\Or if you love French, like me, ‘Mise en place’ or ‘putting in place.’ When you have a place for everything it’s easier to find things and put them away. 

Here’s a few treasured organizing tips for some household things.

Got Elves?

I don’t know about you, but some days I wake up and clearly the elves have visited whilst I was sleeping…because an area {read: room} looks similar to an obstacle course for mice. 

Remember my new roommates since the boys went off to university? Sylvester and Lola, or is it Sheldon and Sebastian, Lily, Dominica, Freddy…hard to tell those field mice apart. 

Home for the Homeless

Mice belong in the field or anywhere else but inside our homes. Sorry, fellas, but a place for everything does not include every nook and cranny you mice visit in our homes. 

I wouldn’t mind the mice, they are awfully cute, but between their droppings (yuk!) and potential chewed wires, they have to go. After all, I’ve already met my quota with our local fire department…umm yeah, they were here just last week…but that’s another blog post…

Hint: I’ll happily write that post and share the embarrassing, somewhat sexy story, if enough readers comment they want to hear about my local fire department house call 😉 

 

Tip 1: Rid Your Home of Mice

1. Soak some cotton balls with Peppermint Essential Oil.
2. Put these cotton balls around your home where you have seen mice or the evidence of them.
3. Replace the cotton balls every week or 2 as the smell dissipates. Mice don’t like the smell, so they skip town {without paying the back rent}

The Mystery of Sheets

I have a Polish friend, Slowomir {spelling}, “Swavik” {Anglicized nickname phonetically}. 

Swavik told me the English language is confusing.

One day, a customer, the lady of the house, instructed him to please take an old sheet from the laundry room shelf and cover the couch in the living room before working on her ceiling. 

Later when the customer asked if he had covered up the couch, he replied, “Yes, I took a sh*t on the couch.” Her shock was his confusion; to his ear, the two words sounded exactly alike.   

Tip 2: A Place For Sheets

Store bed sheets altogether as a set before putting them away in the linen closet. It will save you time when you have a place for everything to grab and go for bed making.

 

1. Fold the fitted sheet in half by tucking the wrong-side-out elastic corners of one edge into the inside of the other edge right-side-out corners. 
2. Fold the fitted sheet in half again, repeating step one with these corners.
3. Now lay the folded fitted sheet on a table or bed to have enough surface to fold neatly. Fold and smooth the rounded edge of the sheet creating a straightedge and a rectangle.

 

4. Fold the fitted sheet into thirds widthwise, and then fold the sheet into thirds lengthwise.

 

5. Fold the flat sheet so it matches the fitted sheet in size.

 

6. Fold the pillowcases into thirds lengthwise, then in half and half again.
7. Tuck the pillowcases between the top third and middle third of the fitted sheet.

 

The flat sheet wraps around as a holder. Store as a set ready to grab in one go to make the bed.

 

8. {Optional} Make a deal with the elves to make the bed for you. Failing that; enlist your kids.

Tip 3: Sofa Bed Happiness

1. Buy a Memory Foam or Egg Crate Mattress Topper to fit the sofa bed. Store this mattress topper in place on top of the mattress and folded into the sofa bed. Your guests will love you for it, as this makes a sofa bed very comfortable.
2. This is a great example of a place for everything and everything in its place. Store the sofa bed sheets folded flat, in half under the sofa seat cushions. They won’t take up prime space and are ready when a guest stays! 

Try some of these tips to make your life easier in the long run.

Now to create a place for everything, I’d love you to put some comment love in place here, and share my post with your friends. 

Hey, I’m Jul’s Arthur. I help women professionals & entrepreneurs STOP endlessly spinning their wheels stuck in anxiety and overwhelm with the chaos and stuff in their home, instead START simplifying, so everything has a place, they gain FREEDOM, CLARITY and easily step into their DREAM LIFE. I’m also the author of the book 25 Days of Holiday Organizing! Ready to trade in DIYing it for fast track results? I’d love to help you go from chaos to FREEDOM.