Laundry Room

As a catch-all for a good number of to-dos around the house—everything from mending to stain removal to ironing to cleaning—the laundry room can be a frustrating space given the amount of clutter and disorganization that gathers there as time goes on. And since most of us can just close the door and forget about the laundry room, it often is ignored when home organization is considered.

A cluttered, chaotic laundry room can quickly become a pit where socks and other clothing go to die—or disappear at the very least. But no more! As part of our March Makeover, these Teresa Family Cleaning tips will transform your laundry room from a disorganized mess into a highly-functional, workable space in your home.

Getting sudsy in the laundry room

If you haven’t already, start by going through all of the piles of personal items in your laundry room, sorting as you go into piles—the things you need to keep, those you need to give away, items that need repair or stain-removal, and those that need to be recycled or trashed. And don’t just deal with the laundry; be sure to go through everything, including cleaning products, laundry detergents and supplies (clothes pins, laundry bags, and drying rack), cleaning tools (brooms, rags, and buckets), home improvement items (paint, nails, screw drivers), and things that require storage. This room can be a dumping ground so a thorough sort of everything there is a great way to take stock and thin out.

Many of us keep our cleaning products in the laundry room as well, which makes the cleansing process of this makeover simple. Using your green sealed certified products, wash down the entire room, including countertops, drawers, cupboards, walls, and floors, as well as the inside and outside of your washing machine and dryer. You should also clean out the lint trap and air vent on your dryer as a way to improve its efficiency. Once you’re done, your laundry room should appear fairly empty and sparkling clean.

Arming your laundry room with high-performing organization

Your clean slate of a laundry room is now ready for you to put it back together to create an efficient, hassle-free space in which to work. Basic tools for a functional laundry room include two to three sturdy laundry hampers, a trash can, storage containers, a laundry drying rack, hangers, and laundry products. Once you’ve got that together check out these top tips for getting the job done:

• Organizational tools: Using the storage containers, replace all of the items in your laundry room in an organized fashion, keeping frequently-used items easily accessible and other items neatly tucked away in well-labelled containers. If necessary, add shelves or cabinets to increase your storage capacity.
• Clutter-cutters: Make it easy to deal with little things that come with the job of doing laundry, like loose change, keys, lip sticks, and extra buttons. You can use old containers or tins with labels for quick separation. You may even want a container where individual socks can live until you find the mate.
• Air-drying options: Make it easy for you to save energy by hanging laundry to dry by setting up the tools you need. You’ll want a durable drying rack and hangers and an easy way to store them while not in use. One simple option is to install a clothes pole that extends over the back of the dryer area.
• Folding and ironing necessities: Space permitting, you may want to set up an area for folding and ironing of laundry. You can set up a table as a work area and install an ironing board as well. Under this area will be ample space for more storage containers or laundry baskets in which people can deposit their dirty clothes, sorted by color.

You’ll save tremendous amounts of time and energy by bringing order to your laundry room. Happy laundering!

©2010 Teresa’s Family Cleaning

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Teresa Ward, President of Teresa’s Family Cleaning and New York State’s Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year is often considered Long Island’s foremost authority on cleaning homes and businesses to create a cleaner and healthier environment for all. Our highly sought after, award winning weekly newsletter provides timely cleaning tips and other important Long Island information and charitable events for homeowners, businesses and not-for-profits. Visit us at http://www.TeresasFamilyCleaning.com to sign up and receive your copy today!

Home Office

Feng Shui organizational principles aren’t just for bedrooms and front entrances. They can also be applied to your place of work, whether you work from home or outside of the home. A home office in particular is a great place to apply Feng Shui concepts as a well-equipped work space will promote feelings of positive energy, wellbeing, and prosperity.

Cutting clutter to boost productivity

As with any space in your home, the key to producing a high-powered home office environment is to free it of clutter. Of all the spaces in your home, the office is likely one of the spaces in which the most clutter builds up. If you’re like most of us, you have stacks of old magazines, piles of bills waiting to be filed, boxes of photographs requiring sorting, workout equipment that rarely gets used, and plenty of other miscellaneous stuff. These are the things of home office nightmares.

 At Teresa’s Family Cleaning, we almost always start a room makeover by creating several boxes for sorting through the clutter in a space, including “Keep” (items that will stay in the living room), “Give Away” (things you no longer want but that are still useful), “Recycle/Trash” (for broken and obsolete items), “File” (items that need to be taken to their rightful place in your home office), and “Store” (those things that belong in long-term storage). Put nearly everything in your office into one of these boxes, with the exception of furniture and larger items and then deal with them accordingly.

Of course, you’ll also want to clean your office from top to bottom, including washing all hard surfaces, steam cleaning carpets and upholstery, cleaning drawers and cupboards, and so on. You now have a clear palette on which to begin building your Feng Shui home office.

Feng Shui office organization

Before putting everything back into your office, be sure you’ve got some systems and principles in place that will help to maintain a clutter-free, organized work environment for many months or years to come. We’ve collected the top tips for making your home office as productive as possible:

• Filing organization: Purchase an automatic labeller and regular files (we assume you already have a filing cabinet, but if not, get one of those as well). Organize and label all existing paper materials and file alphabetically in your cabinet. Then any time something new comes in, make a practice of handling it only once: deal with it right away and file it. And if no folder exists for that item, quickly make one with your labeller.
• Minimize visual clutter: There are numerous small items that go into an average office. Hopefully by now you’ve weeded out the things that are not necessary, but what’s left can still block positive energy, so find ways to store it out of sight using cabinets, attractive boxes, baskets, and closet space.
• Orientation is important: You’ll want to place your computer facing southeast to generate income, but remember that your back should never be to the door. Instead, putt your desk in the corner away from the door facing the entrance if possible.
• Wire control: An office will inevitably have wires and cables connecting the computer, printer, monitor, mouse, fax machine, and more. But these, too, impede efficiency, so find ways to organize and hide them as much as possible.
• Flowing water: A fountain can be an excellent way to stimulate positive energy as flowing water tends to uplift the mood and calm the mind.

One of the golden nuggets of office organization is to leave your desk uncluttered at the end of your work session. By cultivating clean desktop policy, you can leave your work space feeling calm and come back to it without a feeling of dread and frustration.

©2010 Teresa’s Family Cleaning

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Teresa Ward, President of Teresa’s Family Cleaning and New York State’s Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year is often considered Long Island’s foremost authority on cleaning homes and businesses to create a cleaner and healthier environment for all. Our highly sought after, award winning weekly newsletter provides timely cleaning tips and other important Long Island information and charitable events for homeowners, businesses and not-for-profits. Visit us at http://www.TeresasFamilyCleaning.com to sign up and receive your copy today!

Dining room

Eating a meal together, whether you’re with family, friends, or strangers, is one of the most ancient ways to build community and make connections. But the dining room is perhaps one of the most neglected areas of our homes thanks to a fast-paced life that involves gobbling a quick meal before running out the door to get to the next activity. Cultivating an eating space that encourages conversation and communication is important for a healthy family and a sense of home.

Our Teresa’s Family Cleaning top tips for adding organization to your dining room will help to create a sense of intimacy and rest so that you can nourish both your body and your soul.

• Maintain the dining room’s function: Your dining room table should not be the dumping ground for mail, newspapers, sporting equipment, and school work. Adding this kind of negative energy to your eating space will make you and those who eat with you feel rushed and distracted. To avoid this problem, create areas specific to other activities elsewhere in the home to preserve eating as the only function of your dining room. This could involve adding a drop-zone at your front door to capture keys, mail, and sunglasses as you enter the house. Or set up a desk and chair(s) in a nook at which students can sit to do homework. Or designate a drawer in the kitchen for things like pens, paper, and scissors to keep them off of the table.
• Choose appropriately-sized furniture: Oversized, dark furniture can feel overbearing and heavy in a dining room space, which will drain the area of energy. It also disrupts the flow of the room, making it difficult for people to move around. If your dining room suffers from such furnishings, consider replacing them with appropriately-sized furniture that fits the physical space while helping it to feel light and airy. Chairs should never be so large that they block passageways or doors.
• Use soft lines: The free flow of space will be enhanced with softened corners, round or oval-shaped furnishings, and smooth surfaces. Wood furniture in particular is preferable in a space as well as it is natural and softer than metal.
• Add mirrors and glass: As surfaces that reflect light and move energy throughout a space, mirrors and glass are another great addition to dining rooms.
• Set up a message board: If the dining room is a place for communicating, adding a message board may help to encourage communication. Chalkboards, magnetic boards, and cork boards are all great options as they allow you and your family members to leave notes for one another without the clutter of paper notepads and pens. Position the board near the phone.

 As long as you focus on your goal to allow for hassle-free, slow-paced meal-times, even if just for 20 minutes, you should be able to use these home-spun ideas for bringing some tranquility to mealtime in your home.

©2010 Teresa’s Family Cleaning

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Teresa Ward, President of Teresa’s Family Cleaning and New York State’s Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year is often considered Long Island’s foremost authority on cleaning homes and businesses to create a cleaner and healthier environment for all. Our highly sought after, award winning weekly newsletter provides timely cleaning tips and other important Long Island information and charitable events for homeowners, businesses and not-for-profits. Visit us at http://www.TeresasFamilyCleaning.com to sign up and receive your copy today!