Operation {Re}Organization: The Dishwasher

While I'm on my cleaning kick (in case you missed the other posts, they're here and here), I thought I'd throw out a helpful hint about speeding up your dishwasher routine. Forgive me if this hint I'm about to give seems a little OCD, but it really works for us, and has made the unloading process less cumbersome. Warning, this hint may be the most obvious one in the entire world, but I just figured it out recently, so just play along with me, k?

Sometime in the past six months or so, I decided I was tired of having to sort the clean silverware and cooking tools as I was putting them away. It might seem ridiculous that I didn't have any patience for this task that takes approximately two whole minutes, but for some reason it really bugged me - that is, until it hit me one day that I should sort them as I load up the dirty dishes instead of after they're clean.

Duh.

So, armed with this new strategy, I assigned a specific item to each section of the dishwasher basket - i.e. all the knives go in the first one, small spoons in the second...etc. as demonstrated here.

In other words, group "like with like." That way, once the dishes are clean, I just put the basket on the counter and grab each type of utensil all at the same time (that's the time saver!) and put them right in their homes in the silverware drawer. This is instead of having them all randomly dispersed and having to sift through each section of the silverware basket to make sure I got all the spoons out and put away, and then all the knifes... 

I taught my husband "the system" too. It only works if everyone's on board, right? 

Now, I will say that I'm not quite OCD enough to be particular about which utensil goes in which section. (For example, knives don't always have to go in the first slot.) It's all about just making sure that "like" items are grouped together in the same place.

On a scale of 1-100 on major world problems, I'd say this ranks close to a zero, but it is one little thing that smooths out my cleaning routine and keeps me a little more sane. One day, when there are more than two people in our house, I'm sure this tiny time saver will come in handy more so than it does today, but it's never too early to get into good habits!

So what do you say...am I a crazy person for sorting my utensils? Or am I late in getting on board with this strategy? Do any of you have any other brilliant tips on speeding up your dish washing routine that I need to know?

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linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, House of Hepworths, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, Sparkles and A Stove

Operation {Re}Organization: The Freezer

Ever since I put together my cleaning schedule a few weeks ago, I've had cleaning up and cleaning out on my brain - especially since I put that schedule up right smack on the front of the fridge. No out of sight, out of mind for this girl. Plus, it's pretty to look at and fits in nicely next to my magnetic fridge organizer.

One of the items I put on the monthly part of the list was cleaning out the fridge and freezer. The fridge got a nice clean-out a couple of weeks ago (Um, it's amazing how well those old/expired items can hide in the back corners. Those sneaky things...), but the freezer needed a little more TLC than just a nice clean-out. Let's just say it had some organizational issues - as in it had no organization at all.

Ahh! Crazy mess alert!

Before we get into the solution to this little organizational nightmare, can I just whine for a minute? Make a plea to all the freezer designers out there? Why oh why is there only one measly wire shelf? Do you really think this is a functional design? Please, please do something to make this precious space a little more functional.

Whoa. Ok. Reeling it in...I just had to get that out.

I decided that in order to utilize that one little wire shelf well, I would need some bins. Preferably ones that cost very little money. Enter the dollar store. The one near me always has a great selection of small plastic bins, buckets, boxes, etc. that are perfect for this kind of job. We'll get to those in a minute...

The first thing I did was clean out the freezer - quickly, before any significant melting could happen - by pulling everything out, throwing old items away, and getting rid of anything we knew we wouldn't eat. I love having a clean slate to work with before doing any organizing.

Much better.

(P.S. You can just ignore the junk on the top of the fridge and the items in the freezer door. Just keepin' it real here - I haven't gotten my organizing hands on that stuff yet.)

I moved the shelf up a notch so that four plastic bins would fit, and did a quick wipe down with some all-purpose cleaner before loading everything back up again.

Here's how it looks now with the new bins!

I loosely grouped the items in the bins by category knowing that we generally keep the same types of items in our freezer. I'm keeping it flexible for awhile though, just to make sure I'm really sold on this bin system. If I decide I like it, I'll probably label the bins by category.

For now, starting from the top left and moving clockwise: the first bin holds bread and snacks, the second bin holds ice cream (yep, that needs its own bin), the third hold meat, and the fourth holds vegetables. We keep a bag of ice in there too because the ice from our automatic ice maker tastes yucky :(.

So for a total of $4 (bins were $1 a piece) that's how I cleaned out and organized our freezer. Do you have any tips or systems that have worked well for yours? I'm always open to suggestions!

Operation {Re}Organization: Let's Get Clean!

Confession: I'm lousy at cleaning. There, I said it :). Our house is far from clean 98% of the time. I have no routine, no set schedule, and a really hard time prioritizing scrubbing toilets over things I actually enjoy like spending time with family and friends and this blog. My current "routine" for cleaning includes frantic last-minute vacuuming and sink-wiping before we have guests over. Please tell me I'm not alone on this one.

But here's the thing - I really like having a clean house. The type A part of me has a mini internal freak out when I come home to visible dust bunnies and soap scum in the tub, so I think I've had enough of my current "routine." It's really been driving me nuts lately. 

For the past few weeks, I've been thinking about making some changes to the way I approach cleaning. I've discovered that I need a way to hold myself accountable without making things too cumbersome. This involves following a schedule. So I looked to Pinterest, Google and some other bloggers for some help. I found some good ideas and even came across this weekly cleaning schedule quiz from Modern Parents Messy Kids, that, as silly as it is, really helped me figure out what kind of schedule I wanted to have.

I'm a checklist kind of gal, so I wanted something that gave me the satisfaction of crossing an item off a list and getting things done a little at a time, but didn't want to be too strict about it (i.e. Monday is always vacuuming day). For instance, I know myself well enough to know a list like this one wasn't going to be a great fit for me:

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More power to you if stick to a schedule like this - I wanted a little more flexibility. It's all about finding what works best for you. 

I ended up dividing up tasks into four categories: daily, weekly, monthly and as needed. No specific days assigned (except for the daily tasks, of course :) ).

Daily tasks:

• Loading/unloading the dishwasher (no dirty dishes left in the sink!)
• Make the bed
• Wipe down the kitchen counters
• Take out the trash and recycling

Weekly tasks:

• Sweep the floors and vacuum the carpets
• Scrub counter tops
• Scrub the bathroom (toilets, sinks and tub)
• Clean mirrors and windows
• Dust surfaces
• Change sheets (this will probably be a bi-weekly task)
• Declutter living room and return items to their designated spots
• Go through the inbox (i.e. incoming mail, coupons, bills, etc.)

Monthly tasks:

• Spot clean oven and microwave
• Clean out fridge and freezer (throw away expired items)
• Clean/dust baseboards and hard to reach corners

As needed tasks:

• Wash couch slipcovers
• Self clean oven
• Wash dog bed

Once I made the list, I decided looking at a plain ole set of bullets isn't much fun, so I made up a pretty-looking checklist to help me stay motivated and organized. If I've gotta do it, why not make it a little fun?

Since I didn't assign a task to a specific day, I made a grid to the right of the task's name so I can write in the date I completed it. That way, I can make sure I get to each task within its designated window of time. This checklist takes me through two months of cleaning.

This plan goes into effect today, so I'll have to update y'all on how it goes in another month or so. Ask me about it, ok? I need y'all to help me out. There's nothing like blurting out your plan to the blogosphere to keep yourself accountable, huh?

What's your cleaning style? Are you a checklister, a strict schedule-follower, or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants cleaner? Any tips or tricks on getting it all done?

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This post is a part of the series "Operation {Re}Organization." To see other posts in the series, click the tab at the top of the page.

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linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, House of Hepworths, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, IHeart Organizing