Do you have a system for getting things that belong upstairs back up...

[melissel]

...and things that belong downstairs back down? We normally drop things in a pile at the top of the stairs, and eventually, when the pile gets so big it begins to impede passage through the hallway, someone will start bringing things down when they go. I recently freed up a handled basket and was thinking I'd leave that at the top of the stairs for collecting things, but I'm wondering if anyone else has a system that works. Besides the obvious "bring it up/down right this minute," which, of course, is a proven failure in this house.

 

TIA!

[Aubrey]

We don't have 2 stories now, but yeah, a basket of reasonable size for the space at the top & another at the bottom. Take one the direction you're going.

 

But actually, I'd suggest 4 baskets: 2 at the top, 2 at the bottom. One is stuff to be put away at the bottom, one is stuff to go up, the other 2 are the counterparts. Because when you take a basket down if it then becomes your job to put everything away *also,* chances are, you won't do it. But if there's a basket "to be put away" then when you walk past it, you can grab something that goes the direction you're going. No pressure.

 

Whereas otherwise, you'll end up w/ a basket to be put away at the bottom of the stairs, & it will look like it needs to go upstairs. You want to avoid carrying the same stuff back & forth, lol.

[Tap]

My 11yo

[*********]

My 11yo

 

Ha!

 

I'd use baskets if I had an upstairs/downstairs.

[rafiki]

.

[Jeannie in NJ]

actually, I think of running up and down the stairs several times a day, bringing stuff back where it belongs, to be part of my daily exercise routine. lol. (I can't stand to see stuff waiting at either end of the stairs so I just quickly run it up or down as the case may be)

[Oak Knoll Mom]

We have a large basket by the stairs of things that go down to the basement, and a smaller basket at the bottom of things that come up to our main living space. Every day after lunch we have a 15 minute clean-up time and one job is to put everything in the "goes downstairs" basket away. We transfer the basket contents into two small laundry baskets depending on which part of the basement they belong. For some reason, things that have to come back upstairs make it back up without too much hassle.

 

The biggest key for us, though, is setting aside a particular time of day that the basket gets cleared out.

Edited July 4, 2010 by Oak Knoll Mom
grammar

[nukeswife]

I don't worry about stuff that needs to come back down as that's usually a small amount and each time I come down I just bring things if need be. Now getting things back upstairs is a whole other ball of wax. :lol:

So each of my kids has a small basket that is labeled with their name and there is a 4th basket for DVDs. As I find things down stairs that need to go up I place them in the basket of the child they belong to, and DVD's go in their basket. Then on Saturdays the kids are responsible to take their basket up and put all the things in it away and then they all work together to put the DVDs away.

 

There is no basket for DH or I because if we have something to go up, but aren't headed that way just then we'll place it in on the bottom stair and then the next time one of us goes up we grab it, so usually we only have 1-3 small items ever needing to be moved up at one time.

[Pegasus]

We have a carefully designed system.

 

We stack items on the right side of the stairs to go up and walk on the left. When that becomes dangerous, we start to remember to carry stuff up when we go.

 

Stuff to come downstairs is easy, it usually gets tossed from the top of the stairs and lands at the bottom. Mission accomplished.

 

Are you telling me that not everyone does it this way? :001_huh:

 

Pegasus

[Carrie12345]

My stairs are carpeted, so my system involves piling things on the landing (about 4 steps up) until the dog hair demands to be vacuumed. I can't vacuum with piles of stuff in the way!

 

Fortunately/unfortunately, dog hair tends to accumulate pretty quickly on our stairs, so the piles are usually moved before it gets TOO dangerous!

[mcconnellboys]

No, we just have the usual conveyor belt on the stairs. Things get stacked along the edges but are invisible until Mom directs "xxxx, bring yyyyy upstairs/downstairs the next time you are on the stairs and put it away as you go". Then things can get put away. Otherwise, Mom is the delegated putter away-er, by default.

[Chris in VA]

We have a carefully designed system.

 

 

Stuff to come downstairs is easy, it usually gets tossed from the top of the stairs and lands at the bottom. Mission accomplished.

 

Are you telling me that not everyone does it this way? :001_huh:

 

Pegasus

 

LOL--We do the "throw down," too. In fact, that's how I get dd to help me with laundry. She's gotten so good, she can throw down a load of towels, a load of sheets, and her clothes, and have them land in separate piles. :D

[CathyT]

I put everything in the laundry basket in my laundry room. There is always laundry to go up and at the end of the day a basket that goes down (with the stuff that needs to go downstairs.).

[Suzanne in ABQ]

They make special baskets just for this purpose. They're "stepped" themselves, and sit on two stairs at once. That would be less cumbersome than a big basket. I'll look for a link, and edit this post if I find one.

 

Wow, I googled "stair basket" and got a treasure trove of options! Here are a few:

 

http://www.target.com/s/187-0411955-2418466?_encoding=UTF8&LID=1385072&search-alias=tgt-index&keywords=stair%20basket&ref=tgt_adv%5FXSGT0333&searchNodeID=1038576%7C1287991011&afid=google&searchPage=1&LNM=stair%5Fbasket

 

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=16552992

 

http://www.amazon.com/Chipwood-Stair-Basket-With-Handle/dp/B00110NAT6

[AHASRADA]

When my kids were little, the things that had to be brought up or down were mainly toys. I had a collapsable canvas box that I used for my daily toy gathering/returning to their correct floor time.

 

Now that they are more than capable of dealing with their own stuff (which includes sweatshirts, karate gear, videos/dvds, hairbands, earbuds, etc, etc), items are placed along the left side of the stairs. Sometimes I do this as part of my cleaning up, other times I ask the kids to straighten up and they place the items there.

 

The rule is, the next time you go upstairs, you bring an armful of your own stuff. Everything is usually gone by the end of the day. I do sometimes have to remind them in case they get in the habit of walking by and ignoring the piles, but they are pretty good about it.

 

Yes, baskets might be nice, especially if each kid had their own, but I think in our house, this would look too "neat", and the baskets would just become a new storage location. The messy pile along the side of the stairs screams "clean me up"!

[rwjx2khsmj]

We use to have a stair basket. I thought it was brilliant. Unfortunately, stair baskets are invisible to dh. The third time he tripped on the stair basket it was exiled from the house.

 

Now we have a wicker basket in the kitchen which I fill with misc. until it's time to carry it downstairs to be put away. We do a 15 minute pick up daily so during that time the basket is carried downstairs, emptied, refilled, emptied and then returned to the kitchen until the entire process starts again.

[Ellen_TX]

...and things that belong downstairs back down? We normally drop things in a pile at the top of the stairs, and eventually, when the pile gets so big it begins to impede passage through the hallway, someone will start bringing things down when they go. I recently freed up a handled basket and was thinking I'd leave that at the top of the stairs for collecting things, but I'm wondering if anyone else has a system that works. Besides the obvious "bring it up/down right this minute," which, of course, is a proven failure in this house.

 

TIA!

We have a rule that you never go upstairs empty handed. There is always something that needs to go upstairs.

 

Never go upstairs alone...take a book, smelly socks...something.

[Lizzie in Ma]

It's called room sweep and they have to put everything that belongs to them away before they get to eat supper.