Everyone is talking about universal design and barrier free renovations these days. A visit to your favorite home improvement store will give you tons of ideas and you will be brimming with enthusiasm. The perfect design is right at your fingertips. However, remodelingis expensive and not something to tackled in a haphazard fashion. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that a little organization might be all the help you need, and it will get you through those awkward in-between stages.
Start in the kitchen. The kitchen is the busiest room in the house and it probably the most “lived in” one too. Whether it is a total disaster or just mildly messy is all in the way you look at it. No matter how careful you are the counters, cabinets and drawers all become repositories for things that you want to keep out of sight. Junk drawers and “Fiber McGee” closets are laughable when you see them in favorite sitcoms but not so funny when you are trying to find something. Lapses in housekeeping 101 skills are a part of life and they happen to the best of us.
Take off your blinders and take a good look at your kitchen. Do you have to rearrange the shelves in order to find the box of spaghetti hidden behind the soups? Do you have six boxes of opened cereals? Do plastic lids and containers tumble out when you open the pantry door? It may be time to reclaim some of that space. Stop saving every plastic container that comes home from the store, store the lids in one plastic storage bag, and stack the containers neatly. It will help, at least until next time.
Get rid of some of those dishes. I am willing to bet that you have old dishes, new dishes and company dishes in the cupboard. Keep your favorites and use the good set for everyday. Bundle up the extra sets and give them away; someone else needs them more than you do. When you have pared your dishes and your pots and pans down to a respectable number, rearrange the rest so that you can reach them all easily. No more standing on chairs to get to the top shelf for you.
Try storing aluminum foil, sandwich baggies and wax papers all in one place. Keep cooking supplies together and near the stove, but not necessarily in that drawer under the oven. You shouldn’t have to get down on your hands and knees to find the right pots and pans, and we won’t even mention the number of times something gets stuck in there.
You probably still want to remodel the kitchen because who can resist the customized cabinets that you saw at the home improvement depot. Modern cabinetry is wonderful. All of those pull-outs, pull-downs and slide out areas will make you smile from ear to ear; in the meantime just remember no crawling into, or reaching up for things that you use every day. Buy half a dozen “lazy susan” carousels instead and twirl away.
Clutter doesn’t accumulate overnight and it isn’t going to go away over night, but if you get rid of everything that you don’t need and make sure everything else is easily accessible, you will have taken a big step. Remodeling could very well be your next step, but remember that putting in new cabinets will not solve the problem if you still have “too much stuff”. If you can’t be ruthless yourself; hire an expert who actually does this kind of thing for a living.
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