It’s November. And along with cold weather and shopping trips, this is the month when all the parties begin. When time is tight and you have guests coming for a party you don’t want to exhaust or stress yourself by trying to make your house perfect. But you do want your home to be welcoming, and to feel confident having people over. The best way to achieve that is to focus on spot organizing key areas of your home which your guests are most likely to see—each area should take no more than 30-60 minutes to get in shape.
1-Entry-Remove all the extra bags, shoes, backpacks, etc lying around. Simply return them to their rightful room in the house—your bedroom, kid’s bedrooms, etc. Place a nice bowl and some candles or a vase with flowers on a small table in the front entry, and voila... a welcoming entrance.
2-Front hall closet—Clear out 1/3 of the coats, and move to your bedroom or guest bedroom. Place 10 nice wooden hangers on the rod... just waiting for your friends coats. Declutter the floor of the closet; pull everything out and group it into categories (shoes, boots, vacuum cleaner parts, and junk to be tossed). Toss the junk, and put 2-3 big bins in the floor of the closet to corral the other categories. Place 2-4 nice shelf baskets on the upper shelf. Use one for gloves, another for scarves, and another for hats. The idea is single function storage—no container should hold a mixture of items. This makes it easier to find things and put them away.
3-Living room—Toss the old newspapers and magazines, get all your CD’s back in their sleeves/cases, and organize quickly by genre: Vocalists, Rock, Jazz, WorldBeat, etc. Or simply 2 categories—upbeat and chill. Add some candles and welcome your guests!
4-Kitchen Counters-Clear off 80% of what is on the kitchen counters. Put appliances, spices, oils back inside cabinets. Gather surface clutter in separate baskets/boxes- loose papers in one, loose change in another, kids’ toys in another. By avoiding one big miscellaneous box, you’ll be able to retrieve items after the party with ease. It also is a way to jump-start your organizing process post-party—because items have been pre-categorized. Take an extra 15 minutes to clean out your fridge—making room for the party food!
5-Guest bathroom-clear all the surface clutter around the sink and tub...move cosmetics into the linen closet in baskets or zippered pouches, remove all the half-used extra bottles of shampoo and conditioner, bath oils, and liquid soaps into the trash, or into the linen closet as well. Go through your medicine chest with an objective eye—remove anything you wouldn’t want snoops to be seeing... and group what remains in a visually orderly way—medicines together, hair care, skincare. Use narrow acrylic drawer dividers to corral items on the shelves—and make it easy to wipe shelves down. Remove your robe and used towels from the back of the bathroom door. Put out fresh hand towels, and rolled bath towels for aesthetic appeal.
