It’s no secret that Scott is organized.  Ultra-organized.  I’ll-scream-if-it’s-not-in-the-right-place-organized.  And I am…not.  I once thought I was rather organized but no, compared to him I am not.  I was thinking about a few of his habits that I could probably (or have) learned from:

1. Close the cabinet doors as soon as you get what you need.  Growing up, you knew we had been in the kitchen by the cabinet doors left open.  You got what you needed and moved on.  I remember when we were first married, Scott was always on me about closing the cabinet doors.  I have to say, I’ve picked up on this one and now it drives me a little bonkers when I walk in a kitchen and see some open.  I feel like it makes the kitchen look cleaner and more organized, even if it isn’t.
2. Related to that, clean up the kitchen as you cook.  For years, I would get everything out as I needed it and leave the mess for later.  Now I throw away trash as I go and put stuff back as I use it. Well, this is in general.  Sometimes I still have a mess of flour and pots and pans lying around but in general, my ingredients are at least put up when I’m done.  It feels much less overwhelming after cooking!
3. Put your clothes in the hamper when you take them off.  This is Organization 101 right?  Not even organization 101, it’s more like Life 101.  Put your clothes in the hamper.  I am lucky in that I don’t have to struggle with a husband who leaves their stinky underwear on the floor.  Usually it’s mine!  But I find that if I try to put them in the hamper as I take them off, my room feels lots more clean!
4. Put remotes back in the drawer every night.  Without fail, Scott finds all the remotes at the end of the day and puts them back in a drawer.  I certainly haven’t mastered this one but I can’t even tell you the last time the remote was lost.  Also kind of sad?  Since leaving home I quit calling it the clicker. What do you call it?
5. Have a place for the keys.  This is definitely one I’m still working on but when Scott drives, the keys always go back in the same drawer.  If he drove last, I know right where to go to get them.  So easy!
6. Put similar papers in notebooks.  Scott loves him some notebooks and page protectors.  When he has a group of papers that he needs to keep long-term, they go in a notebook.  Mine are scattered in stacks everywhere!
7. Use plastic containers to group like items.  This is probably a Organizational 101 too but I’ll give you the best example on this that he did for me and it’s such a no-brainer.  He got me a plastic container with a lid for all my tampons.  Now when I get a new box, I just dump them all in one place.  Now I don’t have full boxes and half-empty boxes cluttering our cabinet.  And I just pull out my plastic box for the week and back it goes!  He does this a lot for things that came in many pieces in a box.
8. Use cord organizers for all your electronic cords.  This never bothered me much but Scott has to have cords grouped together and hidden.  The least amount of cord, the better.  And I have to say, I enjoy the organized cords.  I still leave this one up to him but it really does make a room look more organized.
9. Hang as much as you can on the wall.  This is really helpful in the garage.  Scott’s general philosophy about organization is if the floor is clean, the room is clean.  No lie.  So it’s no surprise that he’ll put a nail in the wall or a hook or make a shelf for just about anything.  But I have to admit, it does make the room look clean.
10. I came up with the first 9 on my own just by what I’ve noticed over the last 16 years but I just asked “the master” what his one piece of advice would be and it was “Put everything back where it goes when you’re done.”  And I suppose a lot of these fall under that but oh boy, does this describe him.  I’ll find my glass of water in the dishwasher before I get a second drink if I’m not careful.  But it works…when you’re done with it, whether it be shoes, a glass, notebook, remote, coat, pen, towel, hairbrush, if you just put it back when you’re done, you’ll be on your way to a cleaner house!

I just read the list to Scott and he said “very good”.  So there you have it, approval from a certified organizer!

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