A bookshelf can help you organize and clear clutter in a number of ways, well beyond simply storing your books. If you’ve always wanted to come home to a well organized, tidy home that requires minimal maintenance, The White Shelf approach is a great way to get started. In this guide I’ll give you some organizing ideas, including how to incorporate white shelves into your decorating and organizational plans and also give you some house cleaning tips that will help you keep house cleaning time to a minimum.

4 Ways to Get Rid of Clutter With A White Bookshelf

Here are a few simple home organization tips that will help you get started in your efforts to get rid of clutter in your home and organize your home in a more attractive and functional way:

1. White Wall Shelf with Tubs – This can be a great set up if our are organizing kids rooms. A white bookshelf or set of wall shelves can keep neatly labeled tubs of toys organized and yet accessible for the young people in your home.
2. White Bookcase = Instant Pantry – If you have open wall space in your kitchen, but no pantry you may be able to create your own pantry with the right size of bookcase. Depending on the type you buy you can either add doors or simply hang a tension rod inside the top 2 corners and add a decorative curtain. You instantly create an accessible food storage space at relatively low price.
3. White Decorative Shelf for Art Projects – Filing school papers and artwork can become a job of its own. Create a dedicated white decorative shelf, perhaps one for each child, or a white bookshelf to display recent artwork. When you swap out art, put the older artwork in a memory box or dedicated file folder labeled by date.
4. White Floating Shelf = Book Storage – Books, books everywhere! If this sounds like your home, consider using a series of floating shelves as places to stack books. Instead of stacking them next to each other on end, try simply stacking them horizontally. The white of the shelf will make the shelf itself appear to virtually disappear and you’ll have a stylish way of displaying your favorite titles.

House Cleaning Tips to Minimize Housekeeping Time

The trick to a tidy home is figuring out how to maintain it without sacrificing an entire day on chores. One way to get the whole family involved is to have a “Flash Fifteen” cleaning party every evening. Here’s how it works:

• Each evening, assemble in the living room at a certain time. In our house, we do this right after the dinner table has been cleared.
• Assign a room to each member of the family. Smaller kids can team up with a parent.
• Set a digital timer for 15 minutes.
• The goal is that each person cleans the assigned room as quickly as possible, doing as much as they can in that short 15 minutes.
• If you know a particular room needs a certain kind of attention (bathroom floor needs mopping, for example) you can give out “priority” cards that must be done before anything else in that room. Also occasionally assign white bookshelf duties like swapping out artwork and reorganizing memory collections.

The beauty in the Flash Fifteen is that 15 minutes is a long enough period to clean the bathroom (if you hustle) or fold a basket of clothes, but not so long that you feel like you’ve actually spent that much time cleaning. By doing this 7 days a week you’ll spend 7-man hours a week cleaning your home (assuming a family of 4) but it will be evenly distributed among all family members. You’ll be amazed at how much better your home looks all the time, and how easy it is when you only have to spend 15 minutes.

Of course this can easily be modified to better fit the needs of your specific household.

I hope these White Shelf tips and house cleaning tips are useful in your home.