a place for everything and everything in its place

"Everything is a fork" is the other advice I've read recently regarding home organization; it's really stuck with me. The point being that in your kitchen, you always know exactly where to find a fork because your drawer has a fork spot. When trying to organize, everything is a fork. Everything needs its own designated home. (I wish I remember where I'd read it; I'll post a link if I run across it again.)

In our small house, with a little kid and two adults and two cats living under one 950-square-foot roof, this is becoming increasingly important.

Enter the broom (from Scheumack Broom Company**) that has been shifting from wherever I leaned it, flopping over, and bashing skulls for a couple of years now.

I picked up two antique hooks from Salvage Works / Solabee / Boys' Fort in Portland awhile back, and have been finding they work really well for hanging brooms. The Green Man broom hangs on the inside of the front door now, looking right at home near the newly-painted dining room.

So now the goal is that everything in my house will be a broom. Everything will have a practical place to live, close at hand, not clonking me in the head.

Has your own spring-cleaning / organizing project spilled over into summer? Made any simple organizational changes that make life easier or at least prevent concussion? Do tell!

Thanks for reading!

p.s. To make these photos larger, just click! But you probably already knew that, clever you!

Linking up to:

The CSI Project



(**I was lucky enough to see the pleased expression on the broom-maker's face when, upon buying a mini version for my kid, I told him that I have one of the Green Man brooms and that yes, I use it for actual sweeping. Apparently lots of folks just use them as art. I love beautiful tools, but make no mistake, they are tools and are meant to be used. The craftspeople who make these brooms make them to stand up to years of long use and be passed down as heirlooms later.)