I’m not going to lie, organization doesn’t come naturally to me. It is through the Lord’s good graces that I was raised by a mother with such amazing natural skill. I’m sure that it is because of her that I have developed the ability to organize, despite my default. I remember sitting in my room with her on numerous occasions as she taught me the tedium of organizing every little trinket and treasure on my floor and closets. The hard part about it all, is that since it doesn’t come naturally to me, I am my worst enemy when it comes to keeping things in order. I have realized through the years that if I’m going to take the time to organize, it is going to need to be something I’m sure my family and I can maintain with little to no problem. That said, I am going to introduce to you a sorry cupboard in our house.
Every night our family has a devotional where we gather together to sing hymns, pray, and read scripture. We have been doing this since we first moved into this house, so this cupboard instantly became the “scripture cupboard”.
The sad part of this story, is that we moved here 9 years ago and through that whole time I have never once cleaned and organized it. The thought has been in the back of my mind throughout all this time, and I’ve gone over in my head time and again how I would like it to be, but never once was it on the top of the priority list. Do you have a neglected cupboard like that? The funny thing is that I knew it wouldn’t take much to put my ideas into motion.
The first thing I learned from my mother when organizing anything, is to take everything out and clean the space well. That is why you get to see a photo of all our accumulated junk. Lucky you! 😉
The cleaning part is where I get to share a quick tip I picked up along the way.
When cleaning our living room furniture, we use a wax. Since it is stored in this cupboard it has been building up with every drip and careless replacement.
The main reason I was so curious as to how to remedy the wax build up issue, was that the wax has actually caused a build up on our furniture as well and I wanted to know what would work best to remove it. The method I found best on the internet was 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water, softening the wax with heat. So I dipped my rag in the vinegar solution and microwaved the rag for 30-40 seconds.
Then I left the rag on the spot until the wax was softened (about five minutes), And used a pampered chef stoneware scraper to remove all the goop. Any residuals left I was able to carefully scrape off with a razor blade and wipe down with a vinegar dipped rag. I found this to work in removing the thick portion of the wax, but it was still catching when I wiped a rag over it.
That is when I remembered the Goo Gone in my laundry room cupboard that I’ve used on many desperate occasion to remove sticky substances.
(I was so excited about my discovery that I cleaned my living room furniture as well.)
After cleaning the cupboard, I sorted through things and put them in their places. Some went to garbage, some found a new home, and others went in containers or directly back on the shelf. I found this all fairly easy to do. If it wasn’t related to the needs of the room and it’s use, it didn’t go back in.
Now this is something I think our family can maintain. Like our coat closet, which, by the way, still looks as good as when I shared it with you. Now that’s a happily ever after to our sad story, don’t you think?
Michele
For more organizational ideas visit me over at Shelstring!
