How To Keep Your Home Organized

My family is going to laugh at this post when they read this…. truthfully as much as I hate to admit it, I am not the most organized person. As much as I try to be, I can’t seem to stay organized at home.  I leave clothes on the floor all the time, and objects and shoes all over the house. Luckily when it comes to dishes and drinks I clean up after myself– I am not that messy! I consider myself half OCD/messy. I can go to bed not caring if there is an article of clothing on the floor, but also can’t stand living in a pig pen. When I lived in New York I was a neat freak. I was constantly cleaning, organizing and reorganizing my closet, made my bed, wiped down the counters, etc. Since moving back to Columbus, I have been pretty messy–mostly it is contributed to currently living out of boxes, but still, I need to get my tush back in organized gear. So here are some helpful tips on ways to stay organized.

 

1) Closet organization: This is where organization is fine! Look at it as playing dress up! Anyway, I like to group my clothing items together–dresses together, skirts together, shirts together, coats together–to make it quick and easy to find something. I also make sure to have the same hanger for each garment making the closet look a little more put together and cleaner. It really does make a huge difference in the whole look of the closet. When I come home at night and take off my clothes to put on my PJS, I try to make sure to put whatever I had on go right away into my closet and dresser.  It gets it over with and you don’t have to worry about it later or create a mess. If I do not do it right away, then before I go to bed I try to make it a habit to pick up whatever is on the floor.A few years ago I started to keep all of my shoe boxes, which makes the bottom part of my closet look more organized. It also keeps the shoes in good condition so they are not being thrown around or scuffed up by other shoes. It can get a little messy while trying to get ready for the evening and your room starts to look like a department store, but it really makes a huge different in the appearance of your closet. I have tried to keep my shoes lined up next together but it never last. Keeping them in boxes makes it easier to store and easy to find a shoe without making a mess.

 2) Dresser organization: This seems to be the hardest one for me. For the life of me I can not seem to keep things neat and tidy in my dresser drawers. I fold and fold and fold and always mess it up. Over the past year I have given up on trying to fold and now I just roll all of my clothes. It makes things easier to store–making more room for more clothes 🙂 Plus it does not cause as many wrinkles. This may not be the proper way to place your clothes, but it works for me.

3) Spread out your cleaning schedule: If you do one thing a day, cleaning is done out of habit than as a chore. One day I will dust, the next vacuum, and so on. The only thing I make a daily occurrence is wiping down my kitchen counter twice a day. Spreading your cleaning duties always keeps your house looking good. It also makes cleaning easier for you, instead of wasting a Saturday morning cleaning, you only have to do one thing and out you go. Also cleaning constantly puts you in an organized mood, if you start cleaning then you will make sure to keep your home organized.

4) Buy bins and baskets: Bins and baskets were life savers while I lived in my studio apartment. I didn’t have room to have everything nicely spread out around my house, so I had to condense by using bins. I put my purses, belts, and scarves in a bin, movies in another bin, important papers and books in another bin. Then store them somewhere in my house.

5) Utilize your space: Place bins under your bed and out of the way. It will give you less clutter and more space. I think it is important to have a few empty spaces in your house which will give you a more open, bigger feel. When things are placed right next together, it can make the room look smaller and more cluttered.

6) Designate a launchpad: The second you walk into the door place your keys/wallet/sunglasses in a dish somewhere by the door. You will always know where your keys are and you will not have to search every pocket on every coat. For me, I use a dish that I put in my kitchen where I always place my keys.

7) Don’t work in bed: This is a little tricky to do but it helps to keep the paperwork in one place and not scattered all over the house. Find a designated place–a desk, table, or coffee table to do all your at-home work.

8) Pick out your clothes: The night before work pick out what clothes you want to wear the next day. Even if it is just the pair of pants you know you want to wear but not quite sure about the top. This will not only save you a lot of time in the morning, but it will prevent you from throwing all your clothes on the floor and becoming frustrated with not having anything to wear.

9) Have a morning routine: If you are not a morning person, having a routine makes getting up a little easier. The first thing I do when I get up is drink a glass of water, take a shower, make myself breakfast then answer emails. I use the time to answer emails and check social media a way to relax a few minutes before the chaos of getting ready and heading out the door. When I have a routine I know I will not get off track and start going through random things in my house. It keeps me onto of things and starts my day off on an organized note.

10) Treat every item like it is extremely valuable: When you think of each item in your house as a valuable item you will be more inclined to take care of it with more caution–i.e. you will not throw it on the ground and leave it there. Think of the money you spent on a certain clothing item or purse, do you want to be the cause of why there is now a snag in your new sweater? Take pride of your stuff!

What tips do you have for keeping organized in your house?