Organizing Your Home: The Dining Room
An organized dining room adds extra comfort to a home. If you're like
me, sometimes it's the only organized room in the house! Let's take a
quick look around. Do you eat in here often or is it only for guests?
If you don't use it often, you may just have some simple organizing and
dusting to do. 1. Are there papers on your table? Is this table a
collection spot for things you want out of your way and then forget
about? If so, take the bite out of the Law of Flat Surfaces! Use the
"laundry basket" method we talked about in the family room here: if
there are things that don't belong in this room, put them in baskets
and take those baskets to the appropriate rooms. 2. Do you have a china
cabinet or other means of storing fine dishes? If so, how does the
cabinet look? If it's stuffed to the gills, start by taking a hard look
at what you have, how many place settings you have, and how many you
need. If you want a guideline, take one from the line in "Sleepless in
Seattle": "12 is too many, 8 is too few. 10 is just right." How many
creamers, sugar bowls, and teacups do you have? Are they collecting
dust and never getting used? Pare down and give them a quick dusting
with your duster. When you open the doors to your cabinet, do you grit
your teeth and wonder what's going to jump out and kill itself at your
feet? Consider giving your surplus to a newly-married couple that can
use it, or donate it to a women's shelter or other worthy charity. Dust
down (or use furniture polish?whatever is applicable here) the front of
your cabinet. 3. What about your lighting source? Dusty? Grab your
duster?hit the table, the chairs (rungs and bottom of the table, too!),
and the lighting source. You don't have to take it down and scrub it
clean?just dust it, and if necessary, shake the dead bugs from it. 4.
As the final step, run the vacuum in here?not the edges, just the
"middles" where you walk. Move the chairs but not the table?don't even
think about pulling out the china cabinet! If there are things behind
there, they're small and no one else is going to see them.
Congratulations?your dining room is done! Happily, it's often one of
the easiest rooms to keep looking nice and neat!
