Getting Your Home Organized

By Maid Brigade of Northern Connecticut

Everyone has at least a bit of clutter somewhere. Maybe the children’s bedrooms, your home office, the attic, or the garage?

Here are some tips for getting yourself organized.

The first thing to do is to find a place for every item. One reason things pile up on counters, tables, and floors is that they have no “home.” Storing items in the room where they’re used helps ensure they get put away when you’re done, and usually it’s best to store similar items together. If it’s something you use frequently, make sure the storage place is easy to access.

The next thing to do is play clutter cop. The better you are about keeping things out of your home, the less likely things will pile up inside. Take freebies. It’s nice to get a T-shirt or coffee mug, but will you really use it? Enjoy it? If not, decline it. Or let’s say you’re a voracious reader. You could buy books – but why not borrow (and return!) them from your public library? Always look for ways to block unneeded items before they cross your threshold.

You’ll also want to do some detective work. Periodically scan your home for clutter hot spots, and spend some time figuring out why stuff accumulates there. Once you understand the problem, you’ll find it easy to devise a solution.

Hold off on container shopping. People love to go out and buy containers, but getting organized does not start out with a shopping trip. Go shopping for storage items only after you’ve done some decluttering – to understand the scope of the problem, the specific cause, and an appropriate solution.

Have a bunch of duplicates? Toss them! Throwing out duplicates is one of the easiest ways to quell clutter. Anytime you get something new, get rid of something like it that is old.

If you’re a doting parent, it’s not easy to discard a child’s creation, but if you’re serious about minimizing clutter, you must. You could always take a picture of your child with the creation, letting that be your keepsake. Of course, if your child creates something truly special, you’ll want to keep it, maybe even display it in your home.

Weed out your wardrobe. Odds are your closet is full of clothes that are rarely worn. Did you know that we wear 20 percent of our clothes 80 percent of the time? Sort through your clothes, and your children’s, at the end of each season. Does a particular garment no longer fit, or maybe it’s uncomfortable? Toss it into a box. Then take the box to a favorite charity or a consignment store. One key to decluttering is getting rid of things, not simply rearranging them.

Look for simple clutter control solutions. Often, there’s an easy solution to even stubborn clutter problems. Put a hook by the front door, so you can hang your keys up every time you walk in the door. You could also use a lazy Susan turntable for organizing pantries or laundry rooms. To add storage space in a crowded room, consider adding a shelf just below the ceiling.

You can also think about making home organization “kits.” Buy some clear plastic shoebox-sized containers, and use them to create kits where you store all the items you need for a particular task. For instance, you could create a shoeshine kit, a bill-paying kit, a manicure kit, and so on. That way, you can easily find everything you need to accomplish everyday tasks.

Stick to a schedule. Some spaces, like kitchen counters, need daily decluttering. Others can be tackled weekly or monthly. When that time comes, be systematic. Take all the items in a defined area (a cabinet, a desk drawer), and spread them out so you can see what you’re facing. Be patient – effective decluttering takes time.

While we may not be able to help you decide what to keep and what to get rid of, we can help you keep your house neat and clean.

Need some help keeping your home neat and clean? Give us a call at 860-645-6243.