Since the arrival of Mrs. Hinch to our Instagram accounts in 2018, it seems as though we’ve all moved from ‘Have a nice house, thank you very much’ to ‘Have a nice house that I’m obsessed with, thank you very much’. And why not? Our homes are most definitely worthy of our love and attention, especially since the ‘events’ of 2020 have forced us to spend so much time there.
But is working, teaching and socialising from home leaving us with cluttered spaces? Some days it really can feel as though the kitchen is overrun with things that don’t belong there… Like the two laptops and iPods on the table that I am looking at right now!
If, like me, you like your surroundings to be tidy so that your brain can feel a little organised too, follow these storage hacks and tips.
Tackle That Hallway
If there are shoes, hats, gloves, footballs, tool boxes (yes, really) scattered around the hallway at the front door, I feel like there’s no hope for the rest of the house. The best thing I ever did was get under stair storage and have an allocated drawer for each family member. These will hold everyone's bits and bobs.
Storage-Complicit Furniture
Every room in our house has an item of furniture that doubles up in some useful way. There is an ottoman in the sitting room that has two drawers; my son’s bed has drawers underneath and a desk attached; the office desk has six drawers in it. Select items carefully so that they fall into your storage plans and help you pop things out of sight when you need to.
Get Container-ing
If you haven’t already watched The Home Edit, do, and in particular, check out their organisational ideas in the kitchen. Our cupboard shelves were just jammed with packets, half-opened boxes, five of the same thing until I pulled everything out and started again. Cereals now belong in their own containers; things we hardly ever use are in boxes on high shelves; every-day items are stacked front and centre. And I can see everything!
Sort Your Fridge Out!
Gone are the days of randomly jamming the shopping onto the fridge shelves – why not give certain items their own space in a container or tub? HomeStore & More have really good quality food-safe storage containers, as do M&S. Honestly, it’s a joy to pull out "The Cheese Box" to find something, instead of staring into the fridge abyss blindly and hoping the cheese will come to you.
Win The Laundry Battle
I must admit, this is my every-day nemesis. It takes over the house and it seems to be everywhere! Dirty clothes, washed clothes, clothes to be ironed, clothes to be put away – and there’s only 4 of us! I’ve discovered that I have to just do a bit every day, first thing, to keep on top of it. Whether it’s popping a wash on, or doing a small bit of ironing. The Folding Lady on Instagram is my new go-to for laundry storage hacks, and I can’t leave Mrs. Hinch out of this conversation either. Her bed linen hack of popping pillow cases and sheets inside their matching duvet covers is a game-changer, check it out!
