Organizing your home can seem like an uphill battle. Between toys, mail, and shoes, does it seem that there is never enough space for all of your stuff? You can take control! I teamed up with YOU (readers of SarahTitus.com on Facebook), along with some other bloggers to bring you this inspiring post, 88 top ways to organize your house this season. Check out everyone’s best tips and feel free to add to the list in the comments!
88 Top Ways to Organize Your House This Season
- Put mail away right as it comes through the door rather than letting it pile up.
- Don’t use your dining room table as a place to stack papers.
- Reader Joan says one of her top ways to organize your house, is to “Take care of the snail mail every single day — recycle the junk, stack magazines, put bills in one place for payment, enjoy the fun birthday/holiday/special occasion cards! Email also gets read and sorted every day and filed in personal folders on the computer as necessary.”
- Create a binder for all of your important family documents (insurance info, lease/mortgage papers, etc.)
- Make a list of gifts as soon as received so that you know who to thank (and for what.) Keep thank you notes in stock; you never know when you’ll need one.
- Katie from The Green Homemaker says, “Use Tupperware containers to hold small toys like Lego sets.”
- Put owners’ manuals for new appliances in manila folders and clearly label the contents.Related: Organizing your home can be so difficult. You have no idea where to begin or how to organize your home in a way that makes sense. This organizing essentials guide is the perfect solution. With real life advice, this go-to guide covers almost everything you own! Get started now and say goodbye to clutter forever!
- LaToya from LaToyaEdwards.com says, “Have less stuff. The less you have the less you need to organize. Declutter and purge regularly. And teach your children to help you clean and keep their things tidy.”
- Use plastic sets of drawers to store old check registers and bills.
- Use notebooks for various purposes: different organizations, notes on home improvement plans, etc.
- Use 3-ring binders for new projects (weddings, home improvement, etc.) Hang on to them for future reference.
- Neyssa from Rebuilding the Well says, “Light a candle, put on upbeat music or listen to a podcast. If you’re like me, a natural messy, cotton scents and something to listen to go long ways while organizing!”
- Purchase a plastic accordion file for receipts and documents you’ll need at tax time.
- Put all of your tax paperwork in a 3-ring binder and label it with the year.
- Keep a cup with pens and pencils readily available.
- Reader Sandra says one of her top ways to organize your house, is to “Delegate the chores, “while l do this will you do that ” is how l run my house we all as a family work as a team, see me doing something don’t sit and watch either help me or do another task you are able to, at the end of the rewards come three fold, first its the result, a clean home which we all can be proud of, second is extra time we all get to relax and either do what we want to do or spend time doing something fun together as a family and thirdly there may end up being a treat involved because l have more time to bake.”
- Make a place where paper for homework or notes is kept.
- Track what you spend on groceries, gas, etc. and create a budget for regular expenses.
- Choose one day a week to enter all of your receipts in your checkbook.
- Decide on a homework time for each night and stick to that appointment.
- Shari from Faith Filled Food For Moms says, “Do a little something each day. Like for school paper organizing…at the end of the week get rid of school papers except one favorite…let the kids pick. Then display the fave for one week and do this each Friday. The faves that come down go into a file folder. Then at the end of the year you can make a nice little binder for each child. Boom…memory book!”
- Keep a single calendar (in your phone or on the fridge) for all of your family’s activities.
- Go through your email and unsubscribe to unwanted senders.
Related: How to Organize Emails
- Go through your phone and delete pictures that you may not want.
- Susanne from Hillbilly Housewife says one of her home organization ideas, is to “Set a timer for 15 or 20 minutes and see how much you can get done in that time. Don’t stop until the timer beeps. Get the whole family involved and make it a race.”
- Get rid of apps that you don’t use.
- Backup your computer’s hard drive on a flash drive or exterior storage once a month.
- Keep a card file with online passwords and other computer info.
- Keep a small trash can in your car.
- Kristina from Cents and Order says, “Purge liberally. Get rid of clothes you don’t wear any more and get rid of items you don’t use. Don’t keep something because you might need it “someday.” Less stuff=easier to organize!”
- Give each of your kids a small bag for toys and books for car travel and store them in there.
- Keep antibacterial wipes in your car for messy hands.
- Keep your registration and insurance information in a small photo book in the glove compartment.
- Keep all car maintenance records in the glove compartment.
- Keep a blanket and small bin with car emergency needs (tire gauge, wiper fluid, etc) in the trunk.
- Put a storage shed in the backyard and keep items you need for your yard in it.
- Dina-Marie from Cultured Palate says one of her top ways to organize your house, is to “Teach the children to help with chores – we use a dry erase white board. Each child has a block with their name and chores listed along with school subjects. When they help with keeping the house clean they are more thoughtful before making a mess.”
- Change out the things that are in your shed (and those in your garage) for each season.
- Get the snow blower and lawn mower ready the first day of the new season.
- Keep cabinets and drawers in your garage for small tools and other auto needs.
- Lindsey from Everyday Originals says, “I’m always a supporter of less stuff , we don’t NEED a lot, but my biggest advice, especially with living in small spaces with less storage, is to utilize vertical space – baskets hung inside of doors, shelves up to the ceiling in reach-in closets, etc. and to think outside the box. I look around every where in a new space to see how I can think creatively about storage and organization. I’m also a big supporter of customizing closets. Doesn’t have to be expensive, but if you customize to your needs it’ll be much more effective. There’s no one size fits all for organizing, we’re all different, with different things so make it work for you!”
- Label appliances with the date that they were installed.
- Keep on top of annual appliance maintenance (AC, furnace, etc.)
- Put shelves in your basement to hold storage bins and other items.
- Test your circuit box and label where each circuit is in your house.
- Reader Jenny says one of her top ways to organize your house, is to “Get your kids to do one thing during commercial breaks. Put away clothes, then put away shoes at the next break, etc.”
- Get rid of old paint (take to a community disposal program for safe disposal).
- Any time you use storage bins, label them with the contents.
- Purchase larger bins for cleaning supplies and put in the garage, basement, closet, etc.
- Purchase small tubs to utilize the space underneath your bed.
- Keep a decorative bin by your front door for shoes.
- Reader Tina says one of her ways to declutter your home, “The biggest tip is that you can’t organize JUNK. if when you see it its not bringing you joy, or great use toss it! Also if you like it but it’s taking up too much space take a photo of it and have a keepsake book to remember the item. but get rid of it.”
- Hang a shoe hanger in the closet as a place to store hair accessories.
- Purchase plastic sets of drawers for storage of small toys, puzzle pieces, etc.
- Designate storage bins for out of season clothes and change out your clothes for each season.
Related: Bedroom Organization Tips
- Tonya from The Crafty Mummy says, “If you use it, you put it away. I have always encouraged my kids to take responsibility for things they use so that I’m not constantly tidying up after everyone. They’re not perfect but even if they put away most of their things, it is a lot less for me to take care of. Plus: make it easy for them by having homes for items.”
- Use storage benches in common living areas as a place to hold toys (away from the toy room.)
- Label your linen closet so that every item has a place.
- Purchase small bins for each category in your linen closet (medicines, first aid, etc.)
- Go through your clothes at the end of every season and donate those things you didn’t wear.
- Reader Rhonda says, “Taking areas once at a time… not trying to do it all at once.”
- Get rid of clothes or shoes that are falling apart (no matter how much you love them.)
- Don’t let yourself get sentimental when looking to donate things you don’t use.
- Use a kitchen island to store your pots and pans (and add counter space!)
- Use a separate garbage can for recycling, so that you only have to sort it once.
- Place a small magnetized file on the refrigerator to hold bills coming due.
- Von says one of her top ways to organize your house, is to “Color coded life: all of the family members have a specific color, (I sharpie a dot on all clothes labels) a colored bin upstairs and down, same colored clothing hangers/laundry baskets, shoe bins, etc. When I clean, I drop things in the kids colored bin and the kids put it away. Doing laundry is much easier with the color code. I also have a “going up” bin and a “going down” bin. Keeps me from running up and down three flights of steps. The rule is who ever goes up, carries the bin up…you get the jist. Having toddlers to teens, I’ve found color coding a great way to keep everyone’s things together.”
- Label your pantry or cabinets for the kinds of foods found on each shelf.
- Use bins and canisters in your pantry for flour, sugar, pasta, etc. It will keep them fresh.
- Go through your fridge and toss old food the same day every week to make sure it makes it to the garbage.
- Get rid of old glassware, dishes, etc. that you don’t use anymore.
- Find a home for all of your kitchen appliances and keep them there (so they aren’t all on the counter.)
- Select a day of the week to water all of your plants.
- Reader Cassidy says, “Find five things that aren’t where they belong and put them away. Every time you walk in the door.”
- Choose what dishes go where in your cabinets and stick to your plan.
- Stack seasonal towels, placemats, etc in the order that you’ll use them and put them in storage.
- Keep a pad of paper on the fridge to write down what you need to buy when you run out of something.
- Buy gifts as you find them and put them on a shelf for later.
- Make a spreadsheet of holiday gifts given and what you give each year.
Related: Tips for Organizing Paperwork
- Choose a single drawer to hold all car and house keys.
- Katie from Organizing Moms says, “Always carry something with you to put away when you go to another room. This cuts down on cleanup time later on!”
- Put all movies in a storage holder (shelf, cabinet, etc.) and organize by genre.
- Donate movies that you haven’t watched in the past several years.
- Use bins for mementoes and limit yourself to one or two. Keep them in storage.
- Go through books on a regular basis and donate those you won’t read again.
- Reader Kelly says, “I deep clean one room each time I clean so that things stay cleaner but I don’t have to deep clean the whole house at once.”
- Organize digital photos into online folders for easy access.
- The final top ways to organize your house is to keep some favorite projects your child has done and take pictures of the rest (then get rid of them).
