I have been reading my Mom's Better Homes and Gardens magazine for a little over a year and a half, so she being the great mom that she is got me a subscription. I got my first magazine a few days ago and it is on getting organized. If you know me you will know that I love to organize so naturally its a great first issue for me to be getting. If you want to get organized but don't know where to get started I can help.
Tips for getting started on organizing
1. Put like items together (shoes, hats, vases, dishes etc.)
2. Have a place for everything (if everything has a spot it makes it easy to stay organized)
3. If you don't have a place for everything you need to make a list of things that you need to find homes for. Then you need to find them homes. Some solutions can be free (what you have in your house) and some you need to buy or salvage(book shelf, hutch, baskets etc.). If you don't have a lot of money get creative and if you don't have space then you need to get rid of some stuff, even if you don't want to. If you need help figuring out what to get rid of take a look at what you have and then make piles of what you use often and what you haven't used in over a year. Then take a good look at the stuff you haven't used in over a year and start getting rid of what you know you wont be using or needing or fitting in to. That could be throwing stuff away, selling it, giving it away, bringing it to people who need it or putting it in storage till you have space.
4. Baskets, buckets, photo boxes or wooden boxes with labels on them keep stuff hidden and look nice.
5. Develop zones and be realistic about this. Think about how the room you are trying to organize is used on a day to day basis. Then make zones that fit your needs for that room and your life. For example if you have a dog you would want his leash by the door not in the office. Or if you don't have a closet by the door put up hooks for your everyday coat(s) you wouldn't want to run to your bed room every time you leave the house to grab your coat.
6. Label label label and get creative with your labels. If you have metal use magnets, if you have a wooden box use paint or stickers. Hot glue little picture frames on boxes or baskets and then print off labels or make your own how ever you see fit. If you are not creative then just print off labels of what you need and stick them where they are needed.
7. Paper!!! Mail, school papers, news papers any paper that comes in your house needs a home. If you don't need it recycle it. If you are like me and many others I know you have a lot of paper coming into your house and if you don't have spots for the paper it becomes an eyesore very fast. When I get my mail I try to go through and sort it bills, magazines, catalogs, junk, personal, and special offers. Now that its sorted you want to put it where it goes. In my house bills go in to an accordion file, magazines go into a basket till they are read, catalogs are looked at if they interest me and then put in recycling(if you like things out of the magazine or catalog rip out the pages and keep them in a file), junk mail goes right to recycling, special offers get kept if I'm going to use them or recycled if not. Personal mail if you are like me you don't get much personal mail but what we do get is generally a wedding invite or thank you card or Christmas card. I will put them on my fridge or on a bulletin board(its also a good idea to put wedding or party dates in your calendar). Next we have school or work papers. Jeff and I are not in school nor do we have kids that are in school so this doesn't really apply to us yet. It's a good idea to have stackable paper trays, one for each person in the family. That way all those papers have a home. When they get full you need to sort them and if you're going to keep them file them away or if you don't need them any more then recycle them. I could keep going on and on about paper but I'm not going to.
8. Color coordinate! There are many different ways to go about this; one way is to pick a different color for each rooms storage needs so if a storage container is not in the right room you will be able to put it away without having to figure out where it goes. Another way you could go about this is by picking out a color for each activity(games, crafts, movies etc.). You could also coordinate by person, each person having their own color (backpacks, family calendars, baskets, etc.). You could also do/try all of these ideas and find what works best for you. For example if you had your storage for one room be green you could have the different boxes/ baskets etc. be different shades of green depending on whats in them or where in the room they belong.
9. Make lists so you can check things off when you complete your task or project. This is more about organizing your life than your house, but it really does help you keep your life organized.
The world of organization is very large so I think my tips are done for today. If you decide to try any of these tips remember to start small so you don't get overwhelmed with it. Once you have some organization in place keep up with it so it doesn't go to chaos. If you would like to check out more info on getting organized go to
Better Homes and Garden and search organization. Happy Organizing
