Organization is an important part of keeping your home clean and tidy. Unfortunately, organization doesn’t always come easy to homeowners. It may be that your home just lacks the storage solutions that you need to effectively organize, or your house simply isn’t large enough to effectively contain all your family’s stuff. Maybe there is enough room, but the way your rooms are laid out makes things a bit difficult. Whatever the reason, you might feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle with organization and that it never lasts as long as you’d like.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to getting your house organized, but there are some things that might help. Not all of these suggestions are likely to fit your specific situation, but a few might point you in the right direction to start getting a better grip on your home’s organization. Even if the individual suggestions don’t fully apply to your home and its layout, they still might give you ideas that will help you get your home’s excessive disarray under control.
Adjust Your Storage Methods
There are a number of things that you can do to help improve the storage options in your home. Here are a few suggestions:
- Don’t organize spices or dry goods items based on their names; sort them based on frequency of use instead. This lets the things that you use most often be near the front of your storage and those things that are less frequently used can go in the back or on a harder-to-reach shelf.
- Label folders, boxes, and any other long-term storage containers. You should also avoid having a catch-all or miscellaneous option; put things where they go at the start, instead of dealing with an ever-growing pile in need of sorting.
- Use dividers to improve organization in your drawers, allowing you to store multiple types of items together without causing a significant amount of clutter.
- Install hooks for coats and set up a container to hold shoes near your main entryway, then make sure that members of your household use both. This will help prevent those shoes, jackets, and coats from ending up strewn all over the house.
It’s also important to note that the solution for running low on storage isn’t to simply buy extra storage containers. If you’re running low on storage space, sort through what’s currently in storage and see if you can pare things down before adding additional storage.
Out With the Old, In With the New
A big cause of clutter and running low on space is buying new and upgraded products while still holding on to the items that they’re replacing. This doesn’t mean that you should only own one jacket or a single purse, of course; it makes sense to have multiples of some items, so long as the older items are still actively being used. If you buy something with the clear intention of replacing something else but that something else is still sticking around unused, though, then there may be a problem.
Electronics are the biggest culprit here; if you get a new phone or tablet, you should sell, donate, or give away the old one instead of sticking it in a drawer to take up space. The same goes with clothes that are damaged or threadbare, purses or backpacks with broken straps or other damage, and all those other items that you tell yourself you’ll get fixed eventually but never do. Go through all your old items that haven’t been touched for 6 months or more and see what you can get rid of. You should also get in the habit of prepping old items for donation soon after picking up a newer model.
Give Your Layout a Makeover
In some cases, all that it takes is a rearranging of furniture or some changes to your home’s layout to open up some extra space and cut back on the clutter. In many cases you can do this yourself, though you may decide to bring in a professional decorator or a decluttering pro to help. If you do decide this is the way to go, Andrea Brundage, Professional Organizer from Simple Organized Solutions is the best. She is available for consultations and no project is too small or too large. Visit her website for before and after photos and contact information.
If you have questions you may contact me to see how I can help you.
Michelle Lohman, Associate Broker
Realty One Group
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