Get A Tidy House - Quick!
Like most of us, I prefer not to spend my days cleaning up constantly. And while it feels like that is pretty much all I do on a perpetual basis, with five humans and two animals running around in this place, I try to hone in on spurts of productive time. My favorite quick clean-up trick is strategically laying around my house. And it's easy on the eyes, to boot!
I love these things. I have a few obsessions, and these are one of them. I have to consciously restrain myself whenever I come across baskets anywhere because I want ALL the baskets. I typically stop and stare for several minutes at a new basket that happens to cross my path, trying to come up with some need that I have for buying it. I love them all.
I have a particular fondness for the African market basket. It has all the best features I love in a good basket: A sturdy, comfortable handle and tons of space on the inside. I love the round openness, the soft yet sturdy construction. I love the uniqueness in the colors and patterns. As a decor item, it can sit just about anywhere and not look out of place. And, most importantly, it can fit SO MUCH CRAP inside.
When it is time to return all the randomness that has been scattered about my house after a day of living in it, these are THE BEST way to get everything back to where it belongs in ONE TRIP. Oh, how I hate running up and down and up and down my stairs carrying handful after handful of clutter. In my home I have several of these baskets, but have designated two for the special purpose of bringing stuff upstairs and bringing stuff downstairs. I have one that sits on my main floor that I throw upstairs stuff into, and one that sits in our upstairs for any downstairs things that have migrated upstairs.
I use these when we do our quick 5-10 minute pick-ups midday, or to just throw stuff in quick when guests are coming soon and I don't have time to clean. At the very least they get the clutter off my tables, chairs and floor in a jiffy without me having to find a place to shove it all when I need a quick visual improvement on my home.
Bonus: it's the first place I look if I can't find something! It's true, sometimes my quick get-stuff-off-the-floor-and-counters clean ends up with that stuff sitting in the baskets for several days. I don't worry about! It'll all make it back to where it belongs, meanwhile my surfaces stay uncluttered and I know where to look if something has "gone missing."
