by Eileen Roth
Bathing suits and bras will last longer when washed by hand, particularly the elastic, which the dryer can leave lax and stretched. If you have too many items or too little time to hand-wash, use the delicate wash cycle on the machine and allow to air dry.
Safety and soft, dry landings: The bathroom floors and doors
The bathroom, with all its hard, head-cracking surfaces, is no place to take a spill. Put a no-slip mat or waterproof stickies on the tub or shower floor. Make sure that bath mats or area rugs placed directly on the floor have slip-proof backings (and are machine washable to make your life easier). If your shower doors are crystal clear, congratulations on your good cleaning habits; you may want to put up a couple of stickers to keep people from walking into them like dazed birds.
Don’t skip the bath mat just because the bathroom floor is carpeted, because the regular soaking delivered by dripping bodies stepping out of the shower will shorten the life of your carpet. Do you shave your legs or wash your hair in the sink? Stand on a bathmat to keep splashes off the floor.
Closet of All Trades: The Linen Closet
Often viewed as the outfield of the bathroom, the linen closet can accumulate a strange assemblage of clutter but properly organized, this space can outperform its name to serve a variety of purposes. Whether your linen closet is in the bathroom or the hall outside, you should always be able to open the door and easily pull out a clean set of sheets or towels. This is also the place to look for backups of toilet paper or soap bought in bulk (and hopefully on sale!). And what a handy spot for a hammer, the shoe polish, the upstairs cleaning supplies. Everything is possible when you put everything in its place, as follows:
Purge: First, pull everything out of your linen closet and toss or donate the excess baggage, including threadbare, stained, and unmatched sheets and towels. One extra set of sheets per bed, plus a set sized for a sofa bed if you have one will do. A total of two towel sets per person is plenty for basic household needs. Add in up to two sets for guests, four hand towels per guest bathroom, and a beach towel for each family member (four more if guests swim at your house).
Are you awash in minibottles of shampoo and conditioner mooched from hotels? They’re not your brand, and the next hotel you visit will provide its own supply. Donate yours to a nursing home, and next time resist the urge to take them home!
Sort and sift: Select the items that are best stored in the linen closet and group them by like type for easy access.
The linen closet may seem like an unlikely spot for tools but do you really want to run down to the basement every time you want to hang a picture or open a pipe? Keep a small toolkit in the linen closet for jobs in this part of the house.
Assign space: Think high-low. Store items that are seldom used or dangerous to children on the highest shelves, small things that are hard to spot at eye level, and light but big items below. For higher-middle shelves, think personal care items, first aid kit, shoe care, cleaning supplies, toolbox. The middle-lower shelves can be used for bed and bath linens while the bottom shelves/floor can accommodate bath and facial tissue, extra blankets, trash bags, travel cosmetic/shaving kits, and a sick bucket.
Group and stack: If jamming your clean sheets onto the shelf is something like pushing your way onto a New York subway car, it’s time to clean up your act. The right folding technique can stack your sheets up neatly with an easy visual ID of what’s what. There may not be as many ways to store a towel as there are shoes, but there are at least two: folding and rolling.
Next are personal care items and cleaning supplies: Contain items in clear or different colored baskets, grouped by like type, and make it easy (or difficult for kids) to access what you need. Pullout drawers that sit on the shelf can help. Add labels so that one look takes you to your target.
The best spot for extra blankets is in the bedroom, closest to their use. If you don’t have room there, use a bottom shelf of the linen closet, because blankets are light and easy to lift.
If you travel frequently, keep a shaving or cosmetic kit always packed with sample-size products and ready to go. Replenish your supplies as you return from each trip.
Linens and towels: Folding versus rolling
Here is a folding technique that guarantees neatness and visibility for bed linens. First, fold the top sheet lengthwise, then in half widthwise, and then in half again. Take the fitted bottom sheets and grab the pointed corners so the rounded corners fall inside. Fold it like the top sheet and add it to the stack. The pillowcase, folded in half twice, tops the pile. Place the stack on the shelf with the folds facing front and the open edges to the back so you can easily grab the full set. Proceed with the next set.
Fold your towels in half lengthwise first, and then in half again by width so they’re ready to hang on the towel bar without reconfiguring. Like sheets, folded edges should face front and open edges back but stacking towels by the set is asking for a tumble. Make separate piles for bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths, keeping like colors together and in the same order from one stack to the next.
Rolling towels saves some space, but the price you pay is sloppy piles instead of neat stacks and a harder time telling different sizes apart. Have you ever noticed how rolls all look alike? Try it if your space is tight but roll at your own risk.
First aid center: Safety first
A complete first aid center can be a quick, sometimes critical help for illnesses and injuries, but many of its contents can be poisonous or dangerous to small children. Prevent your own first aid emergency by keeping your kit on a high linen closet shelf.
The components of a well-stocked first aid center may include: adhesive bandages, gauze pads and adhesive tape, elastic bandage, arm sling, ice bag, heating pad, antibiotic ointment, muscle sprain cream, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, calamine lotion, sunburn products, thermometer, scissors, tweezers, aspirin (ibuprofen/acetaminophen), antihistamines, loperamide, bismuth, liquid, syrup of ipecac, and prescription insect bite or food allergy kits.
I’m out of what?
The most important item in any guest bathroom is toilet paper. While family members may be quick to pipe up when the roll runs out, guests usually won’t, so spare everybody the embarassment by keeping some backup paper in plain sight. Simply place a spare roll on top of the tank, or go upscale with a decorative container designed to hold three to four rolls on the floor.
The Half or Guest Bath
A half bath is really a half room (which luckily presents less of a logistical problem). Bath math dictates that you can have only half the stuff in a guest bath as in a main bathroom.
Sink and counter: Maximize the aesthetics of the guest bath by keeping only what visitors may need out on the countertop. Sink and counter items may include a decorative pump-style bottle of liquid soap so that guests don’t have to share germs, a box of tissues, a bottle of hand lotion, and some small paper cups, preferably in a wall-mounted dispenser.
Towel bar: Hang at least two hand towels in the guest bath. If your fam-ily uses these frequently and you like things fancy, keep a separate stack of elegant towels on the sink for visitors.
Under-the-sink cabinet: This is the spot for hiding away necessities and supplies, such as an extra package of toilet paper, box of tissues, bottle of hand soap, and feminine hygiene supplies. Some cleaning supplies to have here are sponges, scouring powder, spray cleanser, glass cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, and a plunger.
Reading material: Keep magazines neat with a small stand and don’t overfill.
Now you’re all cleaned up in your cleanup centers. Doesn’t your bathroom feel beautifully pristine?
Chapter 8
Space for Gracious Living: The Living and Dining Rooms
In This Chapter
Laying out your living room for sparkling conversation
Striking the right balance between clear space and decorative display
Grandma’s fine china storage secrets
; Setting up your space to entertain like a pro and enjoy yourself as you go
T he names say it all. Living. Dining. These are the rooms where you enjoy the good life, whether relaxing with friends or family or lingering over a meal. Formal or casual, grand in scale or apartment-size, these spaces can meld form with function to create a welcoming environment that pleases all the senses and soothes the body and mind. Here is where gracious living begins.
Whether the living and dining rooms are showpieces or the only place in your tiny pad where you can kick back and put your feet up, you want them to provide plenty of space for everyone in your life to live and breathe. Nowhere may more eyes appreciate your efforts to put everything in its place than here.
Creating Uncluttered Elegance in the Living Room
When you’re ready to line up your living room, break down the project by the area: the furniture layout, tables, book and display cases, and the fireplace if you have one. P-L-A-C-E sums up the organizing process for your living room space. Here is how you apply it:
Purge: Create an elegant, uncluttered look by eliminating any excess, outdated, or aesthetically questionable knickknacks, souvenirs, trinkets, and artwork. Clear out old magazines and catalogs.
Like with like: Put books into bookcases by category. Group decorative displays into small, uncluttered clusters.
Access: Arrange furniture into a conversation circle, moving bulky, casual, or worn pieces to the family room. Exercise equipment can go to the basement or extra bedroom. Remove excess pictures, photo albums, figurines, books, and CDs to the family/media room or into storage for rotation. Take papers to the office or information center, toys and games to the playroom or bedrooms, and the computer to the office or family room.
Contain: Put figurines in a display case or on a bookcase or mantel. Contain photo albums, coasters, and extra ashtrays in drawers or closed shelves, and surplus coffee-table books in the bookcase.
Evaluate: Can you present this room to guests with pride? Do visitors and family alike feel comfortable and at ease? Does conversation flow? Do you feel refreshed and renewed after spending time here?
A layout for living
Let’s talk: The living room is the spot for the ancient art of conversation, and the perfect layout is conducive, first and foremost, to communication. Most people achieve this with a sofa plus a love seat or a few attractive armchairs, arranged in a semicircle so everyone can see each other and chat with ease. There may be a central focus to your circle — a piano, fireplace, painting, or picture window. In any case, the plus part of the sofa-plus equation is critical, because the straight line of a couch is bad conversational geometry. Still, you don’t want to overdo it. Keep the room intimate yet open by stopping at two to three chairs arranged around the couch. When a crowd comes, you can bring in extra chairs from the dining room so everyone is sitting pretty.
You may need a coffee table to hold all those delicious accompaniments to sitting — coffee, cocktails, a slice of cake. Place the coffee table parallel to the couch with enough clearance to walk through but close enough so you don’t have to reach to retrieve your cup.
End tables, true to their name, usually go on either end of the sofa (though they’re equally comfortable alongside a chair). The strongest criteria for placement is where you need a spare surface or spot for a table lamp. Is the guest on one side of the sofa sitting in the dark? Do you sink into the armchair only to find you’re stuck without a place to put your glass? Arrange your end tables (and lamps) accordingly.
Whatever your layout, remember that the living room is the place for your most beautiful things. Move the beloved but raggedy reading chair into the family room. Ditto the cuddly throw that clashes with your color scheme. Even if you only have a few nice things, let them shine by removing lesser distractions.
If your living room is large and you’d like additional seating, set up a separate area rather than cluttering your conversation circle — perhaps a place for reading with an armchair or two and end tables to go alongside.
Tables and smooth surfaces
Uncluttered elegance is the name of the game in the living room, so clear out the stacks of magazines and jumbled displays of figurines, photos, and knickknacks. A coffee table covered with souvenirs from your last trip to Tijuana can’t do the job. Too many photos in one place blur together and exhaust the eye. And be advised that the mantelpiece is not a mailroom.
If you’re drowning in decorative items that crowd your view and make cleaning more difficult, pick your favorite ones to leave out and purge the rest. You can donate them directly to charity or to other family members, or place them in Halfway House storage as described in Chapter 3 for six months to a year to see if you miss them. If you decide to keep them, then replace some of your current display and continue to rotate your collection with the seasons or at midyear to create different looks and keep the room as fresh as it is clear and calm.
Coffee table: Some people leave a coffee table absolutely empty to cre-ate a stunning effect. A single vase of flowers can also be beautiful. If you choose to display books, magazines, candy dishes, ashtrays, or other decorative items, do so sparingly and artfully, with plenty of clear space left over. If your table has a glass top, don’t pile up books on the shelf below. Think display, not library.
End tables: Showcasing a single lamp with enough room to park a drink alongside can put an end table to good effect. If you choose to add decorative pieces, one or two may do. Look for end tables and coffee tables with drawers or cabinets where you can store coasters, photo albums, cameras and film, cards and games, and anything that’s currently cluttering up the room.
Bookcases: Living room bookshelves can hold your household’s main library or be strictly for show. Either way, make your bookshelves look great. Stand every book up straight with the spine out, and add shelves if you have more books than space. If you also use the bookcase to display knickknacks and photos, limit yourself to four items per shelf to prevent a cluttered appearance and make it easy to get the book you want. See Chapter 9 for tips on arranging books by category.
For a more formal look in the living room, contain your books in an armoire-style bookcase with doors. If the look of books is your bag, go ahead and let them show, but neatly.
Framed photos: Whether on tables, bookshelves, the mantel, or atop the piano, framed photos are best displayed sparingly to highlight the special moments they represent. Cluster them in small groups, making sure you can see the entire frame of each picture, or go solo with single pictures here and there. Choose frames that work well with your décor and each other. If you have more photos than living room display space, you may want to make a collage to mount on a hallway wall or in the den.
Display case: Display cases are meant for showing off your very bestthings — but if they’re jammed full, the effect is lost. Leave at least a few inches between pieces to provide a full view. Remove extra items and put them somewhere else or store them to rotate into the display later on. Save specific collections such as spoons, matches, stamps, coins, golf balls, and golf tees, for the family room, where the more informal atmosphere can showcase them better.
The bright fireplace
The warm glow of a fire in the hearth makes any gathering more festive. Fires can also make a big mess, like mounting a camping trip in the middle of your living room. Here are some hints to keep your home fires burning bright:
Contain firewood in a solid-weave basket or attractive bin that keeps all the chips and bits of bark inside. Loose-weave baskets and flat wood carriers can leave your living room looking like the forest floor.
Toss the miscellaneous spatulas or other improvised pokers and invest in a nice set of fireplace tools in a stand. These can be displayed next to the fireplace, or stored in a closet if you have children who might consider them toys.
Get familiar with your flue. Know which handle position means open (generally the open position is flush against the
chimney) and make sure it’s that way before you light the first match! Write yourself a note and stash it in a drawer if you can’t remember from one fire to the next.
Extra-long fireplace matches make lighting easier. You can buy these in decorative canisters or get your own, and then keep them next to the tool stand or on the mantel.
Clean the fireplace every time you use it, because ash is easily airborne and can soon migrate into the living room. Sweeping everything into the metal hatch in the fireplace floor is a good idea if you have a household member strong enough to lift the whole thing out when it’s full. Other-wise, sweep the ashes into a dustpan and dump them directly into a garbage bag. (Carrying the dustpan across the room is asking for ash all over the carpet.) If you use the ashbin, empty it once a season or more if needed.
Have the chimney professionally cleaned every year, or every other year if you don’t use it often. Keep birds from flying in by placing a filter on top. The mantel is a natural display spot for trophies, clocks, and artwork. Don’t put anything too small here, or it won’t be seen. As with all living room surfaces, the look should be clean.
Old school or new: Entertainment options
I’m of the old school that believes the main entertainment in the living room should be people interacting with each other — so skip the TV unless you lack a family room. If you like to have background music, place a small stereo sys-tem on a bookshelf or run an extra set of speakers out from the media room.