My Favorite Tips, Tricks and Solutions
I have literally spent years trying just about every organizing tip I have ever stumbled across. It’s not just about trying to make my life easier anymore, organizing and re-organizing my home is pretty much my favorite pastime. I often try new systems just for fun (I may need more of a social life).
I’ve pretty much exhausted Pinterest at this point, and I can’t walk by a checkout without scanning the magazines for some new and unique solution I haven’t tried yet. Some of the best organizing solutions in my home have actually come out of trial and error (mostly errors), and honestly, the simplest systems are almost always the best.
So now that you have a good foundation and the knowledge needed to become an organizing expert, I’m going to share with you some quick projects that had a huge impact on my home and my family. I’ve picked the best of the best to share with you, the ones that work in real life for real families with real amounts of clutter. No fancy tools required or budget breaking solutions here, just simple tips that really work.
Landing Strip
The idea of creating a “landing strip” at your front door isn’t a new concept. In fact, I have heard this tip so many times I roll my eyes when I read about it in a new organizing book because it is literally in every single one (including this one, cue eye-rolling as I write). Do you know why every single Professional Organizer mentions a landing strip in every single book he or she writes? Because it really is a must-have for every home. The most hilarious thing is, I really only created a proper landing strip about a year ago. I mean, I thought I had a proper place for my keys and purse and other things when I came home, but in truth, there were a few spots they would often end up. To truly have a functional landing strip, you need a hook or container for your keys and other designated places for all the things you set down when you first walk through the door. The top of your kitchen island or tossed onto your table is not a proper landing spot.
For our family, we love this Ikea shoe cabinet. The top drawer has divided bins that hold our keys, wallets, glasses, and spare change. We have a basket on the top of the cabinet for other random things we may drop, like receipts or junk mail. Since we live in Canada and no one wears shoes in the house in Canada, this is also a perfect place to store our shoes.
Create your own landing strip today; it is the perfect way to kick-start your organizing fun and ensure you’ll never lose your keys again. Check out Pinterest for a bazillion options for creating the perfect landing strip for your home.
Cord Box This simple organizing solution was one of the first I ever used, and I am still using it today. I literally just got a medium size container and placed all of my spare cords, cables, and chargers in it. We also store extra extension cords and power bars in this bin as well. Maybe it’s just our house, but we have a lot of extra cords! Before the cord box, USB, HDMI, phone cords and so many other random chargers were always left here, there, and everywhere. Now we have a home for all of those cables, and we always know exactly where they are when we need them. I did light micro-organizing inside of our cord box, using separate smaller containers inside for USB cables and another container just for chargers. Let me tell you, the small effort it took to create this bin has saved us countless hours of searching and rummaging.
Kitchen Command Center
I mentioned our Kitchen Command Center in a previous chapter, but the fact that it is super-duper important in keeping a busy family organized made me want to toss it in this list for you again. Having one central place for a family calendar and place to put notes and reminders is a must-have for every home. I like using the kitchen because it is where we spend most of our time together as a family. We use the side of our fridge to hold a magnetic family calendar, message board, and a host of to-do lists, as well as our weekly menu. We also have an accordion file folder for important school papers, friends’ birthday invitations, extracurricular activity schedules, and so much more.
Choose a convenient spot in your home that can be the command center, and create a space that can help everyone in your family stay organized and on track.
Action File
Paper clutter is always one of the biggest complaints I receive from clients and my followers online. I always recommend creating an action file to store your incoming important papers until you have the time to deal with them properly. In our home, the action file is a magazine rack, which hangs on the wall in our office, so it is really visible for my husband. We have labeled our file folders to be paid, to be filed, to do, and for review. When we bring in the mail or print off an important paper, we place it into the appropriate file folder immediately to avoid the dreaded paper pile trap. No matter what file system you prefer to use, whether it is open baskets, an accordion file folder, or a magazine rack, creating an action file will make paper clutter a thing of the past.
In/Out System
A few years ago I created an in/out system, and now there is no going back! Basically, this is just a few baskets on a shelf in our mudroom, but it really has helped cut down on the random clutter in my home. If you don’t have a mudroom, find a little space somewhere near your entrance for your own in/out system. We have two baskets for donations, one to go to family members and another one for our local thrift store. Having these so easy to access means that when we come across something we are not using, or clothing that no longer fits, we can easily put it immediately into our donation bin. I also have separate donation bins in my kids’ closets, because they outgrow clothing seemingly overnight.
The third bin in our in/out system is for things that need to be returned to the store, or library books or things we have borrowed from friends and family. Just having a place to put these things means they are no longer sitting out on the counter, or in a pile on the floor waiting until we have time to return them.
Lastly, I use one bin for the new things coming into our home if I don’t have a place to put them right away. These are usually things like decorations for an upcoming birthday party or other items that just don’t have a designated place to go yet. Before my in/out system, all of these random things added up to a lot of clutter just laying around my home. If you are short on space, just creating one donation box in your home will really help cut down on clutter and make regular purging much easier.
Contain Condiments
Did you know that most refrigerators have removable bins on the door that are actually designed to store your condiments? I had no idea, and when I discovered how easy it was to take off and put back these bins, I was totally giddy. The simple act of placing all of your condiments into one container in your fridge will save you a crazy amount of time. The best part, besides never having to look for the ketchup again, is that you can easily bring the entire container right to the table (or outside BBQ) and no longer have to struggle with multiple bottles.
We have one container just for salad dressings, one for BBQ sauces, one for condiments, and one for syrups. Let me tell you, not only do we never have to search for anything in the fridge, but we can also carry everything we need over to the table with just one hand! I can’t even describe the difference that this tiny fridge-organizing tip will have; you have to try it for yourself.
Gift Closet
I buy Christmas and birthday gifts for my children throughout the year, especially if I find toys I know they will love on sale. I also like buying gifts for friends and family all year long, so the Christmas rush is a little less hectic. The problem with year-long gift buying is having a designated place for those gifts to go in the meantime. I used to hide gifts in really good hiding places around my home. More often than not, I would totally forget where those random hiding places were, or I would forget I had even bought the gifts in the first place.
Enter the gift closet. I had a closet that was literally filled with useless junk in my downstairs bathroom and I decided to transform it into our little gift closet. In the bathroom, yeah, I know, it’s weird. Listen, you gotta work with what you have and in this case, I had an empty closet and a really good use for it.
The best part about my little gift closet is that I was able to use one empty shelf just for a wrapping station. Now I have everything I need including wrapping paper, ribbon, cards, gift bags, and even gifts all together and organized in one easy to access space…even if it is in the bathroom.
Cleaning Caddy
You can save a lot of time cleaning your house just by organizing all of the products and tools you regularly use into one easy-to-carry caddy. I picked up my cleaning caddy from the dollar store and filled it with rags, gloves, cleaners, a toothbrush, duster, and scrub brush so that I can quickly move from room to room and have everything I need. So grab a pail or a caddy and organize all of your favorite cleaning supplies together today.
Lost Sock Bag
One of the biggest laundry mistakes I ever made was putting single, lost socks into my sock drawer. I can still remember rummaging through my sock drawer on rushed mornings, trying in vain to find a match. Craziness. Here’s the thing, you should never, ever put lonely socks into your sock drawer; it just creates unnecessary work and frustration. I began by emptying my sock drawer and only putting back the paired matches. All of the lonely, unmatched socks went into a bag, my lost sock bag. Whenever I come across a lost sock, I toss it into the bag with the others. Now, here is where the fun part begins! Once a month or so, my family and I empty out the bag into a big pile, and we race to see who can find the most matches. It’s actually a pretty fun family game, and my kids and even my husband love to play (pretty sure Joe only likes it because he ALWAYS wins). Trust me, even though this may seem like a boring chore, it can be a fun matching game. It also helps to sing love songs as you find a sock’s long lost mate!
DIY Kitchen Pull-Outs
Organizing a kitchen can be a big job, but it doesn’t have to be expensive. One of my favorite tips for organizing deep cabinets is to use baking pans or shallow dollar store containers to hold all of your kitchen gadgets. I used to pull everything out of my small appliance cupboard in order to get to the items I needed in the back. Now, I simply slide out the basket or the baking pan, grab what I need, and slide it back in when I am done. If you have ever dreamed of expensive pull-outs for your cabinets, this tip will give you the same results for just $1 per shelf. I also use shallow dollar store containers to corral all of my Tupperware and kids’ dishes, making sure cluttered cabinets are a thing of the past.
Homeless Clutter Catchers
No matter how neat and organized your home is, you are still going to have clutter from time to time. A simple solution that will catch incoming clutter is to designate a spot for your homeless clutter in your main living areas. In my kitchen, craft room, living room, and master bedroom, I have pretty baskets whose only job is to hold clutter until I have a chance to deal with it properly.
Sometimes life gets in the way and we just don’t have the time to put away or create new homes for everything we bring home. A clutter catching basket is just a temporary spot to place the clutter until you have a chance to put it away. Having a basket or bin for homeless clutter is important, because it can halt the spread across your surfaces. The problem is, clutter attracts more clutter…like a magnet. One little pile of paper on your desk can seem to grow into a mountain almost overnight. When you contain it in a basket, it is far less likely to continue spreading, and it is a great visual reminder to empty the basket when it is full.
Household Management Binder
I talked a little about the importance of a Household Management Binder already once in this book, but it’s important enough to bring up again. My binder is so much more than just a place to store cleaning checklists and monthly calendars; it is also a spot to hold all of our important family information. In my binder, I have a section for medical information, which includes my children’s immunization records and a detailed medical history for each family member (even our parents). I also have helpful information in case of an emergency, like the contact info for our lawyer and our insurance information, including the policy numbers.
My husband thinks my binder is a little bit overkill and even a tad morbid, but the truth is, if anything every happened to the both of us, our extended family would have everything they need to take over our household in an emergency situation.
Being organized isn’t just about having a tidy house, it is also about being prepared for the future. I have peace of mind knowing I have planned and prepared the best I could in the unlikely event I kick the bucket tomorrow.
Memory Bins
One of my biggest clutter struggles in the beginning of my life as a mom was sentimental clutter. You know the kind I’m talking about: your child’s first Halloween costume or her first-ever trophy. Don’t even get me started on the artwork and photos that can all seem so important to keep. For me, I have to be careful not to keep too much, and I am all too aware of passing on guilty clutter to my children.
In our home, one solution that really works is having a memory bin for each family member. We keep our memory bins in the office closet so they are easy to access when we need them. When my kids bring home their report cards or outgrow a really special outfit I want to keep, I can easily place it into their memory bin right away. I also like having one for my husband and me, because there are often new accomplishes or keepsakes that we have, even as adults.
The best part of having an easy-to-access memory center is that I can easily slip in little notes from time to time as well. I’m not a scrapbooker, and I used to feel bad for not taking the time to create beautiful memory books for my children. A memory bin is so much easier, and I can quickly write sweet notes to them, like, “Today you got your first goal in hockey and I was so proud of you,” and slip them into their box.
One day, when my kids are grown and have little ones of their own, they can go through the box and keep what they like. Having just one box per family member means I can still keep the important stuff, without having to dedicate half of my storage to memories.
These are just a few simple organizing solutions that I think every house should have. They will save you time, effort, and make your busy life just a little less stressful each day. Choose just one of these tips and give it a try for yourself today. For more organizing tips and tricks, you can visit my website at www.clutterbug.me.