A Labelled Bin Gets Filled Up With all The Right Things
If you’d asked ten years ago whether I’d ever label my foods or toiletries, I’d have said heck, NO! I like to think I straddle the type A and type B personalities, appreciating order, but in a comfortable, low-maintenance way. To me labels were not worth the extra time and effort. But then I had kids, and things changed.
I never imagined these little people would bring so much new stuff into my home. It started accumulating at such a rapid rate that kid items quickly took over every room of the house. Daily loads of laundry piled up, and clothes and toys became outgrown, stained, or broken in the blink of an eye. My first response was to embrace having less, letting fewer things into the home and being faster to get things out of the home when they were no longer useful. Then, when my husband and I were both working full-time, I increased the frequency of hired help around the house. But that still wasn’t enough. I finally decided to give labels a try and that’s when everything finally clicked.
For anyone struggling to maintain a clutter-free home and to all the parents who have confessed their houses look clean on the surface (thanks to hired help) but are impossible to find things in when you need them, I highly recommend labels. Here are just a few of the ways I’ve found they make a huge difference:
They define a designated spot. This may seem obvious, but it’s a slippery slope of stuffing all your toiletries into a cupboard before four people’s worth of items all get mixed together and you don’t even know what you have anymore and can’t find anything, even if you have crazy amounts of it.
They make finding and putting things away easier. When things have a designated place, you don’t have to think twice about where to put them away. So even when lots of things have been taken out and used, the idea of tidying it all up is less overwhelming.
They help you take stock of staple items. When you have a million other responsibilities on your mind, it’s a quick scan to see what stock you’re low on. The “meal staples” drawer or the “kids snacks” bins nearly empty? Time to add those items to the grocery list!
They make other family members accountable for their own items. Anyone who can read (basically, anyone who should be cleaning up after themselves) has no excuse not to put their things away where they belong. Even if your kids can’t read yet, you can label their bins with stickers so they know what goes inside.
They make it quick and easy to keep things clutter-free. In the future, you can tackle one full bin or category at a time, rather than doing the whole closet or pantry at once.
Incorporating labels has made it easier for my whole family to contribute to keeping our cupboards and cubbies more organized. I’ve also come to see that labelling can be a useful practice in my own life more broadly. When I left my job suddenly and was trying to determine my new focus, a lot of people indicated they wanted to help me however they could. The offers were very general and tended to be related to the work I had been doing previously. I felt a lot of support, but it wasn’t focused and I didn’t have a direction.
As soon as I put it out there that I was starting my own business in home organization, the offers coming my way became specific, relevant, and exciting: intros to organizers, entrepreneurs, and real estate agents; friends sharing cool shops, organizing tips, and humour; and business referrals.
People are inclined to want to help, but they don’t always know how. When you put your stake in the ground – or label a category for a bin – others are more likely to fill it up with the right things.
Here is a pantry that we decluttered and reorganized with distinctive labelled places for key items. In addition to ‘‘Breakfast,’ Meal Staples,’ ‘Snacks’ and ‘Kids’ categories, we also dedicated a whole drawer to ‘Tea Time’ given how much the owner enjoys her tea! We also made sure to dedicate an area to ‘Overstock’ for all the duplicates courtesy of Costco. Can you believe the 3rd & 4th pictures are the same space, just taken before?
