Tips On Organizing Using "Dump Baskets"

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How To Use Baskets to Organize

The bad news is that even if you started fresh with a clean and organized home, work is required to maintain it.

 The good news is that if you implement organizational tools (even with a messy home), they will help you achieve a more organized home.

 When you do get your home clean and organized, maintaining it should be no problem.

Dump baskets are a great way for tired, overworked people to live in more organized homes.

What are Dump Baskets?

Dump baskets are baskets where you “dump” things during the week to be sorted and put away on a day when you have time and energy.

Baskets fit into any decor. Dump baskets keep your furniture free of clutter so you can look around and not be depressed by a messy house.

Choose a day of the week (two if you have a very busy household – one in the middle and one at the end of the week) to empty your baskets and put everything where it goes.

On the day you empty your baskets, you spend less than an hour putting away all of the things that would have made you procrastinate if they were piled up overwhelmingly on all the surfaces in your home.

Tossing things into a basket, even when you’re tired, takes very little effort. Putting the items away all at once takes only minutes.

If your family is home on “empty basket day,” enlist their help. Children can empty the living room basket that holds items that go into their bedrooms. They can also transfer the spare change from the key basket into a larger jar or container.

You’ll soon become a pro at cleaning out the baskets, and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them!

First, Determine Your Bad Habits!

It’s not enough to just place baskets randomly in every room, however. You need to know how to use your baskets and where they should be placed based on your individual needs.

Before you run out and buy a bunch of baskets, you have to spend a few days to a week figuring out your bad habits. This should be an easy process, and it requires almost no work. You just have to take a few minutes in your regular life to recognize how you (and other family members) add to the mess and clutter in your home.

Here are some specific bad habits you might notice:

• When books or magazines are read, are they left on end tables and nightstands?



• When you bring hobbies (needlework, knitting, homework, etc) to the main living areas, where do you put it when you’re done?



• When you get the mail, where do you put bills, junk mail, cards, etc?



• When you come home, where do you put your keys, cell phone, purse, or wallet?



• Do you have a bunch of remote controls that are easily lost?



• Do you often stumble over toys and coloring books in the living or family room?



• Do you have a mess of paper from things (recipes, articles, photos) that you’re printed from the Internet or your computer?



• Is there a large collection of Sunday papers piled in your living room because you still haven’t cut out the coupons you wanted?



• Are there clean clothes that you folded while watching television that are still sitting on the top of the couch, waiting to fall on you (did you think you’re the only one who piles them there?)



• Is there a mountain of clean clothes on your dryer or in your room on a chair that you haven’t been able to sit in for years?

Choosing Your Dump Baskets

Based on your bad habits and the bad habits above, figure out where you need baskets.

Determine the size of the baskets based on what they will be used for and where they will go. For example, you only need a very small basket for your keys and spare change. You’ll need a larger basket to store magazines, books, and the coupons you haven’t cut out yet in the family room.

You should consider a lined basket to hold your hobby work. A basket for your mail is helpful. It should be placed wherever you tend to toss the mail as you walk in the door.

Keep a large basket on the living room floor where you can toss toys, books, and other things that belong in your child’s room. It’s not a big job like actually putting the things away, so you’re more likely to toss everything in there before you go to bed.

Keep a waste basket in frequently used rooms where you can toss things like envelopes from bills, magazines that you’ve read, newspapers, and whatever trash tends to accumulate on tables and desks.

If you have a problem putting laundry away, get large, lined baskets that can be stacked (available at discount and home stores at inexpensive prices – usually under $10 for three or four baskets). Store the baskets stacked in the laundry room. When you fold clean laundry, divide it into baskets based on where it goes. Have the kids grab their basket and take it into their room with them as they go to bed. Grab your own basket and take it into your room.

Things that go into linen closets can be in a separate basket. If you’re too tired that night, just place the whole basket into the linen closet.

Make a goal of having a clean, mountain-less dryer every time you do laundry.

Don’t Forget the Goals of Your Baskets

The whole purpose of the organizing baskets is to give you a break during the week without letting your home get trashed. The baskets look better than plastic containers (though canvas or other decorative containers can also be used).

Your home will appear cleaner without the usual clutter. This is important because whether or not you realize it, messes in your home add to your daily stress. When you look around and see things that need to be put away, you feel overwhelmed and end up feeling guilty when you are too tired to clean. With the baskets, there is no guilt. You can toss things into the baskets and know that you don’t have to clean them out until empty basket day.

There is one warning, however. Don’t put off empty basket day, no matter how tired you might be that day. Remember that cleaning out your baskets doesn’t take much time. If you leave the baskets until the next week, you will end up overfilling your baskets. They will no longer look neat, and the mess will overflow onto the surfaces you were trying to keep clean in the first place! The job will be bigger the next week, and you’ll be more likely to put it off again the week after that.

Also, don’t spend a fortune on baskets. You can always find them at discount stores and garage sales. Try baskets next week and watch how much more organized your home becomes!