“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” Dr. M. Scott Peck.
The prominent psychologist then goes on to discuss how to effectively deal with the inevitable problems we will face in life. “Life is a series of problems. Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems. Without discipline, we can solve nothing. With only some discipline, we can solve only some problems. With total discipline, we can solve all problems”.
This is where we at Freshome are stout believers in keeping organized as this is an important arm in being consistently disciplined and a key in soldiering forwards and keeping on top of clutter that forcefully bombards our lives every single day. The heart of this article is to look into smart and effective ways to organize ‘things’ in your home, which’ll lead to, hopefully, a disciplined lifestyle which’ll help clear the mind and make life that little bit easier.
1. Going Paperless
This has to be one of the biggest growth trends of the 21st century. With the introduction of digital paper replacements such as E Ink Technology used on the Kindle, we are seeing less physical books and papers being used. I often notice that when I receive an e-mail from a company, in the footer it will say, ‘Think of the environment; don’t print this e-mail’. If you are like most people, you will have piles of papers, which in all reality if you think about it objectively are just as useful, if not more, than a physical copy.
I myself, in 2014 am looking to go as paperless as I can and reduce paper clutter in my life. I, like many others, have draws of files which I haven’t looked at in years, and other piles of papers which aren’t even practically useful because I can’t find what I need, when I need it. So what solution have I found?
The obvious solution is to turn the papers into a digital version. I have bought different phone applications which take photos of the documents and turn them into a PDF, but I found the practical use of them, when I have hundreds of PDF’s to be ineffective. Note, I do not want to go through every PDF scanned and name the file.
The key to paperless organization is being able to find the digital document when you need it, therefore I wanted to find a solution where I would be able to search for text within the document which I scanned. This is what I found, this is what I use, and this is what actually works: The Doxie Go. Simply feed in the document, it’ll save the document into a PDF, which is entirely searchable, and exceptionally accurate.
I have now started to scan in my documents and reduce my paper load; which feels incredibly mentally liberating and makes my home look much neater and sharp.
2. Stair Storage
We’ve mentioned this one in our article 10 Hottest Fresh Architecture Trends in 2014, and it’s popping it’s head up again because it’s a fantastic use of what would usually be wasted space. Draws which pull out from each step can serve as a highly effective storage solution in a small home. Our only reservations about this one is the health and safety aspect of having potential tripping hazards on the stairs.
Accidents are possible with this one. Somebody may open the draw and not close it properly or not close it at all, which could be disastrous if you are walking (or running) down the stairs and don’t see it. An effective organization solution, but use with wisdom and caution:
3. Couch Storage
This is one of those ones where you look at it and think, ‘Makes sense really’. There is a lot of unused space underneath couches and arm chairs which can be used as storage. There are various solutions from draws at the back of the couch (as seen below), complete couch shells being used, lift up seats with storage underneath to draws around the front of couches. Whatever the solution, if it looks good, it just simply makes sense, making this a superb solution for a small home.
4. Using Walls & Ceiling Effectively
Quite often, when in a small apartment or home you’ll feel inhibited in what you can buy because you don’t have enough space to store it. A bicycle is a fantastic example of this problem as they take up so much space. Most small homes simply don’t have enough space to store a bike out of sight and you don’t really want it sitting in the corner of the room. An effective solution is to turn this lemon into lemonade by using the bike as a quirky wall feature. When done right it can actually look rather good. Using wall space for big items such as bicycles to save floor space is especially useful when you have multiple bikes which would usually take up a chunk of the room.
5. Creative Bathroom Storage
6. Utilizing Closet Space
7. Underfloor Storage
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Source : freshome[dot]com
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