Expert Tips For an Organized Home

What a difference having your home organized can make!  It saves you time, frustration, and improves your memory! 🙂  Check out below what I’m talking about.  Several years ago, I sold my home in Houston and moved to Canada. This was the first home I owned. I renovated it twice…once when I moved in and once after a hurricane. I knew every detail about that place. Even after my home was empty and all of the contents were on the moving van, various spaces still spoke to me about their purpose and the things they contained. I recall a sense of where each item was located in the house, or at least where it used to be. I knew if I opened the storage closet, the light bulbs would be on the left side. If I needed a vase, it was under the sink.

Yes, I called this place home for many years, yes, I renovated it from head to toe, but those aren’t the only reasons I remember even to this day the locations and how things were stored. Utilizing expert tips for an organized home made things easy to find. There was a place for everything, and everything was in its place.

Keeping your home organized and tidy doesn’t have to be hard. Once you get down a system and take time to organize you will save loads of time, increase your productivity, and decrease the frustration that occurs every time you can’t find something. To get on the road to home organization, check out these expert tips for an organized home.

Contain Yourself

One of the most commonly used expert tips is to contain your things. Think out of the box with this one. Yes, boxes are a helpful way to store items, but there are many other practical AND visually appealing ways to keep your things organized. Think baskets, bins, jars, and trays.

Baskets

I love love love baskets. They are ideal for toys or blankets, but depending on the size they can be used for a wide variety of things including housing your spices, collecting your mail, sorting cosmetic or office products. They can be used in virtually any room in your house and are super easy to re-purpose. It is rare that I get rid of one of my baskets. They are so versatile. If they no longer fit with the décor of a room, you can shuffle your baskets and find one that’s the best fit. If they are no longer needed for the original intent, you can re-purpose to a new need. Really, you can’t go wrong with them!

Plastic Bins

Plastic bins are another fan favorite. They are superb for the kitchen, medicine cabinet, drawers or the bathroom where things can get wet or messy. In my pantry, almost all items are in a bin including baking supplies, pasta, grains, and snacks. We’ve used them to sort our junk drawer or bathroom drawers. Bins are available in a variety of sizes making them ideal for any space.

Jars

Are another great way to store household items. They are perfect for office or craft supplies…think pens, pencils, paint brushes – anything long and narrow. You can use a nice jar to display your wine corks. Jars with lids are a great solution for baking items like sugar or flour. The great news about this solution is that you don’t have to buy jars, often you have them in your house from grocery products you’ve already used.

Trays

Ideal for the family room, on a bookshelf, or in a kitchen. Trays contain items for easy access. You can use a tray for coffee cups in the kitchen or one for remote controls and coasters in the family room. Perfume or hand soap and washcloths can sit neatly on a tray in your bathroom and make a beautiful display.

Ziploc bags

If you want to compartmentalize further within your storage containers, good old plastic Ziploc bags are the place to go. You can sort like things and store for easy access within a box, bin, or basket.

Roll with it, Don’t Fold

Expert organizers are also creative with how they store things. There are superior alternatives to traditional folding.

Rolling

Towels, washcloths, and blankets are perfect for rolling and storing. We use a tall vertical wine rack mounted to the wall behind the toilet to store our towels. Bath towels are rolled and laid horizontally across the arms that would usually hold a wine bottle. By doing this, we are using the towels as part of the room décor not to mention they are easy to access.  Blankets are also great for rolling instead of folding. You can keep them in a basket and by rolling you’re able to see all of the blankets at once so that you can choose your favorite one every time!

File your Clothes

Vertical Filing

About a year ago we implemented this method of folding and storing our clothes and I will never go back to my old ways again. Inspired by the KonMari method, you fold your clothes in a neat little package and file them in the drawer from front to back. You can read more about it here. I love that nothing gets buried at the bottom and I can always see what clean clothes are available to wear.

Look Up

Experts recommend when you consider the best places to store things, look up and down…not just side to side. You can store things at the top of a closet, up high in a pantry, down low in the entryway (where people can leave shoes), or low under a bed. Hooks can be used on walls to hang hats or coats. Over the door, shoe organizers are a great way to make use of vertical space in bathrooms, mudrooms, or the kid’s room. In addition to shoes you can organize toiletries, winter gear, or craft supplies.

Label Everything

Let’s consider the almighty label for our next expert tip.   Whether you have a vinyl cutting machine and can make fancy labels, a printer that can make use of clear labels, or good ole sticky note and marker, labels are a must. They make it easy for family members to stick with the use and purpose of the container and help houseguests know where to find things. Let’s admit it, they even help us from time to time remember what we stored in the container, to begin with! To boot, they can also be very attractive.

Purge regularly – sell, donate, throw away

The last expert tip we’ll cover is the importance of purging. If you have too much clutter, no amount of containers or labels will help you get organized. Take it room by room a little at a time if you’re behind in this area. If you’re already on top of it, make sure you do a little purging regularly e.g. every few months. I find that having young kids who grow fast and whose interests change quickly, that I need to sort something every month to 6 weeks. If you’re in a different stage of life, you probably don’t need to do it that regularly!

Well, there you have it, expert tips for an organized home. By thinking out of the box and using baskets, bins, jars, and trays you can store many things in a functional and decorative way. Rolling and filing garments, towels, and blankets make every-day items easily accessible. Going vertical helps you to maximize your space and labels can make pretty little reminders for you and your family. Last but not least, commit to a regular schedule of purging and decluttering so that you can keep your home nice and organized.