Home Organization

Home organization can make it much easier to keep your home clean and neat. By conquering clutter, having a place for everything, and using a schedule you can get everything done in less time.

A cleaning checklist can help you organize.

How many times have you decided that today was the day you were getting organized, spent hours cleaning and putting things away, and then had the very same mess a week later? It can be frustrating to work that hard and feel that you have accomplished nothing. When you don’t have a plan for staying organized then all your hard work is in vain. So, the very first thing to do when you decide to organize your home is to create a plan. Using a day planner can make it even easier. There are many types available so choose one you like.

If you are going to get your home organized, you first need to organize your time. List everything you have to do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. On your list should be:

• Employment
• Household chores
• Classes
• Other activities

Plan certain activities on certain days. In generations past women had a day of the week set aside for different things. There was a little poem that went something like this:

• Monday -wash day
• Tuesday -ironing day
• Wednesday- mending day
• Thursday-shopping day
• Friday-cleaning day
• Saturday-baking day

It might seem very simplistic but having your chores planned out makes it easier to get them done.

Daily chores are the things you need to do every single day. Examples of daily chores are:

• Make your bed
• Wash dishes
• Pick up and put away clutter

Daily chores should be done first thing in the morning when possible and should not be skipped. Keeping them done streamlines everything else you have to do.

Decluttering is an important part of home organization. Keep up with your daily chores while you work on the clutter room by room.

• Get three bins.
  • Put away
  • Throw away
  • Give away
• Starting on one wall of the room, work your way clockwise around the room cleaning out every cabinet, closet, shelf, and piece of furniture. Everything that goes in another room will go into the put away container. Everything that you no longer need or want will go into either the throw away or give away container depending on its condition. It is important to be selective in what you keep. Remember that what you keep you will have to ultimately clean and put away.
• As you organize the room, make notes about what you need. Would small, lidded containers help contain certain items? Do you need a better filing system for papers? Plan to buy those items as you can.
• Knickknacks are pretty dust collectors. If you don’t mind taking the time to clean them then keep them out by all means. However, the fewer items that you have on the horizontal surfaces of your home the easier it will be to clean and put away out of place items.
• Items that are used only seasonally, like punch bowls or special pans, can be stored in an out of the way place until they are needed. This way they don’t take up valuable cupboard space.
• Craft rooms are hard to organize. You should plan on buying lidded, plastic bins for these types of areas.

Go through each room and organize it in this way. Don’t be afraid to get rid of your extra stuff. If you are worried that it is something you might need later, put it in a storage box in the basement or garage. If you haven’t opened the box in six months donate it to a charity.

• Keep trash bags in the bottom of the trash can under the bag that is in use. When you take out the trash the new bag will be at your fingertips, literally.
• Keep cords to unused appliances neat by folding them up like when they were new and pushing them into an empty toilet paper roll. It is just the right size to keep them securely.
• Scan papers that you need to keep rather than filing them unless you need the originals. Receipts, letters, and other papers used for taxes can often be scanned. They last longer and take up much less space. Plus your two year old won’t get them and color all over them.
• Use bins in closets and on shelves to hold things that are hard to keep organized. Mittens, library books, baseball mitts, and pencils are examples of things that can be kept in labeled storage bins.
• Only keep the clothes that fit with the current season in your closet. You can easily store out of season clothing in flat bins that slide under the bed. Add a sprig of lavender or a sachet to keep them smelling nice and dissuade bugs from taking up residence.

• Organized Home
• Fly Lady
• Organizing and Cleaning

Home organization can seem overwhelming when you look at the whole picture so it is important to break it down into small steps. If you do a little every day you will be eventually have a home that is organized and peaceful, and that you are proud of.

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