Where Things SHOULD Go
I hear this question a lot. “Where should it go?” It’s an impossible question for me to answer unless it’s my item, because I don’t know what feels intuitive for you. But here is my top tip to figuring out exactly where something should go.
It should go wherever you always lay it down.
Not literally, of course, or the kitchen counters would be piled sky-high and the top of the washing machine would have been buried years ago. But the place where you lay things down is an indicator of where you use the item, where it feels like it should intuitively live, and where it makes sense to you for that item to be stored.
If you always find your hairdryer laying on the bathroom counter, but it’s supposed to be stored in your bedroom closet, find a new place for it in the bathroom and you’ll be far more likely to put it away. Take the baking pan that gets set down in front of the microwave and find it an easier-to-reach home that’s not all the way underneath the stove. When you notice yourself setting things down consistently in a place that’s not their home, that’s an indication that they need a new place to live.
This is true for all members of the family, too! If your kids consistently dump their shoes right by the door instead of taking them to their rooms, get a shoe rack to go by the door. If your husband always drops his dirty clothes outside the shower, put a clothes-hamper there. It’s easier to work with the natural and intuitive sense we have for where things should go than it is to consistently run around behind our families (and ourselves!) and try to chastise them into putting things in a location that doesn’t seem to make sense.
This is why I can’t tell you where something should go. I don’t know how you use it, and the way I use it or the place where it seems right to store it for me may not be the same place that makes sense for you. Having someone else decide where to store your things only works if you have no preferences or if their method of using things is exactly the same as yours. If it isn’t, you’re likely going to struggle to use their system too. Instead, try putting things in the place that seems most intuitive to you, even if it’s different than the current assigned home for that item.
When you store things in intuitive locations, you’re more likely to put them away because you know it’ll be right there again the next time you need it. Especially for things that are frequently used, the most convenient location is usually the best one.