Get SORTED
Ideas to help you wrangle your stuff. By Sarah Wale
We’d all like to be able to simply focus on the things that matter, with the nuts and bolts magically taken care of by a team of elves. Unfortunately, few of us are afforded this luxury, and when you’re living with an illness, or are a carer, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer mountain of stuff there is to get through. We’ve put together a few tips and ideas for getting sorted, to smooth the way forward.
Ready to organise?
‘Containment’ is the aim and you need boxes and drawers, large and small and made of any material you like, though transparent ones are helpful when you need to see what you’ve got. You don’t have to spend a lot; shops like KMart, Spotlight and The Warehouse sell stylish storage solutions at reasonable prices. Those wonderful ‘budget’ shops and catalogues, full of everything you didn’t know you couldn’t live without, all at silly 20 FamilyCARE
prices, will give you lots of ideas for tidying up your space. Look out for multi-pocketed back-ofthe-door hangers, which hold a multitude of small, easily lost items. They’re getting hard to find nowadays but are easy to make. You can also disguise or hide untidy shelves by fitting a curtain or roller blind. Kitchen The second drawer down, the one under the cutlery drawer, is typically full of utensils you use every day, which all have prongs or hooks that cause them to snag on everything else in the drawer. Then there are the tubes of glue, paper cupcake cups and birthday cake candles, all needing to be kept tidy but accessible. Solutions? Shallow, lidless boxes in three sizes, arranged vertically and horizontally to fit the drawer, will contain everything where you need it. You can organise them to suit yourself and will be amazed how easy it is to find even the smallest item. Many appliances have a spool to wind
the cord round or a recess to fold it into; if so, use them! If not, wind cords into a skein or coil and secure with a stout elastic band (the sort you get on asparagus is perfect). If you have a cupboard to store them, put the most used appliances at the front and make sure they always stay there, even if you have to move them to put away the thing you used last which only comes out once a year. Accessories cannot be kept tidy so at least keep them corralled in a suitable box, with or without a lid and preferably in the same cupboard. If you don’t have room in your kitchen cupboards, little used items could be stored elsewhere, like the laundry room. If all else fails, those used daily can live on the bench, but make a space for them near an electrical outlet and don’t let other ‘stuff’ crowd them out. Food may not be clutter but it can take up a lot of room. It isn’t practical to arrange your pantry with tall things at the back but you could consider getting mini step-shelves designed to make the things www.carers.net.nz