Up, Up, and Away

Have you heard of the "Up and Away" Principle for keeping your house cleaner? You can read all about it in Chapter 7 of The House That Cleans Itself, but here's a quickie version: Bottom line, the fewer items that have to be moved out of the way at cleaning time, the easier and faster it is to wipe and dust. Thus, you do yourself a real favor every time you trade out some common household item for a mounted version instead. 

Let's say, for example, that your bedside table tends to get a bit messy. Take an honest look at that mess and think about the types of items that usually combine to make it. Remote controls?  Bedtime reading material? Eyeglasses? Toiletries? Electronics? Other stuff?

Now guess what happens if you mount as many of those items as possible? One by one, the tabletop gets a little less cluttered until, eventually, almost nothing accumulates there anymore at all. Then because the tabletop is already clear (or nearly so) when you're ready to give it a quick swipe with some cleaner, it just takes a few seconds rather than the minutes you used to spend having to clear it off first.

Take a look at the before and after of this bedside table...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Everything you see in the "before" photo is still there in the "after" photo, plus we've added a trash can and recycle basket besides. The difference is that we fixed the mess in part by mounting much of it on the wall and the sides of the bedside table. (To be honest, there's even more here that could be mounted, including the box of tissues and a water bottle holder. But we'll save those for another day.)

Let's break it down. Where did everything go?

1. The lamp was switched out for a wall-mounted version.  

2. The remote controls, AirPods, glasses, and dental floss were mounted on the right side by using a combination of mounting hooks, an eyeglass holder, and velcro.

3. The reading literature went into a rack mounted on the left side.

It's actually simple when you think about it. Put the items that make up your messes up and away and save yourself a lot of time and trouble!

Other Adjustments That Turned This Into A Beside Table That Cleans Itself

What else did we do to clean up this problem for good? We identified that trash and recyclables were collecting on the bedside table because there was nowhere handy to toss them out. Hence the addition of the recycle bin and trash can. Everything else went into a neat little basket. 

In theory, even the basket should probably be eliminated, simply by putting those items into the bedside table drawers instead. But I wanted to show how a mess could be permanently contained on the outside with just a few simple tweaks.

Be sure to come back Thursday for examples and links to even more nifty items that can be mounted around your home!

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