With the new year, you might have renewed determination to get better organized and to find better ways to store items around your home. There’s a reason that January is Get Organized Month! It just feels good to start off a new year with a new system. Here are five household tasks to tackle in the new year for better storage and organization in your home.
Food Storage Containers
How many mismatched food storage containers and lids do you have? Chances are you don’t know. You probably also spend a lot of time just trying to find a lid that matches and fits the container. Have you ever been bombarded by containers falling out of a cabinet or had to get down on your hands and knees to find the one you need that’s under a counter?
Food storage containers can really help you get better organized but they need to be organized themselves. If you have a large drawer in your kitchen, designate that for your plastic containers – and their lids. Either stack them according to size or store them with the lids attached, if you have room.
You can also use non-kitchen types of containers to keep storage containers and lids together. For example, lightweight acrylic trays or nicely decorated book bins can be kept in a drawer or cabinet for storing containers that match with their lids.
The Linen Closet
You might also struggle with finding matching towels and washcloths or sheets and bed pillows. You have a linen closet to store these items, but you are frustrated with having to dig through the pile each time you’re looking for a towel, sheet, or blanket. One of the major household tasks to tackle in the new year is to take a close look at your linen closet and decide if you really need or want everything you’ve stacked up in it.
Experts suggest that you have two to three bath towels (and matching washcloths) per household member and two sets of sheets (with matching pillowcases) for each bed in the home. Only keep the blankets and quilts you really use and that are in good shape. Purging old, unused items from your linen closet will free up room on the shelves.
Additionally, you can use containers to store each room’s linens. Label those containers with names such as “master bedroom sheets” or “guest room towels” to make it easier to find just the items you need. Consider donating linens that are in good shape, but that you don’t use or need anymore.
The Kitchen Junk Drawer
The first challenge here is that the drawer is referred to as a “junk” drawer. You may even have more than one. It’s the catch-all drawer where everything goes when you don’t know what else to do with it. Storing various items in one drawer in your kitchen is not a bad thing, if you can find what you need when you need it.
The first step in this household task to tackle in the new year is to empty the drawer completely. Then make sure the flashlights still light up, the pens still write, and the tape still sticks. Toss anything broken, such as old sunglasses, or outdated, such as old lip balm. File receipts if necessary or toss them if you no longer need them. Place what’s left in neat sections, perhaps using one of those food containers that has lost its lid to hold smaller items. Purge this drawer at least once a month to keep the “junk” from piling up again.
Bathroom Cabinets
How often do you look inside your bathroom cabinet? Are there bottles of aspirin or containers of cold medicine that have been in there for a while? Do you have expired makeup that you haven’t used since the pandemic began? As part of your resolution to focus on household tasks to tackle in the new year, give your bathroom cabinets a purge.
Throw out anything that has expired, including makeup, skin-care items, cold medicines, and other medications. Clean the surfaces of the cabinet, inside and out. Only put those items back in that you really should be storing in the bathroom. For example, items such as medication and some skin-care products that are sensitive to heat and moisture should not be stored in the bathroom.
Kitchen Cabinets
Your kitchen is probably the one room in your home where you and your family spend the most time. It may also be the most cluttered room. Cabinets that are full of canned goods and boxes of food that you might try “one day,” pots and pans that are randomly stacked, and cleaning supplies that have dried out or that you haven’t used in a while can fill up quickly.
Storage and organization are critically important to keeping your kitchen neat and clean. Take the time to sort through the items in each cabinet. Decide whether they need to be discarded or just arranged in a better way. Do you have a collection of mix packets for soup or gravy that always get lost among the canned goods? Are you constantly looking for sandwich bags or paper plates? Use plastic or acrylic containers for separating and keeping similar items together, to keep your kitchen cabinets better organized.
Fox Moving & Storage Chattanooga Can Help with Your Next Move
When you are cleaning and organizing in preparation for a move, the experts at Fox Moving and Storage can help! We are your trusted local moving professionals with experience in planning, packing, and moving, safely and efficiently. We take every precaution necessary to ensure your move is seamless and worry-free. Contact us today to learn more. You can also call us at 423-855-7000 for a free, no-obligation quote!