4. be motion minded

(#4 of 6 principles from Confessions of an Organized Homemaker to help you organize your work, your home, your family, your life...)

Well, enough playing. It’s time to get back to the serious stuff of January – organizing!

Deniece Schofield’s fourth principle of organization is to be motion minded which, said another way, is to try to handle things only once.

To help with this she makes the following suggestions:

1. Store things at or near their point of first use.

Some examples:

- having a trash can in each room of the house where trash is generated rather than only one that’s centrally located.

- storing cords that go with specific appliances with those appliances, rather than at a central ‘cord depot.’

- years ago, after first reading this, I decided to eliminate trips up the stairs by putting together two collections of cleaning supplies - one for upstairs, one for down.

2. Store equipment and supplies in a way that will allow you to work without having to take a lot of steps (ha! – the size of my kitchen pretty much determines this anyway).

3. Strive for one-motion storage.

- Store frequently used things in such a way they are easy to see, easy to reach and easy to grasp.

- Avoid stacking things over two layers high; three is maximum.

- One-motion storage is most important for things used often (which explains the piles of books, right beside my bed – do I get it or what?!)