Planning Baby Steps For Getting Your Home Organized

You can increase your productivity dramatically by simply organizing your belongings in your home. I will describe important tools to help you when deciding on your goals to organize your life. 

The first major step is to create a plan. There is nothing that is more essential to achieving your goals than having a good plan. Often times, people set nonrealistic goals when first embarking on changing any area of their life.   

In order for your organizing plan to work successfully you need to have understandable, realistic goals that are individualized and written out. It is a good idea to set long and short-term goals. For example, your long-term goal could be getting your total home organized in one year's time. Your short-term goal could be getting one room in order within a month. 

After you have your goals defined, write them down on paper and put that paper in a place where you can view it often throughout the week. This should easily motivate you to achieve your goals.

Lastly, you need to determine why you want your house to be organized. It is helpful for you to know why you have this desire. 

While the above ideas may seem simplistic, it is amazing how many people set out to achieve positive changes in life without knowing what they specifically want to get done. The simplest and strongest force to achieving your goals is knowing where you are going and the reasons why you are going in that direction. Hopefully, if you follow these tips you will organize your life better than you ever thought possible.

What Area of Your House Needs Organization?

I would like you to think of what area of your house has been causing you the most frustration?

Some examples:

• Is it your cluttered kitchen or bathroom cabinets?
• Could it be your desk with piles of papers?
• Maybe your family room is not being used for it's fullest potential because clutter is taking up a lot of space.
• Can you relax in your bedroom area, or do you have disorganization with clothes and books lying around?
• Do you have unfolded clothes in laundry baskets sitting in your family room on the couch?
• Is it taking you too long to cook and prepare family meals because you can't find what you need inside of your disorganized, cluttered kitchen cabinets?
• Do you get frustrated just thinking about cleaning and maintaining the bathroom every week because you haven't figured out the appropriate storage for that area?
• Do you dislike walking into your basement because you have been storing so much of what you have accumulated throughout the years in boxes downstairs?
• Can you park your cars in your garage, or do you use that area to store extra boxes of items that you need to sort through?
• Does it look nice around the entrance of your front or back door, or do you have shoes, mail, magazines or pet supplies lying around?

I think you probably get the picture. I believe that you will begin to easily see a huge positive difference in even one small area in your home that you declutter. Hopefully, this will get you motivated to continue with your future home organizational plans!

After reading many of my examples, you may decide to start in the one area of your home that causes you the most frustration.

You will want to begin by planning your organizing or decluttering project.

Plan an appropriate amount of time for your individual projects. Four hours may be a great amount of time, but even if you have an hour or 30 minutes, you may accomplish a decent amount of work. 

After you become accustomed to decluttering and organizing your house, you may easily find that even 15 minutes a day may be helpful if you are busy.

Get your supplies ready such as: garbage bags, boxes for sorting, labels, etc. You will want to wait until you declutter to buy specific storage containers that you will need to use on a long-term basis.

It is helpful to decide in advance what you want to do with any items that you definitely decide to get rid of for sure. Some examples: local charity, local consignment store, junk removal service or a future yard sale. 

It is helpful to have items removed quickly after your organizing project is completed. It is always a good idea to completely finish one project before you begin another.

Remember to stick with one area that you are working on and do not jump into other rooms at the same time. Focus on one project at time to increase your efficiency.

Some people enjoy working with an accountable friend and they find that method to be motivating.

Others may have a need or desire to hire a Professional Organizer to help them develop specific organizing systems and storage solutions.

Here are a few stumbling blocks or excuses that people may commonly use when deciding on what to get rid of in their homes.

• People sometimes want to hold onto things because they think "they may need those items someday."  I am a strong believer that it actually becomes much easier and quicker to access items in your home after you get rid of what you don't use or want anymore.
• Many times, people just do not know what to keep, such as paperwork. I am planning on developing my Paper Management Workshop possibly in the future to discuss this separate topic. For now, here are a few examples of purposes for keeping paper: taxes, legal certificates/proof, property documents, legal agreements, receipts/claims.
• You may feel guilty about getting rid of an item that was given to you originally as a gift. However, it is important to remember that the "act of giving" is the factor involved. If you definitely do not like the item or need it, please don't feel guilty.
• We often save certain objects for sentimental reasons. An item may be associated with an familiar memory. You can decide to even take a picture of the object and keep that to help preserve the memory. One big excuse that people use to hold onto their "stuff" is because they paid decent money for an item. Please decide if the item is useful for your life today. You may decide to have a yard sale or even use a local consignment shop as an option.

Here are some excellent organizing principles for you.

• When you purchase a new item in a certain category, you may decide to donate or sell another item that you already have in that category. This is sometimes referred to as "the one in - one out" principle. So, you won't have a tendency to accumulate too much again in the future.
• Before you decide to buy a new item for your home, try to visualize where it will " live" or be placed in your home. If you can't figure that out, it may be better to hold off on the purchase at this time, if possible. 
• Buy containers after you declutter, so you know exactly how many you will need and the correct sizes.
• You can label your containers with name of the contents, so you and your family will be able to quickly find your items when needed.
• Focus on one specific area when you are organizing your home. If you happen to find certain items that belong in another room, you can collect them in a separate box and put them back where they belong when you are finished with your organizing project. This will save you some time and keep you from getting distracted.
• Finally, make sure you have a maintenance plan to keep your house organized.

Positive Benefits of Home Organization and Decluttering Your House

I would like to begin by telling you a little information about myself. I am a Registered Nurse and I also earned by diploma in medical transcription.

I have several years of nursing experience and I even had the wonderful opportunity to write and teach a few online medical assisting courses on the junior college academic level.

However, I have always had a great passion for organizing my house. I studied many resources about home organization. There is so much helpful information to learn. I decided to continue to pursue my interest in this field. I studied online and now I am a trained Professional Organizer. I successfully completed a Professional Organizing program and I enjoyed my training very much. 

Now that you are a little more familiar with my training, we will get onto our topic of decluttering the house. I would like to emphasize that I do not believe there is just "one" successful method to organize and declutter your home. 

I think it is extremely important for you to educate yourself about home organization and decluttering the house and decide on specific "organizing systems" that will work well for your individual lifestyle and family. Always remember that good organizational habits can be learned.

I have a question for everyone reading my blog today. What is clutter?

• Clutter is anything in your home or office that does not serve a purpose or function in your life anymore.
• Clutter may include items in your home that are broken or nonfunctional.
• Clutter may be material items in your home that you do not need or love.
• Clutter could also include unnecessary duplicate items in your home.
• You may be surprised to realize that having too many storage containers that aren't actually being used in your home may add to your existing clutter problem. That is the main reason it may be suggested that you declutter your home "first." Then it should be easy to figure out exactly how many storage boxes to buy and specific sizes you may need.
• Clutter could also consist of accumulated items of trash to be thrown away or removed in an appropriate manner. 

Now that we know what clutter is, why do you think our homes accumulate clutter?

• Clutter may be caused be delayed decisions.
• You haven't taken the time to decide on appropriate areas to keep your specific items in your home.
• Procrastination: maybe you feel overwhelmed about organizing or decluttering your house.
• You may be experiencing that frustrating "all or nothing" feeling about home organization. For example: you may think to yourself, "I will never have enough time to get my organizing projects done. There is just too much to do. So, why should I even start?"
• Maybe you have a very busy family schedule and you haven't been using a good weekly/monthly planner for routine chores/tasks in the home.
• Possibly the family doesn't realize your home organization goals and you may get easily distracted with many interruptions throughout the day. It may be very helpful for you to communicate your short-term and long-term organizing goals with your family. You may decide to have family members participate in your plan. This may be especially important in helping to keep your home maintained after you have everything set up the way you like it.
• You may have felt the lack of energy or motivation to complete organizing projects in the past.
• Often times, a major lifestyle change may cause a change in the normal flow of organization in your home. Here are a few examples: a birth or a death in the family, new marriage or a divorce, job relocation or health problems.

How can clutter affect your life in a negative way?

• Clutter can take up lots of extra space in a home. Think of how much more additional space you may have available after you get rid of any unnecessary clutter.
• You may be using a lot of your valuable time to take care of all the material things in your house.
• You could be spending extra money for duplicate items that you have been purchasing because you haven't been able to find the things that you were looking for in your house.
• Many people say they lack energy because they are tired of maintaining all the material things they have accumulated over the years.
• They don't have enough time to take good care of themselves or to enjoy their favorite hobbies and outlets.

What are the positive benefits of home organization and decluttering your house?

• You will be able to focus on things that you enjoy such as: exercise, hobbies, good nutrition, etc.
• You may find that you have more time to spend with family and friends.
• Hopefully, you won't have the need to purchase unnecessary items because you will have easy access to your items and be able to find everything when you need it. You will learn how to find "the right place for everything in your home."
• You may really enjoy the big bonus of having more space in your home once you get rid of your clutter.
• An organized house, free of clutter, may help you save time when you need to do your routine daily/weekly household chores.
• I find that I focus and concentrate better and feel more productive and less stress with work when my house and office are organized.
• You may increase your confidence to invite your friends over to your home again.

This is a wonderful video titled:

"How to Organize Your Home: Organizational Expert Alejandra Costello's House Tour"

Organizing Tips to Keep Your House Tidy Everyday

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash

Does this happen to you? Do you waste precious time trying to find what you’re looking for? Are you sometimes late for work because you can’t find your car keys? Setting up some useful organizing systems throughout your home can make your everyday routine run smoothly and efficiently. These tips about keeping your home orderly will help you to save time and keep you more organized and productive. 

Get into the good habit of keeping your items in a place that makes sense. For example, you can use a decorative basket or two on a table by your entryway to keep your outgoing mail, school books or book-bags that are needed for the next day after the homework is done. One basket could be used just for hats, scarves and gloves during the winter months. You can also keep your car keys in a dish by the front door. It is nice to have a coat rack and umbrella holder by the entrance too. This will save you time in the morning because you won’t be running around trying to gather what you need for the day.

Many pet owners have a cute area by their front or back door organized with a special basket to hold their dog’s supplies, such as their lease, doggy coat and a few treats.

I like to set up a central command center near the kitchen on my desk to keep my everyday daily planner notebook, pens, pencils and extra paper. I keep a large calendar on my desk to write down all appointments and special events, including upcoming holiday plans. 

Along with my kitchen command center, I have a bill paying set-up that includes a special caddy with a handle to hold my envelopes, stamps, tape, address book and calculator. Some people use a small rolling cart for their mail/bill paying supplies and daily planners, etc. A rolling cart can be conveniently moved around to different areas of the house as needed. 

I like to use small rolling carts for my frequently used baking supplies in my pantry/kitchen area. Carts can also come in handy to store excess pantry goods, if you have an overflow. A cute little decorative cart could be used to display a nice variety of your coffee and tea items near your dining room for entertaining. If you have some extra space in your bathroom, you could use a pretty rolling cart to display/store your favorite beauty essentials, such as cosmetic supplies and hair curling sets, etc.

It is great to find the correct “home” or place for your all of your items. When you are finished using something, it will become easy for you to put the item back in the proper storage space when you are done. This is a good practice for every room in your house. It is often easier to straighten up as you go, instead of spending hours over your weekend off cleaning the whole house. 

You can pick up the newspapers and magazines when you are done reading them and put them in your recycle bin instead of leaving them on the coffee table. It is a great habit to load the dishwasher after every meal instead of just once a day after dinner. 

Did you ever bring home a real big order of groceries and end up leaving several of the canned and boxed items in the grocery bags on your kitchen table for the next day or two until you had more time to put everything away? Get into the good habit of putting all of your groceries away rather than leaving them on the kitchen table for a few days. How can you keep track of what food you do or don’t have if last week’s groceries are still in the bags? If things are neat and tidy in your kitchen area, it becomes a pleasant environment to enjoy a meal instead of a constant reminder of projects or jobs that need to be done.

Another area that is important to keep clean and organized on a daily basis is the bathroom. Keep your bathroom tidy everyday. You can wipe the sink and vanity after you wash your face or use your cosmetics. Then you can put away your toiletries and hair products. Doing these small things routinely as you go everyday keeps the bathroom cleaner, especially if you have unexpected guests visit at any time. 

One easy way to keep your bedroom looking fresh and nice is to make your bed every morning and hang up any clean clothes that might be lying around. Remember to keep your closets organized. If your closet is overflowing with clothes, you can’t see what you have. You can keep out of season clothes in the spare bedroom closet or in a protective storage system. Keep shoes in boxes or organized on shoe racks. It would be nice to donate any clothing that no longer fits or if you haven’t worn the items in the past season. There are probably many people who would be grateful to use the clothes.

Remember to finish one project before starting another. I have a neighbor who has started to clean and organize their basement, but never finished the project and is now working on their garage. Their house is constantly in a state of disarray and they never manage to get any project completed because it’s too overwhelming and stressful.

In summary, just by taking these small steps every day to keep your house organized will help your home to stay clutter-free and tidy. This should also help you to be less stressed and more productive.

Lastly, you may really enjoy this great video titled “How Erin Uses the Wall Organization Center"

Learn more: "Wall Organization Center 101" at affiliate link http://shrsl.com/1w387 

Meal Planning for Your Family

Healthy Meal Planning program for your busy family ~ customizable weekly menus, easy recipes and shopping lists based on your grocery stores' sales. Make your life easier by organizing and simplifying your weekly dinners. See how the program works by clicking the following link or the above banner.

(I am a member of a few affiliate programs that are listed on my blog. I may receive monetary compensation for sales of various products, or for successful promotions for specific products.)

Organizational Tips For Work-At-Home Moms

Many work-at-home moms are motivated to get their home and their life organized. They want to have the least amount of stress in their daily lives. They also want to be productive with work and efficient with their family responsibilities. Work-at-home moms want to avoid an overwhelming schedule. It is essential for moms working from home to establish specific business hours. This will help with focus and also to prevent distractions. You will need to explain your working schedule to family and friends. You can delegate certain routine chores to family members, if appropriate. Maybe your spouse could help with cooking. It is essential that you try to keep your life balanced, so you can get adequate rest to be able to function to your fullest potential. A daily planner, paper or digital is very important for management of your time and work. Write down your short-term and long-term goals in your daily planner, along with your specific project plans. You can also use your planner for meal planning too. Make sure that everything has a correct place or "home" in your house. It is a good habit to put back items where they belong on a daily basis. It is helpful to organize the specific storage spaces within your home. Baskets, shelves, bins and cabinets can be used to organize items throughout your home. Create an organizing system that works nicely with your daily lifestyle.

A Great Video Titled "Most Organized Home in America (Part 2) by Professional Organizer & Expert Alejandra Costello"