Pretty much only at the bottom of the stairs, and while unloading grocery bags. I won’t run the new shampoo bottle upstairs right away while I have food that needs to go in the fridge so I’ll leave it on the step, for example.
The problem is that my husband and kid will walk right by that shampoo bottle which obviously needs to go to the only bathroom we have a million times and never pick it up. Occasionally, they’ll actually be dumb enough to ask why it’s on the step, to which I’ll simply answer “why do you think?” and they might figure it out. But most of the time, I’m the one carrying it upstairs next time I go up.
My husband in particular isn’t the kind of person who puts things away. He just puts things down wherever and then promptly forgets about it forever, including asking me where it is later on, even though it’s exactly in the stupid spot he selected last time.
I love them dearly, but these things do drive me up the wall.
I am allergic to dust, grass, cats, dogs, birch pollen, etc. When I was first diagnosed as a child, my doctor told my mom to remove the wastepaper basket from my room. I have never had a wastepaper basket in my sleeping room since.
As our place is all on one level, we don’t have to worry about stuff being on the wrong floor. We do have a basket by the door, which is where badges, keys and wallets go. Phones always go back to their charging stations. Coats and shoes are put away - both are in the closet next to the main door.
When we are getting ready for a trip, we start collecting stuff (such as gifts and printouts of confirmations) in a bag.
The kitchen, living areas and utility room are down, bedrooms and laundry up. I keep the bathrooms on each floor stocked with cleaning supplies. What I want and need is a place to stash a vacuum upstairs too. Though when I do drag it up or down I’m reminded to vacuum the stairs.
And towels, dish towels from the kitchen that need a wash can sometimes be damp or dirty and I should really have a bucket or hamper nearby. Instead they are left on top of the kitchen garbage lid until I bring them up. Bath towels are carried up after a shower.
I’m like this with one notable exception. Once in awhile I can’t find them anywhere. Then I notice I’m already wearing them. D’oh!
I think most of those items would simply go directly into the trash as soon as I noticed them. It’s probably cheaper than a divorce and would definitely improve your sanity. Which is the only sanity you’re responsible for.
We have a few places where things launch or land. Mostly the common ones, nothing out of line from what people have already posted. But there is one spot in our home that becomes a battle of wills.
The bottom of the stairs is the spot where anything that needs to go up to the home office sits until I make my next trip. Things like papers that come in the mail, bathroom supplies for upstairs, regular stuff.
My wife has the habit of throwing things there that she doesn’t know where else to put them so I take my trip up the stairs just a few minutes ago, and there’s a caulk scraper. I’m not sure where that belongs, but for sure it is not upstairs. So I am going to pass that dozens of times without touching it, and she will periodically ask when I’m going to take all the stuff on the stairs up. How many days or weeks will this last?
Yup. Things which need to go up to the second floor sometimes get set along the edge of a stair, to be picked up and taken upstairs by the next person to head up (nearly always me).
I live in the House of Stairs. There are four flights of stairs inside the house plus one exterior flight to the front door, a total of 59 steps. A direct path from the garage to my bedroom requires stepping up 35 steps. Of course, it’s a law of nature that anything you want will be on a different level than you are. So yeah, there are launching pads near each of the stairways, because I’m not going to spend two minutes walking up and down stairs to put a pen back where it belongs.
We have a stainless steel steam tray pot for compostables that lives in the trash drawer next to the kitchen sink. When full, my partner puts it on the counter near the back door. Sooner or later I take it out to the compost bins.
Reading this thread reminded me that it was on the counter this morning. It is now emptied and back in it’s place. She tacitly appreciates the SDMB.
I was brought up in such a House of Stairs, and yes, my mother was forever leaving bits and pieces on the top/bottom step for the next person (or more usually her) to ferry them up or down. Now I live in a flat on one level and things go where they’re supposed to (but not necessarily immediately - I have quite a pile of things to take to the charity shop, and recycling centre.)
Now I come to think of it, my parents eventually moved to a flat one floor up, and got a stairlift installed for my infirm father - but mum found it useful for getting the shopping up and the refuse down.
Well, that doesn’t work because we do need his car keys, sunglasses, that library book, etc. if he has two things in his hand, he may put one of them in a reasonable place, but somehow the other thing gets set down beside it.
I’ve been with him for 25 years, he’s been like this the whole time. It isn’t a deal breaker, but it can be aggravating.
We have a bench just inside the front door, and things like bill receipts that are to be filed go there before they get moved to my wife’s office which has the filing cabinet. Toilet paper on its way to the bathroom sits there also.
Recycling goes on top of the pantry in the laundry room just outside the garage door to be deposited en masse into the recycling bin just inside the garage.
We have a one-story house so that helps.
Yes. Maybe other people don’t have a problem constantly having to go to another room, but I know I won’t do it. Instead, I try to make putting things away as easy as possible.
If you’re somebody whose nose runs a lot, a tissue box by every chair makes sense. If nose-blowing is a semi-annual event for you, tissue boxes by every chair is silly.
True, however 1) no-one said every chair and 2) I used the word “tissues” I’m not sure how that translates into american english, but I just mean general purpose papers for soaking up spills, wiping my mouth after eating, trivial cleaning tasks etc. I have some in every room, and they get used in every room.
The get rid of the trash can from your bedroom advice seems very old fashioned advice.
Trash doesn’t necessarily catch more allegens than say the jacket hanging on your closet door knob or your shoes you walked throught the grass in that are right beside your chair.
My sister had very enviro-allergic girls.
The advice she recieved was rip up all the carpeting, remove the drapery. Clean the AC system duct work.
They were still allergic. Still took meds. Still took shots. Still missed too much school.
No such thing as a totally hypoallergenic home.
Maybe the Bio-sphere could be an allergy free zone. Maybe.
Same. Nice breeze. No skeeters or gnats. In the evening just pleasant light’nin’ bugs.
Except the time a Chihuahua decided to catch him one and eat it. Then he had a glow on his mouth for a minute or two. Then upchucked his dinner plus glowing bug parts.
Truly broke the mood. Let me tell you.
Crap. Got a itchy rash on a spot on my ankle! Gah!
Good thing I have a deck box where all the crap I pick up in the yard lands. I found a bottle of bactine and a roll of paper towel useful. Right then.
The fridge in my kitchen is a cabinet now (full I might add) after the compressor went out. My working fridge is on the front porch, so I queue up stuff to go into the fridge so I only open it once.