7 ways to be more organized…for the disorganized

My road to being somewhat organized has been an very long and arduous one. As a messy creative,I am not a structured person by nature. However, I have found 7 ways to be more organized and I wanted to share them with you, especially if you are a bit on the wild side.

1. Create staging areas for stray stuff- baskets are your friend.
2. My kids are leavers. They leave things every where. I have finally found the easiest ways to keep their stuff tame are baskets in strategic areas. I have one at the tiop o the stairs. Anything I find downstairs where it doesn’t belong goes into it. This can be tiny toys,stray papers, anything. If they are looking for it, it direct them there, and if I need it put away, a call out to “find your stuff in the basket an put it away” is easy. A long time ago, in a life far far away, I worked at a department store. This is kind of how they handled returned merchandise so each department could pick up their own and put it away. This method has helped my living room stay very tidy and clutter-free with minimal yelling.

2. Speaking of baskets-keep one for stray laundry.

Again, there always seems to be discarded socks and stray sweaters lying around. While I can ask them a thousand times to pick their item up, sometimes it’s easier to have  a place for it. Our laundry room is downstairs so I have one right at the bottom of the stairs I can chuck stray socks, towels,linens, whatever into from the top of the stairs. It sounds lazy, but then once or twice a week I can throw the load in the washer and the kids can sort and fold.It has made life so much easier and it’s not on a pile on the floor.

3.Try to go to bed with an empty sink

This sounds odd, but my good friend, Mary, told me she does this every night and I used to wonder how she did it. By bedtime every night our house had the dishes crawling out of the sink and onto the counter. I found by taking five extra minutes at night, I could wake up to and empty sink and a sort of clean kitchen and it started my day off right. If I can’t get it done before bed, I at least make sure all of the dishes are in the sink and not cluttered on the counter. It makes me feel so much more organized, and leaves me time in the morning for other things.

4.Take cleaning your closet in baby-steps

I will admit, I tried the Konmari method.
I even read the entirebook. It wasn’t really my thing. But I have found instead of trying to tackle my closet all at once and making it worse, I might pick a clothing item and just go through that. For instance, I might decide I am going to just go through my jeans and nothing else.  I will try them all on, make sure they all *a-hem* still fit, and that I want them. It’s a less than 1 minute thing and I’ve gotten something done, and I am not so overwhelmed.

5.If you have a space in your home that keeps getting messed up, make a diagram.

My linen closet is my arch-nemesis. And every time I went in there it was a jumble of towels and sheets. Let’s be honest, it’s not me messing it up either.

But I found by taking a few hours to organize it and then drawing out a diagram of where everything went. I could tell the other inhabitants of the house to follow the chart when they out stuff away. It’s actually been about 90% successful which means once in a while I just need to make some minor tweaks and I can actually find a fitted sheet when I need one. The other thing I like to do is shove  a few bars of soap on each shelf. It keeps the linen from getting that stale closet smell and when I need soap, I know where to find it.

6.Keep the things you use all of the time in plain site.

With everything from my cutting boards to my art pencils, if I use them all of the time, I make them a part of every day decor. This way I don’t have to worry about storing something and it keeps it at the ready for when I need it.Things like wooden spoons can even go in a pretty jar.They are in a designated place and easy to find.

7.Give everything in your home a designated place.

It sounds so simple. Like grandma said-A place for everything and everything in it’s place.

Once you start keeping everything in the same, special spot, it’s easier to keep it organized. Avoid squirreling things away n your home randomly and hodge-podge. For instance, I have  a cabinet for my candle hoarding. It keeps them together and when I want to change scents, one goes in the other comes out. Our coats always are hung on the same hooks, not on a chair back or flung on the couch. I know to my kids it makes me sound crazy, but they can always find their coats when they need them. In fact sometimes I occasionally I come in after bringing in the groceries, take my coat off where ever an then get mad when I can’t find it. It always goes around our home.. someone loses a nut and goes berserk because they can’t find something and I always ask them “Where did you leave it?” Every.Single.Time.

I hope these tips  on 7 ways to be more disorganized have helped you because quite honestly, I am not an organized person by nature, but these simple things have really helped us keep the clutter under control. I feel like the house feels just so much better when it doesn’t feel junked up.

Check out my #Michealsmakers organization challenge here. Organization for creatives!!!