Organize Your Home: 5 Rules to Live By in 2018

Despite what you may think, getting organized doesn’t have to be scary or especially time-consuming if you set a few ground rules for your family. It’ll help you complete what seems like a very tall task in small, incremental bursts. These rules will enable you to create good habits over time, which will help you keep your home clutter-free and eliminate just a little bit of stress in your life.

Here are some rules to live by this year to help you get on track and stay organized.

1. Find a place for everything.

Organization is about routine and cutting down on clutter. That means finding a storage space for everything in your home. Now is the time to decide where shoes belong when your kids come home from school (in your mudroom or entryway) and where the sports equipment should live (in the garage, perhaps). If something doesn’t have a home, it’ll end up on the floor, the coffee table, the dining room table, the kitchen counter or on your home office desk.

Similarly, limit junk drawers. We agree, it’s nearly impossible to completely avoid using one drawer in your kitchen or office for a “catch-all”. However, a junk drawer makes it easy to lose things or completely forget where they’ve been stored. If you must have a junk drawer, use dividers to organize odds and ends.

2. Take three minutes now instead of a half hour later.

Spending three minutes to peruse your mail and take important bills or notices up to your home office will prevent you from spending a half hour going through mail at the end of the month. The same goes for things like putting away clean clothes when the laundry’s done and putting your backpack, hats, gloves and scarves where they belong. Organize them when you get home to avoid a disorganized pile of shoes near the door. When you take the time now to put something in its right place, you eliminate stress later.

Apply this concept to your whole house and you’ll get organized in a few short weeks. Need help with that? Download our 30-day Organization Checklist.

3. One in, (at least) one out.

Every time one of your kids gets a new toy, get rid of at least one other. The same goes for your clothes—when you shop for a new work dress, for example, take a look at your closet and get rid of another dress you no longer wear; this will limit clutter. This will help you keep storage spaces in order, such as your walk-in closet or your kids’ playroom.

4. Purge on schedule.

Make purging part of your regular routine. Try purging the refrigerator and pantry each week to get rid of leftovers that no one’s going to eat or foods that have expired. Purge your closet seasonally after you change out clothes—if you haven’t worn something in a season or two, it’s time to say goodbye and donate it to charity. Create a schedule that works for other items you own, such as books, toys and papers.

5. Get the whole family involved in organization.

If you often feel the weight of household responsibilities on your shoulders, it’s time to let that go. Get your family involved this year if you want to successfully get organized.

Enlist your spouse and kids to follow these rules to minimize the amount of work you have to do. You’ll teach your kids good habits that they’ll carry through the rest of their lives. After all, if everyone isn’t on board with getting organized, it’s going to make the task that much more difficult for you. When your kids and your spouse are involved, it’ll be easier to get out the door in the morning; you’ll all spend less time stressing about where you put something because it’ll have a home.

If you’ve decided that 2018 is the year of organization, you may want to take this task one step further with custom solutions. Reach out to us for help creating a storage solution that works for you and your family. We’ll schedule a free, in-home consultation to look at your space and what you need to store.