With another new year approaching, most of us have hopes and dreams of being healthier and happier in 2018. It seems like each year we start strong; join a gym, eat more salads, get rid of clutter. But no matter how determined we are, our busy lives pile up a pile of mail and papers on the counter and our visits to the gym get shorter and less frequent. Sometimes being around “stuff” and not feeling organized can be demotivating and suck up our precious time.
That is why this year, perhaps we should focus on ordering and organizing the space in which we spend most of our time. Having a clean, litter-free space can be motivating in and of itself. I’m not necessarily talking about minimalism, so don’t go just yet. I’m talking about creating a home that is an escape rather than a long list of chores. This year, why not try organizing your home like organization queens and dream-worthy living spaces, yacht hostesses.
Imagine if your house often moved and rolled like a boat. Imagine the mess; Broken dishes, piles of papers scattered on the floor, bottles of cleaning products dropped, and spilled makeup staining the carpet. On a yacht, if the hostesses have done their job, everything will be safe and comfortable in your home and any decorations that belong to a table are packed between pillows or securely secured. Of course, your home is not likely to move like a yacht, but applying some of the techniques that hostesses use can help get your home tidy and organized in no time.
Let’s start with a closet of the most visited yacht hostesses, the cleaning closet. When cleaning the interior rooms of a yacht, hostesses are responsible for expensive and delicate surfaces. To protect these surfaces from leaking bottles that could damage the finish, they use cleaning caddies to store all their cleaning supplies. A cleaning cart also helps with organization and efficiency.
By having one of each cleaning product for your home surfaces, along with the rags or dusters, you can grab it and go. There is no need to make multiple trips to the two different places in your home where the window cleaner might be. You may not need the swabs, toothpicks, or toothbrushes to clean as hostesses, but embracing the cleaning cart is a key organizing trick to adopt in 2018.
So you’ve got the cleaning cart, but what about the leather conditioner bottle that you rarely use or the extra bottles of toilet cleaner that came in the four-pack? Yachts have everything extras too, especially when traveling to remote locations. Keeping all your extra cleaning supplies in the same place, organized so that you can see what you have by looking and not digging, is ideal. That way, if it is not in the designated cleaning area, then there are none in the house and you will have to buy it.
Another way yacht stews are organized is to have a home for everything. There are a couple of reasons for this. One reason is that if a flight attendant or other crew member needs to use the vacuum, they will be able to find it immediately at their designated home. Another reason goes back to the rolling ship on the high seas. It would be difficult to relax without knowing that emptiness may or may not be safe where you are today, whereas if you have a home, it only takes one journey to know if the sacred emptiness will be safe for all the journeys to come.
Apply this practice as much as possible in your home for easy accessibility. Never poke around your house for twenty minutes looking for scissors or keys. Have a home for everything and you will never lose anything. This is especially useful for documents, mail, and other papers you may have around the house. A simple filing system of your choice is all you need to free up that counter space drowning in “important” papers that you don’t really use, but shouldn’t throw away.
That is why we have talked about cleaning supplies and other household items having a home. Let’s go where a lot of people really struggle, the bedroom. The crew quarters of a yacht are very small. And most crew members only have one or two small drawers and a miniature closet for all their customizations, including clothing, shoes, makeup, books, electronics, etc.
Of course, since you live in a house, you have a little more space that normally contains a lot more things. Most of us have heard of the six-month rule; If you haven’t used it or haven’t used it in six months, throw it away. That’s one way to get rid of your extra clothes closet that you don’t need, but sometimes this just isn’t enough.
Living in northern Michigan, I’ve found that this rule doesn’t really apply to many people who live in areas with hot summers and cold winters. Of course I haven’t worn half my wardrobe in six months, because it would be crazy to wear a bikini during a snowy winter.
Another way to organize your closet is to categorize your clothes by type or style and eliminate multiple. If you have eight pairs of jeans, choose your two favorites and donate the other six. A yacht stew lives off a large backpack or small suitcase. Try reducing your wardrobe to maybe two suitcases.
You will have fewer clothes, but also less stress when choosing what to wear. Keep to the basics and ditch the trendy pieces that will go out of style quickly. Of course, style and clothing are some people’s hobbies or identity, so this sort of ordering won’t resonate with everyone.
Another cleaning technique is to ditch your makeup and bath and body products, or just stop shopping until you’ve used up what you already have. A shower for the crew of a yacht is big enough to stand on and that’s it, pretty hard to shave your legs inside one. Having multiple bottles of shampoos, body washes, scrubs, conditioners, and shaving creams just isn’t an option.
Using a technique similar to the extra cleaning supplies system can greatly reduce the number of bottles in the shower. Keep one of each staple in the shower, while putting all the extras in a closet for future use. And don’t buy more until you need it. This will save you money if you actually use what you have, rather than buying new products all the time and throwing away half the used bottles to make more space.
For makeup, nail polish, and other small items that you have in abundance, get makeup bags. A yacht hostess may or may not have a medicine cabinet in her shared bathroom. Ideally, you can grab a small bag with all your makeup for the day. This will prevent your makeup from getting lost or damaged too, and it will stay safe in your bag at home.
Some other tips to simplify your home:
-Buy cleaning products that can be used safely on multiple surfaces.
-Buy body products that can be used for more than one part of the body.
Ex: I use Dr. Bronner’s soap for my hair, face, body and to shave.
-If something is broken, fix it or throw it away.
-Go paperless, cut down on mail. Most companies offer paperless email notifications.
-Simplify your beauty routine. Find the products that really work and stick with them. Testing new products all the time costs money and adds extra bottles to your shrinking space.