Getting Organized in 2018

Wow, Christmas and New Year's just flew by.  We didn't get everything done that we wanted to but we spent a lot of time together and that's what really counts.  There is always next year to do some of the Christmas traditions we didn't do this year.  And yes, I'm already planning ahead for next Christmas.  I still plan to do a recap of our Christmas but for now I'm sharing a post I did a few years ago about getting organized.  From why we hold onto clutter, how to get rid of it and how to maintain a clutter free lifestyle.  Since it's a new year, a new start, I thought I'd share the post again in case anyone is on a decluttering kick.  Especially since the kids may have gotten too much for Christmas and you need to make room for all the new toys.  

A couple of years ago there was this hit book called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.  It's a great book, I have it and I've read it.  It basically says take everything of one type, like all your books, and put them in one place so you can see how much you have.  Then only keep what brings you joy.  You do this step with every type of item in your house and by the end of the process which could take months, you have a clutter free house.   Putting all of one type of something into one place isn't always practical when you have kids about and are running a household.  So I did what I could and it certainly made a difference.   Once you decide what you really like and want to keep, you should display it.  Marie Kondo's second book, Spark Joy, talks more about that and I recommend reading both of her books so you don't feel like you need to throw away everything in your home.  The books are motivational and will have you wanting to declutter in no time.  Once you start, you'll soon realize it's not easy to get rid of stuff and my series on decluttering will tell you why and what to do about it. 

Generally we hold onto clutter for one of 5 reasons:

1. We just can't resist a freebie or a sale. (Bargain Clutter, find out how to overcome it HERE)

2. We hold onto keepsakes and sentimental items because we're afraid to let them go. (Sentimental Clutter, read more about it HERE)

3. We like to have a lot of stuff around. (Abundance Clutter and what to do about it can be found HERE )

4. We think we "might need it someday." (Aspirational Clutter reducing tips found HERE)

5. We don't know where to start! (Ideas on How to Start Decluttering HERE)

If Decluttering is half the battle.  Getting organized is the other half.

There is no one way to get organized.  Here are just a few examples of how to do it.  Hopefully you'll be able to find something that works for you and your style. 

1.  A place for everything and everything in its place.  

This is my favorite piece of organizational advice.  If everything has a place, then everything can be put away and later found.  Most things don't get put away because they don't have a home, or they don't have the right home.  The key to getting organized is to find the best possible home for all of your stuff.  If you can't find something in 30 seconds, then it's in the wrong place.

When choosing a home, don't think where should I put this, think where am I most likely to look for this.  Ideally the home you create will be close to where the item gets used and where others would be apt to look for it..

Questions to ask: 

How often do I use it? (store less used stuff higher up on shelves, in the basement/attic, or underneath/behind other things)

Where do I use it?

How accessible is it?

Does it belong in this room?

If you have a place for storing something but that place isn't being used, figure out why.  An example of this is the hamper.  If the kids get undressed in the bedroom but the hamper is in the bathroom, it's no wonder their dirty clothes are always on the bedroom floor.  Solution – put a hamper in their room.

2.  Work with your clutter.

Walk through your home and look at what's lying around.  Consider how you use each room.  Ask yourself:

1. What causes clutter in this room?
2. What items end up here that should be somewhere else? Why?
3. What things should be in this room that are not here now?

Is your dining room table or kitchen counter a dumping ground for anything and everything that comes in the door?  Can you find or create a better place nearby to store these things, perhaps on a shelf or cabinet?  You may not be able to eliminate all the clutter, but you can control it.

One way to control clutter is to set up work centers for specific activities such as handling mail and bills, sewing, hobbies and laundry.  A workstation that includes all the tools you need close at hand saves you time.  You may also find that it is most efficient to have certain things such as scissors, in more than one location. 

3.  What have I got?

Another way you can organize is to look at an area and ask “what have I got?” and then perform these steps:

1. Eliminate things that don't belong (put them where they do belong whether in another location or the trash).  You don't have to organize them or put them away exactly where they do belong, just getting them in the correct room would be a good start, your main goal is to get them out of where they don't belong so you can organize that spot.
2. Look at the remaining items and ask again “what have I got?” 
3. Group the items into categories.  In some cases it is easier to plan your strategy out on paper before beginning to physically sort the items. 
4. Once you've established the major categories, determine the most convenient place to store each group.
5. When you have decided on a location, then decide what type of container, hook or shelf will work best.  That brings me to my next topic....

ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTS

When thinking about organizational products or containers, here are a few tips to remember:

1.  Use What You Have
You don't have to buy expensive organizers, you can just use what you have.  Cereal and shoe boxes (whether decorated with cute wrapping paper or not) make great bins and dividers in drawers or cabinets.   Lots of little parts that go together can be easily stored in an empty baby wipes containers.  Empty egg cartons are great for sorting out paper clips and other small office supplies or even jewelry or sewing supplies.  If you feel like you have to buy something, the dollar store has lots of organizational products too.

2.  Purge, Organize, Measure BEFORE you buy
Don't buy stuff before you purge and organize that way you know what you need (amount and size).

And make sure you measure your space so that you buy the right size product.

3.  Containerize

Using containers is a great way to organize and keep like items together.  Containers make it easy to find what you are looking for even if you never get around to organizing what's in the container itself.

Containers can also help you eliminate clutter because you only have so much space to store something.  If it doesn't fit, it's time to purge.  Remember the one in one out rule.

Clear plastic bins with lids are great so you can see what's in them and stack them.  Plus they are air and water tight so you don't have to worry about bugs or water getting in them.  


Woven baskets can contain clutter while looking pretty.  You can have these on the floor in the living room to store blankets, magazines or even toys. 

Square maximizes you space better than round, especially on shelves and in drawers.  

4.  Think Vertical

To maximize existing space think vertical.  What can you hang on walls, from the ceiling, or the backs of doors.  Same size storage containers that stack are a great use of space at the top of closets.  Don't forget about the insides of cabinet doors.  There are products you can mount there to add additional storage for pot lids, or spices, or kids plastic plates….

A magnetic knife holder can be mounted inside a bathroom cabinet or medicine cabinet to store nail clippers, tweezers and scissors. 

5.  Label

To help yourself and others stay organized - label everything.  This helps you and others in your house, know where things belong so they can easily put them back.

We've talked about how to get organized, but the real test is staying organized.  All the cute containers in the world won't keep you organized if you don't have a system that works.

MAINTENANCE 

Staying organized is even more challenging than getting organized because you have to train yourself to do things differently. 

Once you have uncluttered your home, staying organized involves picking up, putting away and discarding excess stuff on a regular basis.  This is where getting into a routine will help.

The more you do these things, the more they will become routine and before you know it, you'll be on autopilot in maintaining order in your home.

-Put things back in their proper place when you are done using them. 
-Don't put it down, put it away. 

-Go through the house each night before bed and return things where they belong. 

-Set up some rules like no toys in the dining room, or if you carry it into a room, you must carry it out when you leave.

-Every time you leave a room take something that doesn't belong in there and put it where it does belong. 

-Handle things once.  

-Take care of today's things today.   Don't procrastinate.   Procrastinating makes more work later which can take more time, possibly creating more stress.   Remember, it's easier to keep up than to catch up. 

-Have an inbox to deal with things later such as paying bills or phone calls to make.  Set aside some time each day or week to deal with those things

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES

Here is one organizational problem with 2 different solutions:

The problem:
You have notes and piles of papers out so you don't forget to do something.   You are afraid if you put it away, that you'll forget something important to do or where you put it.

Solution 1:  Is that really the reason you are leaving things out, or is it because you don't have a home for them.  Give everything a home and make sure you put it back there when you are done.  Then you'll get in the habit of putting it back in its home.  When you give something a home you can always find it.

Solution 2:  When you leave things out where you can see them, you end of not seeing them.  They become part of the background or blend into the wallpaper.  A more efficient system is to keep a notepad available.  Once you have written something down, you no longer need the item itself as a reminder and you can put it away.

GETTING KIDS INVOLVED

Here are a few different ways to get your kids involved. 

1.  You need to train them.  Show them what you expect and help them do it the first few times.  This does take more time and effort but will be worth because you're kids will do the cleaning/organizing and not you.

2.  Make it a game.  You could see who can put away the most things in a certain amount of time.  Or who can clean up a certain area before the timer goes off.  Make it easy for them to win at first so they'll want to keep playing.

3.  If helping them and making a game out of it doesn't work, sometimes you just have to lay down the law.  Be firm and say anything left out will go in the garbage or a bin where they have to earn it back.  If they don't want to do what it takes to earn it back, then get rid of it.  This might work better for older kids.

Why Get Organized?

The whole point of getting organized is to create more time, space, and energy in your life for the people and things that matter most to you.  Because when it comes down to it, none of the things in our lives really matter; we can't take them with us.   I  hope you've enjoyed this organizational series of posts and that you'll be motivated to de-clutter, and get organized.  In case you missed anything, you can read the rest of the series here:

3 Reasons to Get Organized
WHY we hold onto Clutter
How to Get Rid of Bargain Clutter
How to Get Rid of Sentimental Clutter
How to Get Rid of Abundance Clutter

How to Get Rid of Aspirational Clutter
How to Get Rid of Clutter - Where to Start?

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Puzzle Organization

Here's a simple solution that will save you time when storing wooden puzzles.

Wooden puzzles are a great toddler toy and we have several that the younger kids like to play with.  Storing them has always been a challenge.  There are puzzle storage cases like this one below from Melissa & Doug.  But the problem with that is, you have to put all the pieces back into the puzzle before storing it away.  I don't always have the time to do that, so I've come up with an easier way.  

link to product on amazon.com

My time saving solution is to put puzzles on one side of the shelf and a bin with all the pieces on the other side.  

Now when the kids want to do a puzzle, they can take out the bin of pieces and sort through that to find what they need.  Our puzzles are pretty different from one another so finding the right piece is easy.

Such a simple solution, I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner.  Anyone else have some simple toy storage solutions?

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Hair Dryer Storage

I thought I'd take a break from all the party posts and talk about organization.  
Here are a few ideas about how to store your hair dryer.  I've included links to amazon so you can read reviews and more information about the products and purchase from there if you want.  If you make a purchase from my links, I receive a small percentage.

To keep your bathroom counters clutter free and still have easy access to everyday items like your hair dryer, they need to be stored within reach.  I've rounded up a few products which do just that.

This one goes over the cabinet door and hides your hair dryer on the inside of the cabinet.  And for about $8 on amazon, it's a pretty inexpensive storage solution.  




A Bowl Full Of Lemons uses a similar over the door holder to store her hair dryer.  This one is more of a basket and can also be used to store a curling iron.  Find out more about her bathroom organization HERE.





If you don't have room on the back of your cabinets, you can use this product to store you hair dryer on your towel bar.  I found this HERE.


Or you could use this holder to hang it on your wall.  





Right now I've been storing my hair dryer and curling iron in a basket in the closet.  I just used what I had.  It's not pretty but it works.  My bathroom counters are less cluttered which means they are easier to clean.

So how do you store your hair dryer?  Share what works for you in the comments. 

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Operation: Shoe Organization

This weekend I felt the need to commence operation:  Shoe Organization.  I'm happy to report it was a success, although there were a few crazy obstacles to deal with.

With 4 kids, there is bound to be some craziness happening each day.  This past Sunday was no exception.  After church I felt the need to organize the kids' shoe area.  I thought it would be a quick and easy update, however that wasn't the case.  We keep all the kids shoes in our laundry room closet, along with their coats, winter hats and gloves.  It's just a central spot for all the outdoor wear and it works for us.  We had a hanging shoe organizer for my two oldest kids and my 4 year old's shoes were on the floor in bins.  She started out having just one bin, then she got more and more shoes so now she has two over flowing bins.  The baby only has 2 pairs of shoes and so far we keep them in his room, but eventually he'll get more shoes and his shoes will be stored in that closet too.  Here is what the closet looked like before I organized it.  

It was a little worse than this, but I had just taken out their heavy winter coats and decided to store them in their bedroom closets for the season to make more room in here.  More room for what you ask?  Well, let me tell you....

We love to go to yard sales.  We're real bargain shoppers around here.  So when I saw a huge hanging shoe organizer at a yard sale Saturday, I had to buy it.  It has 4 columns with 12 rows.  So you could store one shoe in each pocket for a total of 24 pairs of shoes, or one pair of shoes in each pocket for a total of 48 pairs of shoes.   We did a combination of both and were able to fit everyone's shoes in, even the baby's.  I also have some boots on the floor under the organizer since it doesn't reach the floor but comes close.  

Of course during any of my organization projects, things get worse before they get better.  Here I have shoes all over the place with my little helper in the middle of it all.  

It was about this time that I realized the baby was in need of a diaper change.  But before I could get to that, I heard a little knock on the laundry room door that leads to the garage.  My 4 year old was outside riding her bike, or so I thought.  When she came through the door, she had black stuff all over her hands and on the top of her head.  She said in the sweetest, most innocent voice ever that she had found paint on the driveway and 'oopsy' got it in her hair.  She didn't want me to go outside to see, and insisted that she could clean it up.  I was trying to figure out where the black paint came from when my husband said it's not paint, it's grease.  You see we have this huge moving truck in our driveway since my mother in law who has lived with us for the past 3 years, is moving out.  

My daughter must have walked or rode her bike under the truck where there is all this grease.  

Regular soap did clean it up so we used some grease cleaner with pumice to wash her hands.  It took lots of scrubs but it finally all came off.  I changed the baby's  diaper, and my husband put him down for a nap.  Then it was time to tackle the hair.  I used the same grease cleaner to wash her hair.  I thought I got it all but when I started drying off her hair, I noticed the towel was turning black.  Next I used some dish soap and that worked to get the remaining grease out.  At least my daughter was sitting still and not complaining the whole time I vigorously scrubbed her head.  I think she knew she had messed up big time.   

OK, so she is clean, baby is asleep and the two older kids are playing a video game together.  This wasn't so bad.  Of course one more thing had to go wrong.   As my daughter was trying to get out of the tub, she slipped and got a bloody nose.  She was crying so much I thought she might have broken it.  She asked if it was bleeding and all I could think of was a trick my Grandmother used to do (I'll write about that trick later since this post is already getting lengthy).   Anyway, I got her cleaned, calmed down and dressed.  

Finally I could go back to organizing shoes.  Here's the end result.  The closet looks so much better and more organized now, don't you think?

Here's a before and after comparison for you.  I love a good before and after:

I'm so glad that project is done.  Sometimes I think it's a wonder I get anything at all done with all the kid craziness interrupting me.  Ah, but that's what makes life fun.  I always say my life would be so boring without my kids.  

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Organizing a Girl's Bedroom, part 2 (decluttering dressers)

Flat surfaces tend to collect clutter.  My kids' dressers are no exception.  During my organization of Sweetie Pie's bedroom (you can see part 1 HERE), I tackled her dresser and desk tops.

After I organized an American Girl Doll play corner as seen in the picture below, I decided I'd tackle the next clutter culprit - her dresser.  It had become a dumping ground for anything and everything.

One technique to decluttering is to remove everything from a space (whether it be a drawer, corner or entire room) and then put the items into piles such as trash, donate/sell, elsewhere....  Then to put back only what you want to keep.  Rather than dump the contents of her dresser onto her bed and then separate them into piles, I put things away as I went.  Call it my organized way of decluttering.  A lot of the stuff on her dresser were hair accessories and jewelry.  She has bins in her closet for these items so I just removed them from the dresser and put them in the right bins.  I also threw away any trash while I was at it.  A few things I moved over to her new nightstand and what was left I laid out on her bed.  Most of the things would go back on her dresser, but a few things were relocated to her miscellaneous bin.  That's a bin in her closet for all the stuff we don't know what to do with.   Sounds better than calling it a junk drawer, but it's basically the same thing.  We just try to keep it contained to one bin.  

Once I was left with an empty dresser top, I dusted it and put back only what I wanted on it.

Ah, much better. 

But, I'm still not done with her room.  Next up was the desk area and closet.  Below is a before and after of her desk. I followed the same technique as with her dressers.  I threw away trash and anything that went somewhere else I put it away.  While I didn't clear off the entire desk (I left most things on the shelves), I did clear off the writing area and put back only what I wanted there.

And finally there was her closet.  I was in such an organizing mood, I forgot to take a before picture.  Just image crafty stuff, tote bags, clothes and other random toys spilling out of it into the floor.

That bin of drawers in the middle and some of the bins on the shelves are actually empty.  What a great feeling.  There is still some work to be done such having my daughter go through each bin or drawer to see what we can get rid of.  And then there is that mess at the top, but it is so much better.  And so far it's been staying neat.  

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Organizing a Girl's Bedroom, part 1 (American Girl Doll Play Corner)

A couple of weeks ago, Sweetie Pie went to art camp.  The particular art camp she goes to is close to my parents, so she also gets to stay a week at their house.  She loves it.  Not just because she loves art, but because she loves spending time as an only child with her grandparents who spoil her.  She's been doing this for the past 4 years.  And every year, I take the time to organize her room for her.  Here are some before and after pictures so you can see how bad it was and how good it looks now.  Keep in mind this is just one corner of her room.  I was able to organize the entire room and will show the rest in a later post.

She just has so much stuff.  From toys to craft supplies, it's everywhere.  My first reaction was that she needs more storage space.  That way there will be a place for everything so things can hopefully get put away.  However, as I cleaned/organized the room, I realized by removing her toy box and replacing some shelves with something smaller, now there is a place for everything.  

That's the key to staying organized - having a place for everything so you know where to put it away.  Then you have to be disciplined and actually put those things away when you're done playing with them.  If she cleans up a little each night, it won't be so overwhelming.  So far, she's doing great.  She's been home for about 2 weeks and her room is still looking good.

The first place I started with was her American Girl Doll and reading corner.  I took out a toy box that had dolls and stuffed animals in it.  She never got into the toy box since the top of it was also covered with toys.  She doesn't play with dolls much except for her American Girl Doll.  She also has a few favorite stuffed animals but keeps those on her bed so I decided to remove the toy box and store it in her younger sister's room.  One of these days we will go through the dolls and stuffed animals together to see what we can get rid of but for now, she hasn't asked about it and enjoys the extra space to play with her American Girl Doll stuff.

I also switched out her Ikea Trofast storage unit for a smaller one.  I got the smaller one from her sister's room which allowed me to put the toy box there.  It was used as book storage so now I keep all of the Babe's books in a bin under her bed.  The smaller Ikea storage unit allowed Sweetie Pie to have more space for her doll bed and other accessories.  I basically turned that whole corner into an American Girl Doll play area.   

Here I took out the larger Ikea Trofast unit, just moving it in front of her dresser for the time being so it would be easy to move things from that unit into the smaller one.  But before bringing in the smaller unit I vacuumed the floor.  It's always easiest to clean when a space has been cleared out.

Bit by bit, I transferred over all the American Girl Doll items to create the doll corner.  What I was left with from the old shelves were books.  So I used these two plywood boxes that were just taking up space in the basement and made a temporary bookshelf/nightstand.  Eventually we'll get something nicer but this will do in the mean time.  

To pretty it up, I draped a white lacy curtain over it.  

Here is her bed area looking all nice and neat.

 Oh, and here's a picture of where the larger Ikea storage unit went, giving us more toy storage in the playroom.

Organizing that one corner of Sweetie Pie's room lead to creating a nightstand and a little playroom organization.  But wait, there is more to do in her room!  I'll have to save that for another post.  Now you can see why this organization project took several days.  

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Declutter and Have a Yard Sale

Yard Sale Season is in full swing around here.  This past weekend there were 5 neighborhood yard sales in my town alone, and I scored some great deals.

So I thought it would be timely to share my tips for having a successful yard sale as well as my decluttering series so you'll have lots to sell.

Here's my
STEP by STEP Plan for having a Great Yard Sale:
(to read the original and full post, click HERE)

STEP 1. Gather your items
Realizing you have so much unwanted, unused, outgrown stuff that you could have a yard sale.
At the bottom of this post I'll have links about  how to declutter so you'll have plenty of stuff to sell.  Some people would rather donate their items than take the time to have a yard sale, and that's great.  Whatever you do, just get rid of the unwanted stuff.  For me, I had a very successful yard sale two years ago, but have donated or sold on craigslist since then.

STEP 2. Plan
Plan the day, time and location of your yard sale. A lot of sales around here are both Friday and Saturday sales.  Most start at 7 or 8am and last till about noon.  Spring and early fall are the most popular times to hold a yard sale since that is when people are switching out seasonal clothing.  Also, it gets pretty hot in the summer and people go on vacation so there's not as much foot traffic for sales in July and August.  If your neighborhood is having a neighborhood sale, join in.  The more houses selling stuff, the more traffic you'll get.  Likewise, if a neighborhood close to you is having a sale, you can piggyback off their traffic by having your sale the same day and time.

STEP 3. Advertise 
There are 3 main ways to advertise a yard sale.
1. Put an ad in the local newspaper
2. Post an ad on craigslist or Facebook (free)
3. Put up signs and posters directing traffic to your neighborhood and to your specific house. Signs should be simple, large and boldly written on sturdy material such as card board. The words 'yard sale' along with the dates, times and an arrow are informative. Once in the neighborhood, signs with just an arrow leading to your home are all that is needed to get more traffic. Balloons at cross roads also draw attention and attract buyers.

STEP 4. Sort, Label, and Price.
A day or two before the yard sale, I like to sort, label and price my items.
The basement had become the dumping ground for our unwanted stuff so I drug everything upstairs. I sorted clothing by size and labeled each bin with the size and price. For example I had a bin of Girls 12 month clothing for .25 each piece. Other items such as household decor or cooking, I kept together in a bin with price stickers on each item. This would make it easier the day of the sale when it came time to set out my stuff.

STEP 5. Store your stuff till the day of the sale.
After you have everything sorted and labeled you need to store it (hopefully out of your living area) till the day of the sale. If you have room, you can put your ready to go bins and boxes in the garage so on the day of the sale you can open the garage and set out your things. And because everything is sorted and labeled you can quickly set up your sale and be ready to sell to all those early birds that come a half hour before your sale is supposed to start.

STEP 6. Setting up 
I like to set my items up in the driveway leading up to my garage.  I find that a lot of people do a 'drive by' and if they can't see what you have, they might not even take the time to stop.  Colorful and large items can attract customers so be sure to have those prominently displayed.  Fragile and expensive items were stored near or in the garage.

STEP 7. Selling
Be prepared for people to bargain and be willing to take less for your stuff. My goal was to get rid of my stuff so I was more than willing to take a lower offer. Sometimes I'd negotiate such as when someone offered $20 for an item I priced at $40. We met in the middle at $30. A couple of times I refused an offer (if it was for a higher priced item) knowing I could get more for it by selling it on craigslist. And often if someone didn't agree to buy it when they found out the price, I'd ask them to make an offer. Or when they'd ask how much, I'd say "I'm asking $25", so they'd know I am flexible on the price.
Other things to consider when having a yard sale: Have plenty of change on hand such as quarters and ones. I had to make change for a $20. when someone bought something for $2. Don't assume customers will have exact change. Keep track of how much money you started with so you know how much money you made. Have lots of bags for the customers to put their purchases in.

Now that you know how to have a successful yard sale, let's go back to Step 1:  You need stuff to sell.  That leads me to my series of posts about:

HOW TO DECLUTTER

This post gives you 3 REASONS TO GET ORGANIZED (Being organized saves you time, money and gives you peace of mind)
This post tells you WHY WE HOLD ONTO CLUTTER, the different types of clutter and how to overcome each type.
And this post tells you HOW TO GET AND STAY ORGANIZED.

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