Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Tidy Tuesday Tip: Consolidate and Containerize

Sunset yellow roses with red tips: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2017
Happy tidy Tuesday! I think I took the rose photo above on March 9th and in the photos below you can see that they've held up pretty well. But that has nothing to do with Tidy Tuesday. The main point of this post is that if you don't have time to do a real clutter busting session, consolidating and containerizing works really well.
Messy dining room table "before": Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2017
On weekends that I'm too busy or health challenged, things pile up on our table. Yesterday, when I was walking by after getting the mail, the gloves were in a stack on top of the scarf which was on top of the pile of hats. It didn't look that bad because it was all stacked together (consolidated). But I thought it was a great opportunity to demonstrate consolidation and containerization. So I spread everything out and added the mail that I hadn't already recycled (I like to recycle what we don't need as soon as I bring it in).

Yes, I wore all that stuff since last Friday. No, I am not a minimalist.

You can barely see one of them but there are three jackets hanging off chairs around the table. I prefer to put my jacket away right after coming inside but if the kittens are eager to play they'll jump in the closet and I have a hard time getting them out. So I just wait until they're asleep.
Containerized & consolidated table "after": Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2017
Everything that was in the first photo ("before") is still represented here in this first "after" photo! Although the bag got cut off so you can just see just the edge of it on the left. All I did to get to this point was to stack all 3 jackets on one chair (consolidate) and put everything that was spread all over the table and didn't belong there in the brown paper bag (containerize). Then I put the brown paper bag on one of the chairs. Instant improvement!

Fastest tidying tip - just dump everything in a container and get it out of the way. Now, don't get me wrong, that's not true organizing. But if you just want things to look better fast, it works.
True "after" with everything put away: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2017
I then put the jackets and everything that was in the brown paper bag away. This is what I prefer my table to look like. Streamlined with a few accents on the far end. I could do without the accents but there's space and the plants like it there. The table is in a central part of our home so it's a nice place to see flowers regularly.

Although I didn't recycle anything except the paper bag in this post, the Great Clutter Purge of 2017 continues. I have been releasing clutter. It just hasn't been very photogenic. Hopefully next week will lead to some great photo ops. Only God knows!

Hope this quick tip was interesting or useful for you! If so, I'd love to hear about it.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you!

Related posts:
Refrigerator front organizing: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2017/03/quick-refrigerator-front-clutter.html
Great Clutter Purge 2017 Intro: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2017/02/great-clutter-purge-of-2017-january.html
Linen closet organizing: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/07/from-disaster-to-delight-organized.html

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