Home Organization Tips – How to Organize Your Home
If you are overwhelmed by clutter, you’ve probably told yourself (perhaps more than once) that you need to organize your home, but you don’t know where to begin, and you dread doing it. The best way is to break the process down into smaller and easier tasks. Our home organization tips will help you get the ball rolling towards organizing your home.
Take Inventory
Taking inventory is the critical first step you need to take before you can organize your home. It is best to tackle one room at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed. Get a pad of paper and pen and walk through the room (and look through any closets) and write down what you see.
Visualize Your Space
You first need to visualize how you want the room to look. Think about the purpose of the room and how you want to feel when you are in it. Do the items you found in the room belong in the room? If they do, how should they be organized and stored – bookshelves, wall shelving, cabinets, closets? If they don’t, or if you no longer want them, should they be put in the trash, placed in storage or given away?
Can’t bear to get rid of anything? This video featuring Bruce Littlefield, author of Garage Sale America, will help you break up with all that stuff you don’t really need:
Set Up Your Organization Systems
If you don’t already have them, buy any organization systems you need and get the room in order. Here are just a few examples:
- Home office: files, file cabinets, desk organizers
- Kitchens: pantry shelving, drawer organizers, wine racks
- Garages: heavy duty shelving, pegboard systems, hooks, storage containers
- Collectibles: wall shelving, display cabinets
- Household chemicals: locked cabinets (safe storage for homes with children)
Just because things are in a closet (out of sight, out of mind), it doesn’t mean they are organized. If things are just thrown into a closet, it’s difficult to find a particular item that you want. Consider adding closet organizers, shoe racks, hanging organizers or closet doublers.
Move Out Unwanted Items
Pitch items like old magazines and receipts into the trash. For items you no longer want but are otherwise in good condition, such as clothing and furniture, give them away to friends or relatives, hold a garage or yard sale, or donate them to charity.
Stay Organized
We all tend to get a little lazy from time to time and drop things in the most convenient place rather than putting them away. Train your spouse and children – and yourself – to put things back where they came from. Toys should go back into the toy box, coats should go back into the closet, and files back into the file cabinets. Otherwise, you’ll find that you’ll have to organize your home all over again.
