10 Great Organization Tips

Here are a few of my 10 best easy organization tips that I’d like to pass on to you. They are simple and easy to implement.  I hope you find these organization tips useful and please come back and leave a comment on how they helped you.

Get Rid Of Paper Right Away

I’m going to be really honest with you and out myself right now.  I have a terrible relationship with paper.  I have cut down significantly on notes ever since I got an iphone but I still have some lurking around the home.  Whether it is my mail, old papers I’m purging from my filing system or various other papers, instead of throwing them away, I  tend to let them just pile up on my desk to take care of later.  They sit there for a long time. So I started to open the mail or go through papers over my paper shredder or recycling box so that I get rid of them immediately.  This will help you eliminate all that unnecessary paper clutter.

Use Drawer Dividers

Drawer dividers are a great way to maximize the space in your drawers. If you, your husband or children tend to just throw things in a drawer and then can never find them later, drawer dividers are a great solution. For ladies use them to separate bras, socks, camisoles or underwear. For guys use them to separate socks, underwear or undershirts.  They are not only great for clothing but are great for junk drawers and kids rooms as well to help keep everything easy to find and put away.

Have Freezer Overload? Use Plastic Storage Boxes

Plastic storage boxes are great! They are versatile, inexpensive and well, just darn useful.  One area you may not think to use plastic boxes is in your fridge and freezer.  One frustration I always have is getting my  meats to stack nicely and having to play this tetris like game with all my freezer goods because nothing fits right.  What I discovered is using storage boxes to separate my food gave me maximum storage in my freezer.  Put frozen vegetables and bagged frozen foods in one bin, beef if another, chicken in another, deserts in …well, you guessed it, another box.

Closet Organization Goes Along Way

Ever 6 – 8 months, set yourself a schedule to go through your closet and purge the things you are not longer wearing.  A great way to determine what items in your closet you are not using is with this nifty little closet organizers trick.  Place all your clothes with the coat hanger mouth facing towards you.  This is a position that most people do not use when hanging clothes. Then, after you’ve warn an item, wash it and hang it back up, place it with the mouth facing away from you. Then after 6 to 8 months, any clothes that have the hanger mouth facing towards you, either donate or throw away.

Kids Storage Solutions – Make Organization Fun

Using storage lockers is a great way to get kids to put things away.  If you do not want to buy storage lockers, create a little section where they can put their things as soon as they get home from school.  Add some hooks to a wall behind a door for their backpacks and a few cubby holes for their lunch pales, shoes or other small items.  This will keep the clutter off the floors and put away.  Adding their name above their section is a neat way to personalize their area and make it fun.

Make Use Of Storage Boxes

Where ever you tend to find messes often, make sure to have some storage solutions available such as wicker baskets or storage boxes.   Use these to store little knick knacks that tend to be left all over the house.  When my husband comes home from work he tends to put his keys in one place, head phones in another, and wallet in another.  I purchased a small wicker basket and when he gets home he immediately puts everything in the basket so he’s not asking me the next morning “have you seen my keys?”   Having a place where you can toss the mail, keys, pens or any other little items in messy areas will help keep things clean and easy to find.

Pick A Day Every 2 Months To Purge Excess Items

Life is busy and so we do not have a lot of time to continually go through things and get rid of them.  So designate one day every two or three months to get rid of unnecessary items.   Go through magazines and get rid of any magazine that you’ve already read.  Any clothes or shoes that are on their last leg, now is the time to go through the closet and get rid of all your over warn clothes.  Check the kid’s room to see if there are any toys they have not used in a long time and donate or throw them away.

Lack of Storage – Get Creative

If you do not have enough storage space somewhere, get creative.  Find a place on the wall where you could hang an additional cabinet or shelves to put things.  If you don’t have much room in the bathroom, hang a shoe organizer from your door to store additional items. If you do not have any shelves in your sink cabinet, buy a small wire cabinet shelf to give you additional storage space. This is a great solution as it’s not permanent and you can move it around if you need too.  Get creative with your organization solutions.

Organize Your Money

One area that stresses a lot of people out is organizing their finances. They constantly ask themselves, what’s the best way to organize my money?  The first step is to start a budget.  Starting a budget helps you see what’s going out and what’s coming in and where you need to cut the fat. It is a great way to get an overview of your finances so you can truly see where you are at.  From there you can get more detailed and start to keep track of your daily spending for a period of time, like one month to see where every penny is going.  You can use a budgeting software like Quicken where you can run reports and get graphs to show you where most of your money is going.

Stick With It

The biggest obstacle when it comes to home organization is sticking with it. As with anything you need to stick with it doing a little bit every day.  A little daily maintenance goes a long way.  If you have a lot of organizing to do, pick a room to start on.  I personally feel that small accomplishments help keep the momentum going and motivate you to do more.  Each task you complete will make you feel better and don’t be afraid to brag to your friends and family!