Shared Spaces and the Drama They Can Bring

Chores, Organization, Tidiness, and a Dump Zone

Being a mom of six kids, plenty of pets, and a host family to international students, I’ve put a lot of thought into the subject of shared spaces. Regardless if the space is big or small, being organized is the key to keeping your sanity. The more organized you are, the more efficient you are and then the more at peace you feel. By being clean and tidy, you are also creating a more hygenic looking household that will hopefully add to keeping the inhabitants healthy and allowing them to develop good habits.

Recently my oldest daughter got married. My gift to her is a book and deck of cards entitled Fair Play. It is a New York Times best seller and really makes individuals think more in depth about chores and being fair to each other with what each person is “taking on.” Anyone beginning to share their lives and spaces with someone else will find that this book, and the ideas that lie within, will set the stage for a much more harmonious home with less arguments, bad attitudes, and hurt feelings.

Over the years, I have studied up on the underlying issues that come up with chores and household matters. This article sums it up perfectly: 4 Reasons We Fight Over Chores

Once you read through this brief article, you will find that this topic of conflict is not as “patty cake” as you would think. There is a lot more to sharing a space with someone. It’s important that the tasks involved with running a household are addressed fairly and consistently so that you don’t feel frustrated. In a household, there should be a sense of teamwork, respect, and appreciation. An example of successful communication could be saying: “I know that I am responsible for taking care of (chore), but I did not have time to do it so I will take care of it at (date and time).” If you think about this outside of the context of family relationships, it can help make it easier to understand. Take employer and employee communication for example. I believe when we have an employer we demonstrate these communicative qualities so we can keep our jobs. If we want to keep our housemates happy, we need to also do the same thing within our own walls at home.

I began this blog by digging deep, so now I am going to get a bit light-hearted with a couple of ideas to deal with clutter and piles of clothes. Often there is at least one person in a household that does not like to see clutter and piles of clothes in living spaces. Sometimes, in a disorganized way, the clutter ends up getting stuffed into closets and drawers. The perfect “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. This can become a disaster if these spaces are forgotten or continuously ignored. The best idea I have found to deal with this is to create a “dump zone” or a “dump hamper”. These “dump zones” should be in a corner, a closet, or any place that will not take away from the look of a tidy room. Once this is established, make a plan to incorporate an end-of-day or end-of week chore to put these things away. Create a repeating reminder in your calendar to ensure you will not forget.

Need help creating a dump zone for your clothes? One option is to use an IVAR side panel from IKEA. Another idea is to use a small ladder or to create a ladder by screwing together a few wooden bars. Lean this against a wall at a slight angle and throw the clothes over the horizontal bars. Done – now you’ve created your clothing dump-zone!

There are a few benefits to using a stand like this…

• Stands lie almost entirely flat against the wall if you don’t have it in use. If you truly want to hide it, this usually fits behind a door pretty well.
• They come in different sizes.
• They are often inexpensive.
• Most people who have seen my stand in my room thought it looked kinda cool.

Like all things, there are benefits and downsides to different quick storage methods. Contact us and our experts will help you design your closet with the perfect shelving and organization to fit your needs. Click here to contact My Custom Closet.