Tips For Getting Organised in Spring

Suzie Candlin, European Trainer and Evangelist at Cricut, shares her tips for getting your home organised this spring.

Keep an open mind and be honest with yourself as you begin sorting: only keep what you really need!
Remember that someone else may benefit from items you no longer need so donate them to charity shops and you will be helping that cause too.
Buy plastic / decorative boxes and containers; baskets; small drawer units; bin bags. Keep a colour theme for one room or type of item being stored.
Create a pile of items for upcycling, but only keep what can be achieved within six months.
Only tackle one room at a time; expect to create more mess and then clear it.
Make labels that are easily read.
You can cut vinyl wording (using any font from Cricut or stored on your system) or chalkboard labels using the Cricut Explore™ and Design Space. The vinyl is available in a variety of colours (so you can keep a colour theme) and is easily transferred on to containers using transfer tape. Click here for an easy tutorial for you to follow.

Clothing

If you have not worn it for three years, will you wear it again? If no, send it for recycling.
Don’t keep items that do not fit or are beyond repair.
Arrange your wardrobe into sections: dresses, skirts, trousers, suits, shirts/blouses, coats, jackets. Or have a section for work attire and one for other items.
Put shoes of the same colour together.
Tidy drawers so items are in colour order (makes getting dressed in the dark easier).

Kitchen

Think about the arrangement of the cupboards and how you work in the kitchen. Change what goes where to make cooking easy.

Put crockery near the dishwasher or hob.
Arrange herbs and spices in alphabetical order. New labels can be cut in vinyl using the Cricut Explore™ and Design Space™.
Discard any crockery or glass with chips or cracks: they harbour germs.
Put cleaning products in a container that you can easily carry round the house whilst cleaning.
Use small sealable boxes to store elastic bands, bag ties, spare buttons, etc. Label them with chalkboard vinyl labels cut using the Cricut Explore™ and Design Space™.
Use clothing pegs to seal open bags of pasta, sugar, flour, lentils, cous cous etc.

Garage

Assign separate spaces in the garage for storing different articles.
Use old jam jars and take away boxes to store screws, nails, picture hooks etc. Cut labels from vinyl or chalkboard vinyl using the Cricut Explore™ and Design Space™.
Personalise wellingtons and bike helmets so that they can be easily found by every member of the household. The Print then Cut feature of the Cricut Explore™ allows any image to be flattened to print then cut leaving no white edges. Any Cricut font or ones on your PC/laptop/Mac can be cut or written using the Cricut Explore™.
Hang tools on labelled hooks: you can easily spot if any are missing.

Craft Stuff

Sort papers into themes or colours: it saves time when creating.
Create a separate scraps box for card, paper, fabric, felt and get into the habit of searching these first.
Sort different media into separate labelled boxes which include any tools needed to use them.
Store glues and double sided tapes out of direct sunlight and away from heat, but close to your workspace.
Label scissors for different resource materials (card & paper; fabric & felt; thick board; metal; sticky tapes; etc.): a fine point permanent marker works well.
Make magnetic die holders from old cereal packets decorated with scraps of papers, or store them in CD wallets on magnetic sheets. Label with the number of dies on the set so you know if any are missing.
Store any crafting tools (trimmers, scoreboards etc.) near your workspace to encourage their use.