I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but (toot-toot) I am pretty good at organization.
Most of this probably stems from the fact that my mom was always very adamant about objects having a “home.” When you were done wearing, playing with or using something at our house it was always your job to put that thing back where it belonged – put it in its home.
I remember my mom once giving a pair of my shoes to charity because she thought I didn’t want them anymore. Instead of putting them in my room, I let them sit in the basement. Lesson learned…the hard way. But thanks to my mom, I learned how to keep things in order, even when life feels a bit crazy.
Cleaning Out the Closet
One of the best places to start a new organization project is with a purge. Open all your closets and start setting aside things that you don’t use or need anymore. My rule of thumb with clothes is if I made it through a whole season and never wore it, I probably don’t need to keep it in my closet. This doesn’t apply to dress clothes, which you probably don’t wear on a regular basis unless you are royalty. And if you are like me and my husband, we refer to these clothes as our “wedding and funeral attire.”
Once this initial purge is complete, you can take time throughout the year to do smaller purges. We like to keep a box in our basement marked “give away” to put all those clothes, shoes and toys that we don’t need anymore.
Every couple months we donate the contents of the box to charity. Places like the Goodwill, Vietnam Veterans of America, and Salvation Army are always in need of clothes, shoes, kitchen supplies, and even small furniture. Most of these places will even come to your house to pick up your goods! All you have to do is go to their website and schedule a pick-up day and the truck will come take it away and leave a receipt for tax purposes.
There is also the option of taking your unwanted items to sell at a consignment shop. Consignments sell goods for an owner and take a percentage of the sale price as a fee. If your item doesn’t sell, it is returned to you at no charge.
There are a number of these shops in Beaver County. This is a good idea with children’s clothes and toys. If your kids are like mine and grow out of things faster than I can say “whaaa?!”, then you probably have a lot of like-new clothes on your hands.
Getting Your House in Order
Our closets aren’t the only places that need organized. You probably have a lot of things in your house that you use on a daily basis and need to keep. There are a variety of space-saving items you can purchase, but you definitely don’t have to break the bank to do so.
A lot of everyday items can be re-purposed to be tools of organization. For example, magazine organizers can by screwed to the inside of a kitchen cupboard to hold all your wax paper, aluminum foil and plastic wrap. Shoe organizers can by hung on the back of a closet door to store cleaning supplies. Small wire storage bins can be screwed into the inside of a linen closet to hold medicine and toiletries.
All of these things can be purchased for a few dollars and take only a couple minutes to set into place. It’s also a good idea to keep a small basket in a common place to put keys, wallets and cell phones. How many times have you been ready to rush out the door only to realize you don’t have any of these things and can’t remember where you last put them?
Once the house starts to “feel” organized, there are a few things that can be done everyday to keep it that way:
Make Your Bed
It’s amazing how much neater a room can look – even with clothes and toys all over the floor – with a nicely made bed in it.
Sort Through the Mail
Mail tends to pile up quick. If you can take a couple minutes every day to throw away the junk and set aside the important stuff, it can make a huge difference. Have a place in your house where the bills are stashed – like in a small basket next to the computer.
After the bills are paid, keep them and other important papers sorted in a filing cabinet. If you ever need to reference them, or need other important papers quickly, its nice to know where everything is.
Do Little Chores Each Day
When I wake up the morning, the last thing I want to be greeted with when I walk into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee is a sink full of dirty dishes. I don’t need to add things to my to-do list at 6 am, so taking the time after dinner to get the kitchen clean is important. Get the kids to help – they still think its fun to clean! (silly kids)
This goes for laundry, too. After it’s wash and folded, don’t let it sit in the laundry basket taunting you. Doing a few little chores each day – wiping down counters/bathrooms, straightening up a room as you walk through it, putting things away – can save you from having to do huge, all-day cleanings.
It’s also important to remember that no one’s life or home will ever be perfect. I love organization, but I’m not a robot and no one in my family is either, so there are times the house looks like a tornado went through it. But staying organized by purging often and putting things in their “home” can make for a less stressful and organized life in 2016.
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