Compartmentalizing

"Compartmentalizing" -- that's a long word.  If it even IS a word :-).

But that's the word that comes to mind when I think about a  key cornerstone of my cleaning/housekeeping/organizing routine.

Our house is, as I've said before, in decent shape most of the time. It isn't pristine. There are very tidy people out there, and they would be unhappy in our house. There are objects on almost all horizontal surfaces, especially surfaces high up away from the reach of small children.  There is dust in corners and on objects.  No, it is not pristine.

But, it is very livable.  The floors are clear.  The sofas and tables and chairs are clear.  Our dining room table is cleared off completely several times a day.  The kids do lots of work on that table, but we always put everything elsewhere (if not AWAY) before meals.  Our master bedroom is (to pat myself on the back) really in VERY nice shape. I find it an oasis of calm and want it to stay that way, so both Kevin and I work to keep it in good shape.

Back to compartmentalizing...I have found that keeping all of a particular kind of mess or clutter or whatever in ONE area is key.  Take the kitchen, which is often a trouble spot.  We try to keep up with putting items away in the dishwasher, putting away clean dishes, etc.  Truth is, the kitchen often is a mess much of the day, though. BUT.  But, but, but!  I work hard to compartmentalize the mess. Dirty dishes go on one counter.  Clean dishes are only to the right of the sink.  I constantly move "non kitchen" items off the counters when they (mysteriously) appear on the counters.  Our fruit bowl stays in one area, as does our egg bucket. 

It really makes a big difference to have the mess separated into component parts. I can tell one child, "Put away all the clean dishes on the counter" and the child usually can do that job.  But if there are dirty and clean mixed together, the kid will have trouble.  In the same way, a young child can be trained to put away dishes in the dishwasher, but struggles if there is a huge mass of different objects on the counter.

This compartmentalizing is repeated throughout the house.  I have said before, but I'll say again, that we work hard to keep building toys together in a particular room.  So our Lincoln logs are in one room, our Tinker toys in another.  I periodically stick all of one building toy in a box and hide it in the basement, then bring it out in a few months.

It took me a long time to learn this trick of compartmentalizing, which is why I share it in the hopes that it might help others.  I used to let the kids haul building toys everywhere, and it made for a fine mess.