Keep Your Dining Room Table Clutter-Free

Is your kitchen or dining room table a repository for everything that people can not be bothered to put away? In between meals does it get heaped up with the letters, books, school bags, hats and shopping simply because people are too idle to put things away?

A gorgeous looking table is a lovely sight, whether you prefer a highly polished surface or whether you like to see a tablecloth or a runner. Books, a hat, gloves and keys are definitely not the same.

This sort of clutter is a bad practice because at some time or another, someone has to clear it away and that someone is usually Mum and that sometime is usually just before she wants to set the dining table for a meal, just when she does not have the time to do it. Even when the mess is removed from the dining table, it usually only ends up somewhere else where it should not be.

If you can not stop this bad practice by introducing some discipline into the members of your family, maybe you should try another approach. Screw two or three hooks per person into a board on the wall of your hall so that people can hang things up as soon as they come in and fix containers to the wall with the names of the family members on them so that they can deposit small things in them that they need every day like keys.

People can get into the habit of putting their stuff in their own bin and hanging up larger items. Additionally, if you find something lying around where it should not be, you can drop it in the right person’s bin. This should clear up clutter on the dining table just about over night.

The dining table probably also acts as a desk for homework and work brought home from the office. This is not a difficulty as long as people clear their things away after them, which they all too often do not do. You can make it easier for people to clear their work things from the dining table by having a cupboard near by just for these items.

Attempt to institute good habits early on in a child’s life by encouraging it to eat off plates at all times because it catches crumbs and by always putting drinks on mats because it does not leave rings on varnished table tops which only need to be rubbed out later.

Another means to discourage family members from leaving items lying around on the table is to place a gorgeous runner or tablecloth on it. Then put a centre piece on the table as well. This could be a bowl of fruit or a few photographs. If you use the table for dining, you could do what they do in hotels and lay the table with the cutlery for the next meal as soon as one meal is finished. It saves you a chore later on as well.