Household Hint of the Day

I probably won’t do this often, because I’m still learning and growing in this area. But every now and then I may share a housekeeping idea. Here is one I wish I’d learned much earlier:

Overflowing wastebaskets/trash cans make a room look much messier than it may actually be. (I thought of this one today because my kitchen trash is near to overflowing, and I didn’t follow my own household hint until today this week!) Part of FlyLady’s weekly home blessing (done on Mondays) is to empty the trash cans in each room. Here’s how I do it:

Once a week, I take a tall kitchen trash bag around to every room that has a wastebasket (excluding the kitchen; obviously, that’s an area all its own). In my house that means 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and the computer room. I empty these wastebaskets into the trash bag and stash the bag in the basement until the next week, because it’s not full yet. You could stash it in any out of the way place like a laundry room, utility room, even a closet. And I check the wastebasket in the downstairs bathroom (the one guests are most likely to use) every day, putting any trash from it into the kitchen trash.

Probably a lot of people already do this. Others, though, may think this is unnecessary or even odd. But give it a try. You will probably notice, as I have, that your rooms look much neater for such a small amount of effort.