I don’t know about you, but lately it seems like I just can’t keep up with everything. It’s true, I’m drowning in clutter.
By far the biggest culprit for me is paper, I’m one of the few folks who could care less if the post office stops delivering on Saturday. Bonus!! One less day of useless crap that I don’t know what to do with. That being said, there are other things that just seem to pile up.
Take the leashes, collars and harnesses.
Since Sampson has still not been cleared for stairs or unleashed supervision, there is only one door in our house that he can use. It’s our French door, which we typically don’t use. Since Sampson is a GINORMOUS puller, he’s on a harness, but he also needs to wear his collar with his tags on it. The harness we use has a special leash, which I use when we do our twice daily walks. IF we are only going outside to potty, I use his daily leash and clip it to his collar.
When Delilah comes with us in the morning, I also put her on harness. I’m pulled in two directions as it is, and the harnesses help minimize the pulling. Delilah’s harness does not have a special leash, just her every day leash.
The French door that we use to exit the house sits right near the pool table. When we walk in and I remove harnesses and leashes, they get tossed into a big pile on the pool table. While it’s nice to have everything in one spot, it seemed like every time I reached for a leash, I was grabbing the wrong one, or digging it out of a jumbled pile.
I said something to Hubby and he said, “I was thinking of that, we could nail some hooks to the wall and use them to organize the leashes.”
As soon as I heard, “Nail,” I stopped listening. I have a thing about putting holes in my walls. I know it’s super weird, but the reality is, I’ve hardly hung anything on my walls that required a new nail hole, in the entire 7 years I’ve lived here. At our old house, Sampson was trained to ring a bell to go outside and potty and that was nailed to the door frame, but in our new house, I refused to put a nail or screw in my beautiful woodwork. The bell sits forlornly on the bookshelf next to the door, sadly collecting dust.
So there I sat on Sunday contemplating exactly how I could organize all our dog walking supplies, without making a hole in my wall!
Here’s what I came up with .
Much better than a jumbled mess on the table!
This container was sitting in a pile designated for a tag sale. It’s an old photograph organizer that I bought from one of those scrap book home parties. I pulled some of the dividers out and made it so it has four compartments. It holds, Sampson’s harness and special leash as well as Delilah’s harness and every day leash.
The container is sitting on the stool, along with Sampson’s every day leash, and the stool is sitting right next to the door. Since Sampson’s harness and leash are black it’s easy to tell them apart from Delilah’s. It has made the pool table so much cleaner and while it hasn’t cut down on the other, every day clutter, at least there is one area that looks fresh and organized.
Do you have a problem keeping leashes organized? How do you organize all your dog walking equipment?
You’re a piece of work, has anyone ever told you that before Mama?
What a very clever idea. I like it! I don’t like clutter either. Everything has to be in it’s spot. I thou love nail holes and have a ton all over my house. But my leashes are hanging on a hook that is screwed into the wall in my closet by the front door. I also have a wrought iron plate rack that I nailed to the wall by the back door and I have had leashes hanging over the plate rack. My dog’s don’t wear collars or use leashes if just running around the farm but I use them when we go for our walks down the road.
OMG! I hate clutter, too! But I don’t mind nail holes as long as they’re holding nails to hold something else. After all, it was Sam’s house before it was mine and he already had nail holes in almost every wall of the house when I moved in. But back to clutter — it took me more than a year to get used to Jason’s toys laying around and I still move the dogs’ toys out of the way! Thank God Jason grew up — now he can clutter up his own house!
PS. The 6-ft leashes and head collars are all hanging on the coat hook thingy next to the front door; the 4-ft leashes are draped over the back of the rocking chair next to the back door.
I like your idea for the leashes for the dogs, it’s perfect and easily accessible!
Since I now only have one dog, I don’t have the problem of cluttering up the place – Poppy’s leash hangs on the inside of the front door, always ready and not unsightly!
Sorry Jodi, my comment should have come from my new site; I have rectified it here with this comment.
We have a leash hook in the cloakroom which works for us and as we keep clutter at bay so we can find things pretty easily. Lucky for us we have a recycle collection once a week and the local hospice charity shop is not far. All helps. Have a terrific Tuesday.
Best wishes Molly
At the moment I am using excuses that I will organise it all when I move into my house and have a big declutter. I think I’m just going to be extra firm and not move anything in that I don’t need – start as I mean to go on!!
No holes in the walls?? Gah! That’s a phobia I never even heard of before! They’re just little…. holes. They patch up and paint over in 5 minutes if you change your mind.
My mom is an organizational freak. She kind of makes herself crazy with keeping things in order, BUT, there are places where she has messes! Take a hotel room…she never hangs up or puts anything away, everything is always in heaps on the floor including bathroom towels. Our leashes are another area. We have a whole bunch of them in a pile, but the pile is in the closet with all her shoes, coats, mittens, etc. Every walk, she has to go in there and dig around to find the ones she wants. The 50+ collars we have, on the other hand, are all organized and hung up on belt ring hangers. Go figure…no logic sometimes.
THAT is a Great Solution. You RE-Purposed the thing. LOVE THAT.
I would have suggested those Command Stick up thingys that come OFF when you want them to. BUTT I like YOUR Idea MUCH Better. BRILLIANT.
We have hangers at the cabin since we don’t have room for a lot of furniture. They work really well. Here we have a basket. Harder to organize than the hooks. Looks like you found a good container.
Yes! I have so many leashes. Right when we come in the door from our yard, our washing machine is right there, and I used to pile the leashes on top of that. Plus all of the harnesses. But that was a hassle every time we wanted to use the washing machine, and as you said, having to dig one leash out of a mountain of them. That’s not something I was very fond of doing when it was bright and early in the morning! We did hand some hooks on our walls for the leashes. Right by our door. It works well. I love your solution! Very creative of you!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
We have a pantry in our kitchen with metal coat hooks on it. Honey’s stuff goes right in the pantry when we come home.
The problem comes from the extra harnesses and leashes I keep around for occasional foster pup visits. They just take up too much room for the few times I use them.
I have a tiny closet near the door with hooks inside it. That holds the leashes, harnesses, the broom, the flashlight, bags, and frisbee.
I love when people can recycle and make something usuable out of something that isn’t. In our house we are color coordinated. I really think my dogs can identify their own colors.
That’s a good solution! I am actually the opposite… I am an obsessive UNclutterer. I can. not. stand. clutter. It’s actually a mild obsession. John has to basically hide things to keep me from recycling/tossing/donating. If it’s not actively in use (or will be within the year, like Christmas ornaments) or if it’s not something I truly love, it’s gone! Ruthless! That’s why I’m looking forward to packing up our house again. The change to get rid of more things! (I know. I’m a total loon. It’s a real problem.)