Your Home Organization Systems Are Broken. Here’s How to Fix Them
You’ve probably heard before that the definition of insanity is repeating a process over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Well, that can be applied to organizing your closet, pantry, home office and just about any other space in your home.
If you feel like you’re having a difficult time organizing your home—and your life—it may be time to take a look at the organization systems you use on a regular basis and begin to reevaluate them.
Here are some home organization systems you use that might be broken and how to fix them.
Decluttering without a plan
Getting organized is overwhelming, especially if you have a lot of stuff, a lot of space or a lot of family members. It can feel especially daunting if you’ve got small children that are acquiring new toys all the time and growing quickly out of clothes. Things pile up fast and it can feel like there’s never enough time to declutter every space.
Instead of tackling everything in one day, cover each space little by little. Set aside a few minutes every day to declutter those bins full of kids’ clothes they’ve outgrown or the old toys they no longer play with. Make one pile for things you’ll keep, another for things you’ll throw away, and a third for things you’ll donate. Covering spaces over time with a deadline in mind can help you feel more in control of the situation.
Putting things away “later”
Whether it’s when you get home from a long day of work and you still need to work out and cook dinner, or whether you’ve just picked up the kids from school but it’s almost time to ferry them to evening activities, it’s easy to ignore shoes piling up in front of the door, a pile of coats sitting on a dining room chair, or a few bags of stuff from Target that you still haven’t unloaded.
Unloading bags, unpacking a suitcase and hanging up your coat right when you get home—as opposed to letting everything pile up—will make spaces feel less cluttered. It takes just a few extra minutes and will save you from spending more time later.
Overbuying
Have you ever bought another jar of peanut butter at the grocery store, only to find out there’s a new jar you bought a few weeks ago hiding behind three boxes of cereal in your pantry? If your pantry is overstuffed and cluttered, it’s hard to see everything and easier to overbuy.
The same goes for clothes in your closet. If your hanging storage is jammed, it’s much harder to remember you’ve already got a striped blouse hiding on one side of your closet.
One way to prevent overbuying is to create better storage solutions in pantries, closets and your home office so everything has a place and it’s also easier to see everything. Another is to turn to technology—there are a number of apps that can help manage your wardrobe and your food so you know what you have and what you need when you shop.
Ignoring cues that it’s time for new tools
Of course, if your coats are piling up in the dining room because that happens to be near the front door, you could be facing a larger problem—you don’t have the right tools you need to stay organized.
One key to getting and staying organized is to create systems that work specifically for you and your family. That might mean that it makes more sense for you to unload kids’ backpacks and shoes right at the front door, rather than walking them to a closet near another entrance or even in a bedroom. By adding hooks to the wall and cubbies to the entryway you can create a system that actually works.
The same goes for closet storage. If your shoes fall off your flimsy shoe rack every morning when you’re reaching for the right pair, it may be time to upgrade your shoe storage to cubbies or custom shoe shelves.
If you’re ready to fix broken home organization systems, let us help. Schedule a free, in-home consultation and we’ll discuss how custom organization solutions can transform your life.
