Tips for Differing Standards of Tidiness within a Household

Family life and having roommates are both rewarding, but each can also be a challenge at times. One of these times is when you are trying to find a balance between keeping everyone happy in areas where they differ.

When some members of your household are neat freaks, and others are more suited to audition for a hoarding television show, it is not an easy task for everyone to live together. Here are some tips on how your household members of various levels of organization can dwell peacefully together.

Have a Group Meeting

The most important tip on how to negotiate this dilemma is to keep your lines of communication open. Hold regular meetings to discuss the issue. Make it a time where everyone can input and try to keep it light-hearted and as fun as possible.

Decide on Common Goals

Although some family members or roommates may be drastically more or less comfortable with disorganization than others, there are sure to be some common goals you can all agree on. Some of these might be to have a regular group clean-up time, or to keep the living room clean since this is where your visitors spend most of their time when they are over. Choose deadlines that everyone can agree on, and talk about a minimum level of cleanliness that everyone agrees is important.

Decide on a Reasonable Compromise

Perhaps the messiest individual of the group simply may not be able to stay consistently organized, nor leave things spotless all the time. Maybe as a group you could choose certain rooms that need to be tidy, and others that are not so important.

Bedrooms are generally an area where organization can be left to one’s personal choice. This way, if someone has items that need to be put away but they don’t have time to do so immediately when they return home, they know that they can put the bags in their own room or another appointed "messy zone" until they have the time for it.

Make other compromises such as letting family members or roommates switch their cleaning duties with someone else if they are running late from work or have an especially busy day ahead of them.

Let Each Person’s Strength Be Highlighted

No two people are alike, even in the same family. Everyone has different strengths, and this can be capitalized on when you are creating your cleaning schedule. Perhaps one of the household members loves cleaning the kitchen after supper, while another prefers more time-consuming but less frequent tasks such as vacuuming. Create the schedule to cater to everyone’s likes, dislikes and natural abilities.

It can be a challenge to live with someone who is at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to household organization, but there is no need to let it destroy your relationships or living arrangements. Stay focused on what you love about each of your roommates, whether it be family or friends. Appreciation for each other and a commitment to working together will help you to live in harmony while taking responsibility together for the home you live in.

Prioritize Your Declutter Project - One Area at a Time

If you have not decluttered recently nor maintained since your last purge, it can be quite a task to get things back under control. Thankfully, there are many ways to go about this while keeping your sanity. By organizing and decluttering one section of your home at a time, you can tidy up in a manageable way. Here is how to do it.

Prioritize Areas

First, sit down with a notebook and divide your home into rooms. Include non-rooms such as hallways and the entryway. Decide which room will be your first priority, then your second, then your third, etc.

If your children always have friends over, your living room might be first priority. If you feel like you can handle anything that comes your way as long as you have a clutter-free place to relax every night, then your bedroom might take first place instead.

Choose Area Size According to Available Time

Decide how much time each day you can devote to the task of decluttering. If you have entire days to spare, you might be able to take on a room per day. If you are like most people and have several responsibilities to juggle, then it might be more reasonable to tackle small areas within a room.

Break Down Each Area into Sections

After you have decided how much space you are likely to be able to clean each day, break each room down into areas such as closet, desk, floor, etc. Make the sections small enough that you can complete your task in one day. Whether it gets accomplished in twenty minutes or four hours, you will feel satisfied that you have finished the task you assigned to yourself.

Enlist Some Help from Family and Friends

Ask an especially organized family member to help you, or arrange for a decluttering swap with a good friend. Involve them in the planning process, and of course when it comes to the actual physical labor as well. Make it fun, and order pizza for everyone afterward. Most friends are happy to help out when asked, and you can always return the favor in the future.

Be Realistic and Flexible

We can set goals, but sometimes life gets in the way. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t reach your goal one day, or if you have to reschedule due to life events. Even if it takes longer than planned, your decluttering will eventually come to an end if you stay consistent and stick to it. If you miss one day, simply get back to it the next.

Set a reminder in your smartphone, or find another way to get into the decluttering groove without forgetting about it. Be flexible about your schedule if for some reason you should need one room to be decluttered sooner than originally planned, even if it means putting off another room. As long as you are doing something almost every day, you are headed in the right direction.

Decluttering takes organization. Prioritizing your task means that you will be able to get everything done in a timely fashion. Use these ideas and get on your way to an organized decluttering spree today.

Where to Find Ideas for Home Organization

As you make plans to organize and declutter your home, you will probably want to do as much research as possible in order to get an idea of what you like. By looking at several different places for inspiration, you will get clear ideas of what you do and do not like.

By looking extensively and collecting ideas, you will have enough information to decide on an appropriate way to manage the mess in your home, and create a new space you love.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a great place online to collect a variety of ideas on any topic, and home organization is one of them. Simply do a search for a variety of phrases, such as “home organization”, “decluttering tips” or “tidy home hacks” and you will find endless ideas on how to get and keep your home in an amazing state of orderliness.

The sky is the limit, and with this website you can create folders on your account with titles that help you to find the information easily at a later time.

Houzz

Houzz is a fun website where you can be inspired by looking at beautiful homes. Sometimes by viewing someone else’s organized spaces, you can glean ideas that will amaze you and help you to create your own organization solutions. Save pictures to folders that you create in order to categorize the ideas. You can even find out where certain items and accessories that you see on the website can be bought.

Internet

The internet is a wide-open place, and you can use this tool to collect ideas from around the world to help you with your organization journey. Google the words of absolutely anything you are looking for, and then view photos and find various websites that will satisfy your creative drive, while helping you organize your own home.

Save screenshots of inspirational and helpful photos in a folder you create on your desktop for this task, or print them out and make a binder if you are a hands-on type of individual.

Magazines

There are a variety of magazines that are dedicated to beautiful homes and home organization. Use these magazines as a visual aid to inspire you and add to your knowledge about how to get and stay organized. Create a binder and add the articles and photos that inspire you the most.

Friends

Friends can be a great source of inspiration in your home organization project. When you are visiting a friend in their home and you notice that they seem to have a special talent for organization, ask them for tips. Individuals who are organized know how great it feels to stay on top of their day-to-day tasks, and are generally more than happy to help anyone else get to the same place.

Home organization can seem overwhelming. Fortunately, the world we live in is full of great ideas to help you get to a place where you can feel like you are not only surviving but thriving in this area. Use these resources to take you from overwhelmed to feeling great about your organizational skills.

Why Decluttering Saves You Money

Clutter. It’s terrible for the soul, and terrible for all other life aspects as well. Clutter not only drags you down mentally, but it is also a huge waste of your financial resources. How exactly does clutter waste money, and how does getting rid of it help you save financially?

You Find Items You Forgot You Had

When you declutter, it can be like going shopping. As you clean, you will likely come across many objects that you forgot you had. You may need more pens and find close to one hundred. You just never know what you are going to find when you declutter. The rescued items can be organized from this point on, and used as needed.

You Don’t Have to Buy New Items Because You Lost the Old One

We’ve all been there. You have an item you need and you are sure you bought it already. You know that you have it somewhere, but you have so much clutter lying around that you may never find the item. You inevitably end up buying a new one, only to find the original several months down the road.

With piles and piles of seemingly random things being stored in your home, it can be near impossible to find what you are looking for when you need it the most. Decluttering can make your home more organized so that you never have to waste time looking for things you bought and misplaced, or buy a duplicate item.

It Encourages You to Buy Less

When you have spent a large amount of time decluttering your home, you realize what a time-waster it is to have too many items. It can be the most effective way of convincing yourself to buy less. You will save a large amount of money if you take the simple step of curbing your spending patterns. Buy less, and your life will instantly go in a positive direction.

You Can Downsize

The amount of real estate that clutter takes up is amazing. When you declutter, it makes you feel good and you will want to keep going. When you have gotten to a point where you are closer to being a minimalist, you will find that you truly do not need a lot of space to enjoy the home you live in. You may even find yourself seriously considering downsizing your home in order to save money and prepare for the future.

You Can Create Income Selling Old Items

Decluttering leaves you with not only a lot of junk, but also with many perfectly good items that you simply do not need. By selling these old items, you are not just saving money, but making some. This can be an added incentive to your decluttering efforts. Whether it be through a garage sale, word of mouth or an online ad, sell your old items and make some extra cash.

Decluttering is good for the mind, body and soul. It is also good for the wallet. If you are hoping to save money and be more responsible with what you have, take these thoughts into consideration. Decluttering can and does save you money, and in a big way.

Giving Every Item a Logical "Home"

As you declutter your home, and after you are done, there are several secrets that will help you to keep it looking spotless long after you have finished your task. One of these secrets is to give every item a logical home. Here is how to use this step to your advantage in your quest for clutter-free living.

Why Items Need a Logical Home

You may have all the items you could ever need or want, but if you don’t know where to find them, there is no point having them at all. Giving each item a home means that you will always know where to return something when you are done with it, and then when you need it again you will be able to find it easily and immediately.

Giving each item a logical home means that you don’t just choose a random spot for it to be stored, but rather store it in a place that makes sense. This way, if you forget where your item is, you can think about where it should be and find it without wasting too much time.

Starting Off with a Clean Slate

The best time to give multiple objects a home is when you have just done massive decluttering. Now that your home is purged and ready to be organized, find storage places for all your items that make sense to you personally. There’s no point in trying to organize anything at all when you have too many things around that need to be given away or discarded.

Giving Each Item a Room

Observe the items that you have chosen to keep. Decide what room you are generally in when they are in use. Things such as scissors, paper and pens will likely go in your office - or if you don’t have a designated office, your living room.

Things pertaining to sleep or clothing will likely be stored in the bedrooms of those whom they belong to. Kitchen items always belong in the kitchen. Continue on in this way until all your items are sorted into rooms.

Giving Each Item a Particular Spot in the Room

Now that you have a room for each item, choose a particular place for it. Your bedroom might have a closet and shelves for clothing, a section in your closet for jewellery, and one drawer chosen for odds and ends. Try to keep similar items like shoes all in the same place so that when you are in a hurry to leave home, you don't have to look through the entire house to find the pair you need.

As you take these steps, remember that wherever you choose should be fairly obvious and make sense to you and anyone else who lives there. For example, store your piano books in a small book rack beside the piano, rather than on the other side of the room. This seems fairly obvious, but it deserves repeating because this organization rule is broken so often.

If you are not a natural organizer, it can be a challenge to become one. With a little time and practice, however, you will get there. By using these simple steps, your organizational ability will grow in leaps and bounds.

Video Titled "Bathroom Organization & Storage Ideas"

Video Titled "Fridge Organization Ideas"