Hide Living Room Clutter
Chances are you don’t live in a clutter-free house, but sometimes it’s nice to pretend you do. Like when guests are on their way over and you realize the living room needs a quick pickup. You may be tempted to hastily pick up all the stuff on the floor and toss it into miscellaneous drawers and closets. That’s a mistake, because by the time your company leaves, you may not remember that you tossed the TV remote in the junk drawer and your knitting in the toy box.
Here’s a way to clean up fast, but without panic: Keep one of those over-the-door shoe holders inside the entry closet, but don’t put shoes in it. Instead, leave it free as a last-minute place to stash small items such as toys, hobby materials, magazines, catalogs, and even the TV remote and cordless phone. Then, when your company leaves, you’ll know exactly where all those items are.
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I’ve done this in my guest bathroom on the back of the door for hair dryers, straighteners and curling irons for everyone to use.
Won’t work for me because I’ll still forget where I put things. I keep remotes naturally in the coffee table drawer and knitting in a basket on the side table next to the lamp and a small photo of the kids. On the coffee table is always a rack of cork bottomed coasters and a medium sized scented candle. I just tell the kids that the kitchen and living room are “toy free” zones. Works pretty well to just do it that way.