Instead of cleaning, decorateTrying to maintain both a beautiful interior, and a neat and organized home, can be a daunting endeavor. One of
worst mistakes that you can make when planning design of your residence is to arrange it in such a way that your decoration actually gets in way of maintaining tidiness. Some set ups may lead to accumulation of messes, actually working against home maker. It is, however, possible to arrange your home in such a way that it will naturally lend itself to organization, and will make job of home maintenance a little easier.
There are two kinds of messes that can mar your home; dirt, and clutter. Dirt, along with dust, grime, and mold are sickly substances that attach to walls, collect under furniture, and stain windows. Dirt is something you want to completely eliminate. For this, you should always plan your home’s design around expediting cleaning process; making elimination of these unhealthy substances as easy as possible.
Clutter, on other hand, is made up of items that you own, and is simply a result of them not being put in their proper place, or worse yet not having one. For this, your plan should be to develop a home with a flow in which objects will almost naturally end up in their proper places.
CLUTTER
Maintaining organization is key to a clutter free home. Some clutter is simply trash, and should be eliminated as swiftly as possible. This often includes old mail and outdated magazines. The easiest way to deter build up of expired clutter is to integrate a trash can into room’s décor. If it is a room that doesn’t lend itself to a trash bin, you can be creative with your receptacles. Almost anything from bright plastic containers, to elegant carved wooden chests can be used, especially if it will only be used for dry items. A good place to find fancy antique bins at a great price is a yard sale. Containers can be used as primary garbage cans, or can be used as a staging area where trash is deposited initially, and is then later transferred into a larger container.
Most clutter is made up of possessions that you want to keep. Generally your strategy should be to find a way to funnel these objects easily into a proper place. To do this you will first need to assess what your problem clutter is. These are objects that constantly turn up in wrong spots, creating that messy look. The type of clutter you have is usually determined by room you in and what its purpose generally is.
Once you have assessed problem objects, you need to develop a system of categories for different kinds of clutter in room. An easy way to do this is to divide items based on container where they will go. For instance, all paper goods go in drawer A, all plastic goods go on shelf B. Categorizing these objects in this way will greatly expedite cleaning process, whenever clutter builds up. Try to avoid being too specific; create broad categories that will be easy to remember and find. You can even try placing tasteful labels on containers, in places where they can’t be seen such as inside of a drawer or on back of a shelf.
The kind of container you use to store your items will be a major part of your decorative set up. Shelves are great for display items. They use height of room so they don’t take away from traffic flow, they allow items on them to be displayed in a highly visible manner, they allow you to categorize items based on different shelves, and their height protects higher-up objects from children. Drawers are perfect places for useful items with little decorative value. Cabinets work for temporarily displaying items. Opening door will reveal your beautiful collections, creating an almost instant transformation in your room.
