Your Utility is the place where the work gets done.
Its the place that should run most like clockwork in your home to ensure that everything gets done on time and to the right standard.
Ensuring that things don’t build up in this room, and that you can access all the items that you have stored in it are key to the functionality and practicality of the space.
If you are lucky enough to have a utility room, or even a utility space in your home, then you deserve for it to be a beautiful place to be.
Noone wants to do jobs in a messy and cluttered environment, and if you enjoy being in the room then you will be more likely to keep it tidy, and for it to work for you ongoing.
If you have your utility space as part of your kitchen or garage you can still transform that area into a perfectly functioning hub of your home!
If you tackle this room you will feel the benefits throughout the house.
Less mess from clothes strewn around as you will have created a system for clothes that makes sure they keep moving through their natural cycle.
You will have a cleaner home as you will be able to get to all the cleaning products and items you require, and you will generally feel happier about the jobs involved with managing your home.
Make it a great place to be and your family should be more inclined to help out too!
Here are some great tips to get started in your utility – use one or all of them – but start somewhere and I promise you won’t regret it!
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- Maximise storage in this space – you will always need lots! I find that fitted floor to ceiling units work really well, or racks mounted on the wall so that you have a place for everything and you can easily get to everything.
- Label each shelf with what should be on it – this will help all members of the family to find things and to be able to put them away too!
- Set up storage areas for all your washing needs. It isn’t as simple as having a washing basket by the side of your washing machine – you need to think about how much dirty washing, drying washing, clean washing, sorted washing, ironing etc… you have each week – and then make space for each section. This will make washing easier and keep things moving through the washing cycle. You can then start to see where the backlogs are more easily and be able to deal with them (maybe you hate ironing so this pile builds and builds – possibly then you will want to do a little each day to keep this to a minimum and make life easier)
- Keep dangerous items such as bleach, matches and razors out of the reach of little children – a top shelf or cupboard would be ideal. You may even want a locked cupboard for medicenes in here as well.
- Keep like with like – i.e. all washing products in one cupboard, all general household items in another, all sewing kit items in another etc…. then you will be able to find things easily and find everything you need for a specific job from one cupboard rather than hunting through lots
- Think about what you will store in this room – can you free up space in your kitchen or bathroom by storing excess products here? Creating a store of things like toilet rolls, washing up liquid, hand soap, shampoo etc.. would be really useful – and then you simply can check the utility cupboards when doing your shopping list rather than having to go to each room! (you can also make good use of offers when they come into the shops for bulk buying – but please don’t go mad and get too much – and only on products you use regularly – its only a bargain if you would have bought it at full price anyway)
- This is a great place to house things like a first aid kit, a sewing kit, a box for items needed in a power cut (torch, candles, matches etc…), in fact, anything that you need to run your home smoothly.
- Usually the utility can be a way out of the house, or into the house – so get your family into the habit of taking off shoes when they come in from the garden – this will save you time cleaning the floors! – have a shoe rack and coat rack available to keep things neat and tidy
- If this room is used daily it may be a great place to put your family wall planner and noticeboard – out of the way enough but always accessible
- Create a basket or holder that always has each of your cleaning items and products in for a general clean – that way you can grab it and get started on the cleaning saving time!
- Store things where you need them. When bending to put washing into the machine, you don’t want to have to reach far for the washing powder and fabric conditioner, for example.
- Work with the space you have – and to maximise it then consider adding shelves and baskets.
- Keep a bag ready at all times for each of the following – then you can easily pick it up when you are heading out to do errands – DRY CLEANING, ALTERATIONS, CHARITY etc… You are most likely to find clothes that need something doing to them when they are put in the laundry – so get into the habit of checking clothes as they go through the washing.
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Why not have a go at getting your utility organised using some of these tips and see how much easier it is to do all those daily chores.
Maximise the way you use the space, and get things stored out of the way while still being accessible, and above all, enjoy using your utility – you may as well love it!
