gene?

Rhiannon: Thanks Lesley. I definitely do not have the organizing jean. Lucky for me, my husband does.