Quick Tidy Up Needed? Use This Laundry Basket Trick!

It never seems to fail. Just about everyone living in the house seems to leave items out, not putting them back into the room they're supposed to be in.

This can quickly lead to a mess, especially as more and more items are out of their place.

That's why a routine tidy up in your home can be so helpful. It puts all the items back in their place periodically to keep the chaos at bay.

So I thought this tip from a reader, Karen H., from Chatham Ontario was just great. She uses a laundry basket each morning to help her put everything back in its place.

Karen says:

Each morning I take a laundry basket (or a box) and move from room to room, putting everything in the basket that does NOT belong in that particular room.

As I move to each room I add to the basket, or take out from the basket.

If you go around twice, everything should find its place in the right room.

For example, if a towel, a pair of shoes, and a dish, are in the living room, it gets put in my basket. When I move to the kitchen, the dish goes in the dishwasher.

In the kitchen I might find a book and some toys. They go into my basket.

When in the bathroom, I hang the towel on the rack, and the shoes get put in the hall closet.

The book goes on the book shelf, and toys go in the family room.. .

It works great.

When the kids were little I set the basket in the living room and they would go from room to room "finding" things that didn't belong. And then they would help deliver things out of the basket. When it was all done, they got a treat.

Taylor says:

What a great idea! I love both the simplicity of the system, and that she made it a routine by doing it daily so it really wasn't overwhelming but instead just took a few minutes of her day!

So do you have any tips for doing some quick tidy ups in your home, especially as part of your daily routine? I'd love to hear below, in the comments.

When you feel like your home is a mess use this quick tidy up trick using a laundry basket, to stroll around your house and get everything back in its place quickly. Simple but brilliant! {Household Management 101}

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Comments for Quick Tidy Up Needed? Use This Laundry Basket Trick!

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LOVE THAT BASKET
by: Anonymous

My days of picking up after the kids are finally over. However, our new house is opened air ie open the front door and you see all the rooms! and it is two story. So when my hamper is full I put it near the top of the stairs to bring down to the laundry room; when I go shopping or have things to go down I have a basket and when I or hubby goes down he brings it down to my craft room. This way if we do have a visitor come by - the house is clean - after all it takes me 45 minutes to clean the house and vacum...loving retirement!!! Love those baskets!

buy it back
by: Liz

my mom would collect up everything that didn't belong and we'd need to buy back from our allowance if we really wanted it back (school books excepted); anything still in the basket at the end of the month went to the church bazaar.

Great idea
by: Angela Sanford

I love this idea! Thanks for sharing😀

variation on laundry basket trick
by: Ann

I wear a canvas carpenter's apron, with big pockets, when I'm in an organizing/tidying sort of day. I'll wear it all day & keep a 3x3 sticky note pad & pencil in a pocket for writing reminders to family members or me. I also pick up items in wrong rooms to deliver to correct rooms, recycling items to take to garage & cans from garage pantry to bring to kitchen. Between the apron, a vest, and my jeans pockets, I can pack around a lot of stuff all day!

Laundry Basket + Timer
by: Michelle H

When the kids' stuff gets a little out of hand downstairs, I set a timer for 15 minutes and hand them a laundry basket. They have to run around the downstairs and put everything of theirs that should be in their rooms in the basket, then take the basket upstairs and put it all away before the timer dings. Playing "beat the timer" helps to make it seem like a game, and it's never taken them more than the 15 minutes to get it done.

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