058. How Everyone In My House Is Able To Find Stuff (Usually)

Ever feel like you’re the only one who knows where anything is in your house? It doesn’t have to be that way.

In this episode, I’m sharing the 10 Simple Single systems that help everyone in my home find what they need, without asking me (most of the time!).

Whether you’re facing end-of-school-year burnout or just tired of being the family’s “finder of things,” this episode will help you create stress-free systems for your household.

You’ll learn:

• What the “Simple Single” is and how it keeps your house running smoothly
• 10 specific areas in my home where this system works (like clothing, school forms, pet supplies, and more!)
• Why one designated spot is the key to keeping clutter and chaos away
• How to get started with your own Simple Single spots, no matter the size of your space

✨ From laundry to shopping bags, you’ll hear exactly how the concept of the Simple Single  can lead to big relief.

Mentioned in this episode:
📍 Listen to Episode 041 for an in-depth explanation of the Simple Single mindset.
📆 Join my FREE summer class: “3 Simple Steps to Painlessly Declutter Your Kitchen in Just a Weekend (and So The Clutter Doesn’t Come Back)”
🔗 Get on the list here: https://fireflybridge.com/update

💬 Got a Simple Single you love in your house? DM me on Instagram: @fireflybridgeorganizing

Connect with me:

You can find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireflybridgeorganizing
Here's my website: https://fireflybridge.com

Call or text me: 305-563-2292

Email me: zeenat@fireflybridge.com

Transcript

The end of the school year is so tantalizingly close that I’m getting a bit of Senioritis: you know, that feeling that high school seniors get when they’re so close to graduation that the motivation to keep on top of stuff is waning really fast?
Well, I’m feeling some senioritis about the things that keep our household moving, like meal planning and sort of sticking to a laundry schedule, that sort of thing.
That’s my I am oh so grateful that my husband regularly does our groceries, and we keep a grocery list that everyone can see, so we’re not completely out of whack.
He can see when my motivation wheels are slowing down and he picks up my slack!
But beyond a partner who takes care of a lot of the household duties, we have systems in place in our house that makes sure that everyone can find what they need, no matter if my Senioritis continues for a while or not.
They’re all based on the Simple Single, which is a concept that just creates a solid foundation so that everyone in your home can find what they need, fast.
And today, I’m going to tell you 10 ways that I use the Simple Single in my house that keep our household running without much thought or extra work.

Hey, welcome to Organizing for Beautiful Living, the podcast for working moms and entrepreneur moms that provides sustainable organizing tips for your home, work and life.

I’m Zee Siman, Professional Organizer and Productivity Consultant, and I’m here to share simple ideas that don’t take a lot of time so you can love your home, excel at work, and have the time to enjoy both without stress or overwhelm. 

Ready to get beautifully organized? Let’s make it happen!

In Episode 41, I go through exactly what the Simple Single is, and how to create the simple single mindset that can free up the need for you to remember where everything is in your house.

You can go back and listen to it real quick to get a deep understanding of it. I’ll put the link directly to that episode in the show notes for you.

But really briefly, the Simple Single is the concept that to make things easy to find, and fast, you keep things that are alike in one simple spot.

OK, and I’m going to give you 10 examples of how I use the Simple Single to make my daily life easier.

So, Number 1. We have a Simple Single spot for our clothes.
And for us, that simple single spot is each of our closets. So the kids each have a closet, and we invested in custom closet systems for them, and for us. So each of our closets has some drawers and hanging space, and at least one shelf for shoes.

I share a closet with my husband. But for all of us, that one closet is the only place where we keep our clothes.

So what does that mean? Well, we don’t have seasonal clothing storage in other closets or the garage or anything. Every piece of clothing we each own is in that closet.

And it’s been this way no matter where we happened to live, so even in the homes where we had tiny closets, or the homes where we had really big closets. 

There’s a certain level of discipline built into this, right? When your closet starts to feel crowded, well, you have to start thinning out your clothing collection. And the thing is, you realize after a while that this is a natural process as time goes on. You’ll start maybe not fitting into certain things, some pieces of clothing will wear out, some shoes are going to lose their support and they’ll need to be replaced anyway, or maybe your entire daily work situation changes, and you don’t need business clothes for every day of the week.

Those things usually drive my need to thin out my clothing, which makes space for new pieces that will be part of my life for a while.

Now, this might make it sound really simple, but it’s not, especially if you haven’t done this regularly. Getting rid of clothing can be conflicting. I’ve worked with families where they have favorite sweaters that are hard to let go of, where the thought of getting rid of something they won’t wear anymore, like a full suit, is a real conflict because of the amount of money they spent on that suit, where getting rid of clothing seems wasteful because they might lose the weight and fit back into it. You know, so it’s hard.

But the benefits of doing it, of getting all your clothes back into your closet, and knowing that these are the right clothes, the ones you’ll actually wear, is totally worth it, and worth getting help to do it if you need.

You’ll have an easier time getting yourself ready in the morning, getting your kids ready, you’ll feel less stress about your outfits for work or events, or the weekends. And packing for seasonal trips is easier if the mittens and hats and scarves are also in that one simple single place, and not scattered in multiple spots in your home.

And everyone in your home will know there is only one place their clothes can be, and that’s in the closet! Our dirty clothes hampers are inside our closets, by the way, which means that if your daughter can’t find her red sweater for school this morning, well it’s got to either be in her sweater drawer or in the laundry hamper. So you can find things fast.

Number 2. We have a simple Single Spot for our medications.
The other night, we were getting ready for bed, and my husband and I were in our bathroom, and he had a big red bugbite on his arm that was starting to hurt. We always keep a prescription medication for this type of thing because some of us in the family have strong reactions to bites and other irritants. And so he asked me, “hey, where’s that bug-bite cream?”

And for us, there’s only one place all our medications can be: it’s in the medications cabinet in our kitchen.

It’s always an upper cabinet to keep it out of reach of the kids, and all medications go here, with one exception: our kids have had some prescription creams for their skin that they use nightly. When they were young, even those were in the medications cabinet in the kitchen. But now that they’re older, those live in their bathrooms, but even there, they have one spot in a drawer where all their medications go. 

So there’s no more trying to remember if someone used the bug bite cream and left it in their bathroom, or if they left their face cream on their nightstand, and the dog stole it, or anything like that.

There’s the one simple single spot for medications, and everyone knows that if they need a medication, or a band-aid, a thermometer, well, it’s going to be in the medications cabinet in the kitchen! 

To make that happen, everyone has to be on the same page, that when they use a medication or the thermometer, they have to bring it back.

Most times, the stuff makes it back into the right bin inside the cabinet. But even if it doesn’t make it all the way inside the cabinet, it might make it to the countertop just below, and that’s ok. We can still find it there, and someone will put it away.

Number 3. We have a Simple Single spot for dirty dishes.
So ideally, this spot would be inside the dishwasher, right? But when the kids were little, we started with, well, take your dirty dishes to the counter next to the sink. And we always had one side of the counter next to the sink that was dedicated to dirty dishes.

I didn’t have them put the dishes inside the sink because they weren’t tall enough to reach all the way inside, and you know if they were throwing things in there, things might break if there was a glass already there. So instead, they’d place their dishes next to the sink, and some time later, one of us would scrape out the dishes and then put them inside the dishwasher.

So having that one simple single spot, next to the sink, means that the kitchen table is always clear for homework, crafts, other meals, and generally that entire area remains uncluttered.

And yes, as the kids got older, the dishes usually were put inside the dishwasher immediately. But even to this day, if we’re in a hurry to get out the door, it’s ok that it’s not all in the dishwasher right away, but they’re all in one spot. And that alone makes it easier to do the dishes when there’s time.

Number 4. We have a Simple Single spot for school forms.
I guess not just school forms, but also sports forms. For us, it’s a spot on the kitchen counter, and it’s there because it’s visible every morning. Would I prefer to have it hidden? Yes. For sure, but I want the kids to develop the responsibility of taking signed school forms back themselves, and the easiest way of making that happen without us needing to remind them all the time is to have a spot on the kitchen counter.

For this to work, I am adamant about nothing else piling up near those school forms. So no other mail, no water bottles, no magazines, or brochures, because as soon as the school forms area becomes a “papers” area, the kids stop thinking that it’s for them, that it’s their responsibility, right? Because that mail and magazines and water bottles is for everyone. The school forms spot is no longer their own.

So it takes a little bit of discipline to keep that section clear, and move other things away.

Number 5. We have a Simple Single spot for the dog’s things.
We only have the one pet, but if you have multiple pets, this works too. So all the walking gear, the plastic poop bags, the medications, and of course, the food and treats, they’re all in one space, in this double cabinet that we have in the kitchen next to the back door. 

Now, if you have more than one pet, you might need a bigger space than we have in our house for all of these things, but having it all contained in one area still works. So when we need something for our dog, we all know there’s only one possible place it could be. Well the leash? It’s in that cabinet, no matter who walked the dog last, and which door they went out from or came back inside from. Same for the umbrella if it’s raining at walk time, or the daily or monthly medications. 

There’s no more running from one door to another to look for the leash or the wipes, right?

When our kids were younger, yes, there was a lot of reminding. Like, “Hey, did you remember to bring his harness inside after you were playing in the back yard?” Or, “Hey, remember to put those treats away, ok?”

And again, even if the stuff doesn’t make its way all the way into the cabinet inside the specific bin or spot each of these things belong, if they make it to the countertop above, that’s still a win for me. It’s still in the Simple Single space for dog things, so the next person can easily find what they need.

Number 6. There’s a Simple Single space for dirty laundry.
Now I mentioned this already, but we have a hamper in each closet so that there’s only one space each person’s dirty laundry could possibly be!

So if you can’t find that red sweater in the closet, and they need to wear it today, well, then it’s got to be in their hamper.

And I’m definitely not opposed to digging a sweater out of the dirty laundry, giving it a spritz of Febreeze and sending them to school if it means no tears and no stress, yeah? We do what we need to do, right?

But finding that red sweater is key, and having a simple single spot for their clothes, their dirty laundry, is super important.

Number 7. We have a Simple Single spot for clean clothes.
Now, this is harder, cause the Simple Single spot for clean clothes is, of course, in the closet.

But that doesn’t mean we need to be doing laundry and matching socks and putting things away 24/7. Of course, the ideal would be to do a load of laundry and put it away right away. But the reality is that that doesn’t always happen.

But what we’ve done is the next best thing: The clean clothes go into the closet in whatever form they happen to be in.

So if it’s 10pm, and I’m exhausted, and folding is not in the cards when a load is done in the dryer, well, it goes into a laundry basket and that basket is put into the kid’s closet.

That way, at 6am, when I’m trying to get them dressed, I’m not sprinting to the laundry room to get a clean pair of socks. It’s already in the closet.

The discipline, of course, is to fold and put away that basket of laundry as soon as I can. Yes, I feel lazy about it. Yes, since it’s in the closet, I’m going to want to let it go because I’m not seeing it in front of me.

But believe me that it weighs on my mind. I know it’s there, it’s nagging at me to free up that laundry basket for the next load, and I get it done. Ideally, that’s with my child helping to do the folding and putting away, because ultimately, it became their responsibility to do it all themselves, and I let them see the entire process when they were young. Over the years, they’ve taken my process and adapted it how they want to do it, and as long as it gets done, and things get put away, and I have the laundry basket back, it’s fine if their socks aren’t matched but just in a big pile in their drawer. They’ll figure that out. But the clean laundry is all there, in the simple single spot.

Number 8. We have a Simple Single spot for donations.
It’s usually a paper shopping bag on the bench near our back door. But even if I took that bag to be donated already, and there isn’t another one in its place yet, everyone in my house knows that if they have something they want to donate, it goes on that bench.

And having this one spot to go to means that, one, that donation item doesn’t end up on the kitchen counter, or on the floor somewhere and forgotten about, and two, I’ve found it actually removes a barrier to getting rid of things we don’t need to keep anymore. And that’s because if there was a pair of heels I know I won’t wear again because they scrape the skin off of my pinky toe, it’s easy to just leave it there in my closet, literally gathering dust, if I don’t have a place to bring it to immediately. So just knowing that there’s a spot for the donations removes that barrier to getting the shoes out of my closet, and getting the shoes to someone who can wear them.

Number 9. We have a Simple Single spot for guest toiletries.
More and more hotels now have the refillable shampoo and conditioner pumps in their bathrooms, but back in the days before this waste-saving move, we all had those little shampoo bottles from the hotels, remember? And we’d bring them home and I’d think: oh yeah, I’ll just give them to our guests when they come stay with us! Only I’d forget about where I put them, you know, I didn’t, didn’t feel like reaching up into the top shelf of the linen closet to get it out, so in the end, I would just give them a full-sized bottle of shampoo from the linen closet.

Well now, I have all our guest toiletries stored in the guest bathroom! It makes so much more sense that keeping these things in a linen closet or elsewhere, right? So whether it’s the little hotel shampoos, or now I have really great bar soaps that I’ve sliced into smaller pieces so each guest can use a slice instead of an entire bar that they only use a little bit of while they’re there, or I have the refills bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and hand soap and lotion, it all stays in the guest bathroom.

I just show them where it all is, and they choose what they need or prefer to use.

It’s less wasted products, and also less wasted time for me to try to gather a set of this stuff for each guest when they visit.

And Number 10. We have a Simple Single spot for our shopping bags.
It’s the trunk of my car, and it’s saved me time and energy when going to the store. I’m not a fan of grocery shopping, so if I’m heading out, I want it to be as efficient a trip as it can be. So the fact that we have the shopping bags in my trunk already means that everyone knows where to grab them from, and more importantly, where to put them back after they’ve been emptied.

So there’s no more frustration when I get to the store and realize I forgot to grab to shopping bags because I know they’re always in the trunk!

I just need to remember to take them inside with me when I get to the store, which is a whole other challenge!

But even if I forget them in the trunk, I just see it as a bit more exercise to walk back to the car to get them, and I can always use the exercise. Easier said than done in rainy season, but it’s doable!

So let me just recap these 10 Simple Single spots that help to remove stress from every day in my house:

1. Our closets are the Simple Single spots for our clothes
2. A kitchen cabinet is the SImple Single spot for our medications
3. The counter next to the sink is the Simple Single spot for our dirty dishes
4. One place on the kitchen counter is the Simple Single spot for school forms
5. One double cabinet in our kitchen is the Simple Single spot for the dog’s things
6. The hamper in each of our closets is the Simple Single spots for dirty laundry
7. Inside the closet is the Simple Single spot for clean clothes, regardless of whether those clothes are folded or not
8. The bench next to the back door is our Simple Single sports for donations
9. The guest bathroom is the Simple Single spot for guest toiletries, and 
10. The trunk of my car is the Simple Single spot for our shopping bags.

So maybe some of these ideas will be inspirations for you to find your Simple Singles spots for some things in your home that tend to cause stress and frustration for you.

And if you have a Simple Single spot you’d like to share with me, send me a DM on Instagram @fireflybridgeorganizing, ok?

Great! And here is a reminder that I’m going to be giving a free class at the start of the summer called 3 Simple Steps to Painlessly Declutter Your Kitchen in Just a Weekend (and So The Clutter Doesn’t Come Back).

And if you want to be on the list to be notified when that class is going to happen, please go to fireflybridge.com/update and sign up to be updated, ok? That’s fireflybridge.com/update. I’ll put the link into the show notes for you.

Thanks so much for being with me today. Enjoy your week. And I’ll see you on the next episode.