The Essential Guide to Organizing Your Summer Gear
This year, many of us may be rethinking our summer plans. Perhaps vacations have been postponed and we are searching for staycation inspiration or all this working from home has us itching for a getaway. No matter the scenario, these tidying tips will help you REFRESH your summer supplies in no time.
What do you love doing? What brings JOY to your life? Often, the answers to these questions have more to do with people + experiences rather than material things. An exercise you can complete by yourself, as a family, or with friends is to create a bucket list of things you'd like to do in the next few months. Learn a new skill? Visit a favorite place? Keep a tradition alive? The ideas can be as simple or as elaborate as you like. Keep this list handy - it will be your guide through the rest of the tidying process.
An easy approach:
SUBCATEGORIZE Your summer items can be broken down into a number of smaller subcategories which may likely be stored in various parts of your home. Gather them all together.
A few examples include: pool items (beach towels, inflatables, goggles), grill + outdoor (grill tools, charcoal, citronella torches, patio lights), sporting + recreational (bikes, helmets, frisbees, camping), and consumable products (sunscreen, insect repellant, hand sanitizer, first aid kit).
DISCARD Say goodbye to any items that are expired (sunscreen), damaged (hole in a pool raft), or outgrown (children's clothing, swim gear, sports equipment, life jackets, etc.)
LET GO WITH GRATITUDE Give yourself permission to part with anything that doesn't align with your vision for this summer - or any summer in the future.
For example: it's okay if the only thing your camping equipment taught you is that you far prefer sleeping indoors on a hot summer night. Sell or donate it and book yourself an air-conditioned getaway instead!
REPLACE If you discarded any expired product, go ahead and stock up on things like sunscreen, hand sanitizer, insect repellant, and first aid items. Perhaps your children need new swimsuits, life jackets, etc. Create a shopping list and replenish.
A word of caution regarding consumables with an expiration date: don't overbuy. Let the store be your storage unit, not your house. Otherwise, you'll be tossing out expired product next year!
REPAIR Perhaps some equipment requires a little TLC. Do bike tires need air? Does a scooter need a wheel replacement? Does a broken fishing rod tip need fixing? Make a list of what needs to be done and set a date to complete these action items ASAP!
A few tips to keep in mind:
CLASSIFICATION Store like-with-like. Keep similar items together so you always know what and how much you have on hand. If sunscreen is scattered throughout the home - a bottle in the car, another in a beach bag, and some in a hall closet, it's hard to grasp just how much is on-hand. In this scenario, gather all the sunscreen together and designate one spot for it to be stored.
VISIBILITY Organize your items so you can see all you have at once. Open shelves, peg boards, or clear bins work well!
ACCESSIBILITY Make it easy on yourself to retrieve what you need when you need it. I keep a small grab + go travel-sized bag stocked with sunscreen, insect repellant, hand sanitizer, and wipes. When not in use, it's kept in a cupboard in the laundry room just off the garage so the heat of the car doesn't ruin the products. When heading out with my boys (ages 3 and 5), this little bag always goes with us.
EFFICIENCY Even more important than accessibility is return-ability. Store your belongings in a manner that's super easy + efficient to put away. Clutter occurs when we fail to return our items to their proper homes. For example: if we want to have a backyard bbq, we will hunt down our grilling supplies even if they're scattered throughout our house or garage. What we often fail to do is put them away properly after we've used them. Make this part easy on yourself!
Wishing you a safe + beautiful summer!