Designing Your Own Organizing System

By reading my blog you are taking a step closer to getting your home and your life more organized. Have you been feeling the clutter in your life is getting out of control and more chaotic? Do you waste a lot of valuable time searching for items around your house? I know for myself, even with being home so much more throughout last year during the Pandemic, I feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to get things done like I used to in the past. I think a lot of the reason is because I am cooking even more now throughout the whole day, which means more meal preparation and clean up time afterwards. 

It seems like before the Pandemic, I had more of a consistent routine daily/weekly schedule. Do you ever think how much better your daily life would be if your house was really organized? I have read so many wonderful books and articles about organization throughout the past several years. 

Sometimes it is easy for life to seem to get somewhat out of control, such as with all of the changes in 2020. You may feel overwhelmed with so many daily responsibilities to accomplish, without enough time for you to relax a bit. You may even begin to feel anxious and depressed about the situation. 

Maybe you actually started to spend money on shelving units, bins and containers, hoping to bring order to counteract the chaos. Don’t lose hope or motivation. You can turn your situation around. Start with a small, manageable project that won’t take too much time. Be consistent and keep going with this reasonable project until it is completed. It could be cleaning out and organizing one kitchen cabinet or drawer. Successfully finishing smaller tasks will help to build your confidence to tackle larger projects. 

It is very important to understand that organizing is not all about throwing things out, but about identifying what is important to you, prioritizing and maintaining access to what you routinely need. Clutter control and finding the ideal storage area for your individual items are important keys to good organization. Home organization requires patience and consistent efforts. However, the end results are so rewarding.

By learning helpful organizing skills and techniques, you can begin to restore order and balance in your life. Organizing your home and cleaning may provide comforting, peaceful order to your life. 

When families collect too much stuff, the unnecessary clutter can interfere with the tranquility and calmness of the home environment. Too much clutter can actually cause feelings of despair and frustration. Clutter takes up a lot of precious space in your home that could be used much more efficiently.

One of the first things I learned when I was studying to become a professional organizer was the major importance of assigning everything in your house a specific place or “home” so that you will know exactly where to find that item in the future when you are searching for it. This is a good habit to teach all of your individual family members.

You could start in your foyer/entryway area of your house and place a small basket or dish to hold your keys. A larger basket set on an entryway table could temporarily hold library or school books, so they don’t get lost and remain quick and easy to find. A coat rack could nicely hold your seasonal coat and purse. 

I know you can think of several areas throughout your house for organized storage of various items. In the bedroom you can use drawer dividers for socks and tiny items. I have found useful, multi-purpose ottomans to store many things, such as seasonal throw blankets in my bedroom. They are also handy to store excess books. 

In my own closet, if I find clothing that I haven’t worn for a year or is no longer my size, I decide if I want to sell or donate those items or store them. I use slim color coded hangers to display only the clothing that is currently my size and that I plan to actually wear often.

One thing I routinely do with my kitchen items is to try to donate a small appliance at the time that I purchase an upgraded model. I have a small kitchen with limited counter space. I do a lot of cooking every day, so I try to prioritize things carefully in my kitchen. It takes a decent amount of time, but I need to really maintain order inside my small kitchen cabinets for adequate storage purposes.

I find that my dining room table can easily get cluttered with excess grocery supplies or with mail/bills, etc. It definitely is a fabulous habit to keep your kitchen and dining room table clean and free of all clutter. Hopefully, you may have a spare desk or even a dedicated cart of some kind to keep your mail and bills, along with your writing supplies, calendars, notebook and menu planners. 

I keep at least three boxes in the house labeled the following:

1.) Donate

2.) Sell

3.) Put Away

Then when I straighten out rooms throughout the week, it makes it easier to keep things tidy and organized.

There a few things to consider when you are deciding to donate items, such as:

1.) Have you used the item in the past year?

2.) Do you have duplicate items?

3.) Have you upgraded to a newer model?

4.) Are you holding onto the item just for sentimental value?

Part of organizing is deciding what is important to you and finding an appropriate place for your items, so your home can be maintained in an easy manner. You will reap the benefits of a calm, happy, “clutter-free” home environment. Hopefully, you will have more available quality time to spend enjoying your favorite things and more relaxation. Organizing is not about throwing out a lot of household items or buying lots of storage containers.

Don’t feel guilty for accumulating a lot of stuff over the years. Developing a unique smart organizing system that will work for you and your whole family will certainly help you maintain your household.

To create a lasting, successful organizing solution, make your system fit your personality so you feel comfortable with your home surroundings. Create neat order, clear surfaces, simplify your life by designing your own organizing system unique for you and your family!

Declutter Your Dining Room and Kitchen Table

Many families are so busy these days. Often times, both parents may be working and children may have a variety of school responsibilities. People may begin to feel disorganized when their homes become cluttered. This type of situation can be stressful and interfere with our daily lives. Clutter can easily affect the function of a room in your home.

This is especially true for dining room and kitchen areas in many busy homes. Family members may have a habit of walking through the front door and placing some of the following common items on a dining room or kitchen table: mail, newspapers, handbags, car keys, bags of groceries from the store, school books, homework papers, and book bags. The dining room table is a likely spot where paperwork in general may collect, such as bills and coupons for the grocery store, etc.

One helpful solution is to have a designated container, or storage box for each individual family member with their name on it that would be located at a central location in your home. Possibly, you could set up a nicely organized area in the entrance area of your house, so each family member would have a temporary space that would be suitable to place some of their miscellaneous belongings. Maybe a nice bench with shelves or decorative baskets may come in handy to help hold book bags, umbrellas, or handbags. There are beautiful storage solutions, such as sturdy cloth boxes in different colors, a variety of wicker baskets, and even durable plastic containers.

If your children happen to have art or homework projects, you may also want to have special containers to keep their school supplies for their projects. You can label the containers. It may be a good organizing habit to encourage everyone to put away their supplies after they are done using them.

These things sound simple; however, if practiced on a regular basis they can help to keep the household going along on a smooth routine. When you become organized, you will save time and labor in the future while maintaining your home and keeping it tidy.

Some family members may routinely have different working schedules and after-school events. People often become so busy that they forget about the importance of sitting down all together as a family at least once a day for a nice family meal. If the dining room table happens to be cluttered the majority of the time, there won't be any room for the family members to gather around to eat, relax, and communicate during a meal.

I believe a better plan is to get into the habit of routinely keeping your dining room or kitchen table clean and free of all clutter. It may be a nice idea to place a pretty tablecloth on your table. After dinner is finished, you can make sure the table is clean and the dishes are done. If appropriate, some of the family members may share in the responsibility of setting the table and clean-up after the meal. This provides some special time together to share stories from the day and communicate in general.

If family members have snacks before bedtime, you can quickly straighten up the area once again. I have gotten into the habit of doing a quick walk through the rooms in my home in the evening to declutter anything that needs my attention. It is so much nicer to wake up to a clean kitchen and dining room area at breakfast time.

These may be sensible organizational tips for easy everyday clean-up; however, a few simple tips can help with maintaining an orderly home. Learning to organize your home may help you to save time in the future while doing your daily chores in the house.

When you sort through and organize your home, hopefully, you will find a good place to routinely keep most of the items in your house. As you become more organized, you will be pleasantly surprised about how easy it will become to find specific items in your home. As you declutter areas in your house and stay organized, you may feel less stressed in general and more productive with work.