How to Keep Your Home Organized

Today I am sharing how we keep our home organized. While setting up a system might take a little time staying organized shouldn’t.

The easiest way to keep our home organized is to set up a system that will work for our family. This means that we can’t just copy what is working for other people.

I started by living in our home for a while before I made any expensive organizing purchases. Analyze how you come in and out of your home. Are you using one entryway more than another?

Look around your home and analyze how you are using it. By doing this I have made a lot of improvements to the way we organize.

Here are 10 ways we keep our home organized:

1 Kitchen Organization

When it comes to organizing the kitchen think outside the box. We don’t just need bins and hooks although those are very helpful!

We decided to move our fridge to the other side of the kitchen! There was a dine-in kitchen area that wasn’t being utilized. So instead of keeping our kitchen set up the way the previous owners did we decided to change it.

We moved our fridge and we added some inexpensive Ikea cupboards and countertops to the open space. This allowed us to also extend our counter space where the fridge used to be.

My number one tip would be to look at your space with a fresh set of eyes and think if it can be reconfigured in a more organized way.

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2 Closet Shoe Holders

Shoes randomly kicked around the house are so annoying! There are 5 of us living in our home and that means lots of shoes.

I decided to store my shoes in my closet and out of the way of the front door. I love to use these shoe boxes from Ikea but here is an inexpensive dupe if you are interested.

3 Paper Organizer

When it comes to paper I say get rid of it! Well, I do have a full blog post on how to declutter and avoid paper, but there are times when we like to use paper.

For instance, I love taking notes and using a paper calendar. That is why I like to use this wood organizer to keep everything in one place on my desk.

I have also started taking all my notes in a notebook instead of having hundreds of scraps of paper all over my desk. This has helped me to keep everything in one place.

4 Bins for Toys

Bins are an excellent way to organize toys and limit the amount at the same time. Our rule is once a bin is full of toys then something must be decluttered before something new can come in.

We also have dedicated bins for certain toys; Duplos in one bin, LEGO in another, Cars in another bin. This helps my boys to stay organized on their own.

5 Hanging Laundry Bag

Recently we switched to hanging laundry baskets for my boy’s rooms. Previously we had a basket on the floor that took up a good-sized chunk of space and was always getting knocked over.

This is when I started to research dirty laundry solutions. What I love about this hanging bag is it’s off the floor, fewer things are likely to end up in there (like crayons), and it’s really easy to grab and dump into the washer.

Also, something I can’t seem to wrap my head around, but my kids have been putting the dirty clothes in the bag (instead of all over the floor like they did with the basket).

If it’s not a bag then at least finding a dedicated place for dirty laundry helps with the room staying organized and clutter-free.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS EXACT HANGING LAUNDRY BAG

6 Hooks

When it comes to hooks I think most of us think we can add hooks to a closet or in a hidden area. But I have taken adding hooks to our home to a whole new level!

I have added hooks to a wall in my boy’s room. This is where they can hang their backpacks and towels after they get out of the shower. Also a great place for the jacket they are currently using.

We added hooks to the wall right outside of our kitchen. Now that is a place where I can hang extremely wet dish towels, mats, and beach towels in the summer.

7 Custom Storage

Adding custom storage solutions is the best way to stay organized!

When we first moved into our home there wasn’t a lot of built-in storage. We had 1 small hall closet and 2 small hall cupboards. There was also a very weird-looking closet in the middle of the living room.

Now this never would’ve occurred to me but my husband pointed out that we could do away with the weird living room closet and make it into a media wall. And with the extra space behind the media wall, we could add an extra hall cupboard and double the closet in the room behind the media wall.

All this to say if you own your home and have the ability to change things around via simple construction projects see where you can make some changes.

Even if you don’t own your home there are a lot of affordable shelving units and seating options that include storage solutions.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

8 Drop Zone Organizing

One of the biggest messes happens when we walk in the door and everyone drops all of their junk on the floor causing a huge mess.

That is when the drop zone comes to the rescue!

I have a simple basket where I like to put all of my things; my purse, sweater, keys, anything I am using that day. This is kept in our kitchen because that is right near our front door.

A drop zone can be added anywhere that makes the most sense. We also have a very small closet near our front door that I added some hooks for the swim bag.

Of course, if we had some sort of mudroom or entryway this would all be different, but we don’t so we had to create a special place for these items.

Essentially, make a place to put all of the daily things you need every time you leave the house. I found the most convenient place for me, but of course, this will depend on the layout of your home and the rooms you are in most often.

9 Drawer Trays & Dividers

We don’t have a junk drawer! This usually surprises people because most people have that one drawer where everything is dumped.

Well if you just take a few minutes and organize that drawer it will no longer be a junk drawer!

I have added trays and dividers to all of my drawers and that helps to keep everything separated. Everything has a place and the nice thing about that is we always know where to go to find things.

10 Analyze and Adjust Organizing Systems

One thing I have learned over the last 10 years of being a mom is things are always changing. We can’t set up an organizational system and think it’s never going to change.

At least once a year I like to analyze and adjust our way of organizing. I look around our home to see how things are working.

We might be doing different sports or my kids might have grown enough to use higher cabinets. In other words don’t just set it and forget it, make sure the organizing system is still working in the best way.

The adjustment is usually a tiny tweak to make things flow better.

I hope these tips might help you to stay organized! Leave me a comment and let me know your best organizing tip.