How to Start (and Stay) Organized in Your Home

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Are you an organized person? Do you love to organize…or dread it? For me, I love organization and the container aisle is my happy place – let’s not even mention The Container Store! To me, there is a difference between having an organized house and having a clean house. If you keep your house organized, most people will believe it’s clean! Can you tell cleaning is NOT my favorite? Those dang bathrooms are my enemy. I digress…I’m not here to talk about a clean house – I want to help you organize.

De-clutter. The first step is to de-clutter your home. It’s hard to organize a cluttered home. Go through each room one weekend at a time and use the “6-month rule”. If it hasn’t been used in 6 months, give it away. For clothes, turn all of your hangers the other way and after you wear the item, turn the hanger back. After 6 months, see which hangers were never turned back around and you’ll know which clothing items you don’t wear but may be keeping “just in case”. You can do this with shoes too by turning them around on the shoe rack.

Now, since having my son, I’ve noticed that toys are a bit harder. If your child hasn’t touched it in a while (you can determine the length), put it in a bag and see if they miss it. If not, then you can give it away. OR, if they are older, you can ask them to decide what they would like to give away to other kids who are in need of toys, shoes, clothes, etc.

Bins, baskets, and bags, oh my! Once you’ve de-cluttered your home, now it’s time to organize. There are so many awesome ways to do this. You could spend lots of money on the options. As a budgeter, I recommend seeing what bins, baskets, and bags you have around the house that aren’t being used and start there. Again, start with one room at a time. I started with the pantry because it always seems like this can never stay organized. I started by buying bins that were advertised for shoes (under $1 each) and used them for bread, granola bars, small snacks, potatoes, baking odds and ends, spices, etc. I also bought $5 sets of containers to use for flour, sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and oatmeal.

With my son’s toys, I use a basket that had blankets in it (which were moved to a smaller basket) for his plethora of balls and blocks. Then we were given a chest that I used as a kid for toys and it serves as a coffee table and toy chest. In there, I also have a few bins full of little toys like trains and tracks, Legos, play food, etc. It helps keep the toy chest organized and he can take out a bin at a time and play with what’s in there.

For the closets in our house, I have a few of those hanging closet organizers for shoes. Also in the kid’s room, there is a cube bookshelf that has a couple of baskets for pull-ups, diapers, burp clothes, etc. I love those cube bookshelves – I even bought one for the office!

I also use bins and baskets for first aid and medicine, light bulbs, dog items, Scentsy, extra toiletries, and items under the bathroom and kitchen sinks.

Labels. If you love to organize, the word “labeling” may just send you over the edge. Since I don’t have a labeler (shocking!), I often use tape or the labels on the bins and write in a sharpie. It’s not as pretty looking, but I at least know what’s in the bin. Maybe someday I’ll get a labeler (and probably go way overboard).

Center Hub. I was gifted with an organization piece that you hang on the wall. It’s G.R.E.A.T! I have placed it downstairs near our kitchen and there’s room for a calendar, pens, a whiteboard, and plenty of pockets for mail, bills, etc. I’ve seen these types of things at most stores, especially an office store. It’s our central “hub” and when the kids get older, I plan to have a pocket for each of them for their school work and papers. Right now it houses coupons, mail, bills, pens, the calendar, and stamps. It gives all those little papers a place to go instead of piling up on the table or counter.

Well, I hope that at least gets you started on organizing your home. Do you have additional ideas to keep your house (and life) organized? I’d love to hear them!

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Teri
I have three jobs I thoroughly enjoy. First, I am a wife to my best friend and partner in crime, James. Second, I get to be a Mom to two super handsome boys, Logan and Ethan. And finally, I am an eLearning consultant, to which I'm grateful to have found my professional passion. We live in Fairborn and it wasn't until we had our first son that we really started exploring Dayton. We have discovered many fun things to do and see; it's been great having those experiences so close! In my spare time, I enjoy doing projects around the house, baking, traveling, hanging out with family and friends, and binge watching TV.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Such great tips! I don’t know what I would do without my calendar hub! I have color coded each family member and make sure to write their activities in their color! It keeps me sane.

    • Thank you for your comment! I agree, the calendar hub is awesome and it’s one of my favorite newer organization items I’ve gotten.

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