Your best organizing strategies! (And systems!)

[AFWife]

If I don't start a system or figure something out the stress will kill my marriage.

Yes, I'm serious. Help, please??

[SashaBreeze]

Don't really have any ideas but I am definitely subbing, could use some tips and tricks of the trade that have been peer reviewed and approved.

ETA:
Oh! I just thought of one thing though. For years I tried to find a home planner, school planner and day planner that would fit our life. I finally gave up about 4 years or so ago and make my own using a 3 ring binder. Sooooo much easier.
In the front I have my monthly calendar sheets that the kids help me make each year, the little ones draw pictures for each month. Then it just kind of progresses from there. If anyone is interested let me know.
But seriously that is about as far as organizing strategies go at my house but I am looking forward to seeing everyone's ideas.

[mkksmom]

One thing that solved a lot of problems for us was to get one of those bill sorters that have 31 numbered spaces. We put the bills directly in there on the number they are due, so they get paid on time. I wish dh would just do online billing, but he works in internet security and that makes him extra cautious.

Another thing I am doing right now is that I packed away all but a weeks worth of clothing for each person (excluding the baby- she's next). I don't have to get rid of them, but just getting them out of the rotation is helping with laundry.

Can't wait to read more tips!

[Alyantavid]

declutter
find a home for everything
schedules for cleaning, laundry, etc

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by mkksmom

One thing that solved a lot of problems for us was to get one of those bill sorters that have 31 numbered spaces. We put the bills directly in there on the number they are due, so they get paid on time. I wish dh would just do online billing, but he works in internet security and that makes him extra cautious.

We pay everything online except rent and water. It really is helpful.

[bluebunny]

Organizing my house is a process. I've found that the more I declutter, the easier it is to stay organized. Clutter breeds disorganization. I've read several books/articles on decluttering and organizing and they all seem to point out that you should declutter first and organize second.

If everything in your house has a place, it is easier to keep things organized. You could start by decluttering a certain number of items a day or certain amount of time (15 minutes, to start). Then organize the area after you have decluttered.

For instance, I recently went thru my kids' toys and put a box of toys in the attic. Then I bought baskets (found them on sale for 50% off) to put in their playroom and organized the toys with the baskets. The playroom looks good, if I do say so myself. Now on to the rest of the house.

[Aeress]

Another tip for us, was to find what qualifies as organized for me and for dh. We have very different ideas of what "organized means", and I had to let go of some things, and dh had to try some new things.

For instance: It drives me bonkers that dh will put stuff wherever it is convenient for him at the time and it just stays there. He agreed to keep stuff off my hutch and fireplace mantel.
I then let go of other areas, like the kitchen cabinets that he keeps a certain way. It is not my way, but it works.

If you can, find out what dh thinks is "organized" or "clean" and how he would do it and then work out a compromise between the two.

[tessamami]

Would someone please

Post the laundry schedule you use? I feel like sometimes everyone has clean undies / diaper but me - LOL! I should try an adult diaper - I'd get LOTS done

Or, Nobody has clean clothes / sheets while we wait for diapers. . . .

Anyhoo, DD is going to camp, so I am concentrating on getting HER stuff clean - she's going to try all her clothes on tomorrow (today) and we are going to buy her new stuff (if needed).

She goes to camp this weekend!

[Alyantavid]

My laundry schedule:

I wash a load of dark clothes (mostly mine and dh's since the kids have alot of clothes) on Wednesdays. Saturdays, I was all the towels, sheets, etc. Sundays, I was all the clothes. That's usually 4-5 loads. But I also fold straight out of the dryer into each person's basket and when it's all done, I put everything away.

[Juvysen]

[IsaFrench]

... I try to do a load every day if possible, if there are not enough "every day clothes" that can go at the same temperature (I don't separate by colors, I go with temperature, it's either 30 C, 40 C or 60C ....) then I either wash all the towels or strip a bed or two ...

[BCFD]

DW pays mostly everything online. She checks the mail, pulls out the bills, and enters it on our bank website and "pays" them right away (you can schedule when you actually want the bill to be paid). We don't usually keep the receipts. She tears it to know it's been entered. She tends to be a clutterbug and I usually find them on the desk. I just know if it's ripped, it's been paid.

Laundry? I wish I had the answer. We are a family of 5 with 3 young girls that are just starting to do the "I want to change what I'm wearing 87 times a day" routine. Uggh! I am always under a pile.

Over the last two weeks I have totally purged my house. I mean....cleaned.it.out. Toys, office, bathroom drawers, clothes...EVERYTHING!! I gave everything to the Goodwill. My home now looks totally uncluttered and feels more manageable. I agree with a PP who said that the less clutter, the easier it is to stay organized.

I can't even begin to tell you what my kitchen counter looked like 2 weeks ago. I wish I would have taken a before and after pic. I don't know what came over me, honestly. I just finally had had enough!!!!!

Good luck and keep reading! So many good tips on this board!

[ParisApril]

Decluttering is the most important thing. I am constantly thinning out our space and reassessing whether we need things or not. We are 4 in 850 sq ft. 2 years ago we bought 5 black wire metal shelves at Home Depot http://reviews.homedepot.com/1999/10...ws/reviews.htm We put 4 of them in the furnace room in the basement for storage and one in the play room for toys.

We have storage bins on the shelves. We have a bin for my quilting stuff, cross stich, knitting, gift bags, baby stuff, out of season shoes, Christmas stuff etc. For the bookselves upstairs we have wicker baskets for the kids toys sorted into theme.

I wash laundry when it's nice out as I line dry so not much help there, sorry.

Right now we are packing for a trip and my house is a disaster area! It drive me crazy.

[AFWife]

I told DH that we need to take a weekend (he may have to take a Friday off) and have someone come over and help with DS so that he and I can just get rid of stuff. I was looking for a book in storage the other day and there are bins of CRAP out there. Some of it he's holding on to for sentimental purposes and it needs to be organized better...but some stuff I would open a bin and go "Oh yeah, we own XYZ" AND PUT THE LID BACK ON. So, obviously it's not important.

[NicaG]

I have been doing a lot of deep decluttering this week, and it feels great! I actually had our babysitter come for 8 hours so I could clean and organize. My tips:
-make sure everything has a home. A place for everything, and everything in its place.
-get yourself a labelmaker, and label as much as you can. I labeled shelves in the pantry and linen closet, so everyone knows where everything goes. I also labeled all the bins and shelves in the playroom and ds's room. Makes it so much easier to clean up when we're done playing, and it's easy to find things quickly.

[justmeandmybrood]

I love hearing all the great ideas! I try to break it down into the categories in our home:
-Stuff (we have decluttered and it is an ongoing process as well as a few major purges during the year; we also find and decide on a place for everything so we know where things go next time)

-Schedules (we each have our own personal planner, and then we have a MomAgenda fridge weekly calendar (has a great magnet on the back so it stays up) - we sync up the family fridge planner with our personal ones. It -has been more challenging now that our 2nd is joining the ranks of an elementary school student, and both kiddos have activities, parties, etc. (and we are expecting #3), but the planners are a great way to keep on top of it)

-Cleaning (I have tried FlyLady, my own schedule, etc. and am working on this one, lol! I am a SAHM so I do everything in the home (cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.). DH and I are constantly teaching our kids to do their parts - maintaining their own rooms, bathroom, and common areas; and there are certain things I do as soon as possible - I make our bed (not the kids') FIRST thing in the morning; I clean the kitchen as SOON as we complete the meal, and even clean along the way; the dishwasher and laundry is put away as SOON as they are done...nothing sits!)

-Meals (I am not perfect with this one, but I do try to pick one morning each week to meal plan, gather coupons, etc. so that I can shop with a clear, concise plan. I do not go shopping without a meal plan - it just works better for me to have it written out)

-Bills (I pay everything I can online as soon as I receive the email reminders, and the bills that need to be sent in I take care of the day they arrive in the mail. I have a list of each and every bill we pay out and the date they are due so I can keep track of it and know if we have extra money, etc. at the end of each pay period. I file what needs to be filed - we have a file for each bill/investment/medical info/etc. - these are all kept together in our desk drawer.)

Look forward to hearing some more responses

[SeekingJoy]

ITA with the pp about everything having a place. If it doesn't, then it can't stay in our house.

To get to the point where everything had a place, we decluttered like crazy. And, it is constantly on-going. Do I use this often? Could I use something else we already own that is more multi-purpose? For example, I could have kept the serving pieces in our china pattern that were a wedding present. Instead, we use our clear glass pyrex for mixing, food prep, storage and serving. A single large stockpot is good enough, even though 3 different, more specialized ones would be "nice." How many (cups, towels, toy blocks, whatever) do we really need?

Next, we added storage: extra wire shelves in the kitchen cabinets, baskets in the pantry to group like things together, bins in the laundry room for everything from each beds linens to soap, extra shelves near the ceiling in each closet, a clear hanging shoe organizer for craft supplies, binders for the DVDs and CDs, a hanging organizer for the mail and files, etc.

Once the stuff was manageable, I found keeping up with the house easier. The kids toys still get scattered everywhere. Keeping the house scrubbed clean without DH's help is still sporadic, but at least I can keep things generally tidy.

With laundry, I do a load everytime there is enough of any of the three types: whites/diapers/rags/linens, dark clothing, light clothing. I keep a hamper with 3 sections and everything immediately gets sorted when it is put in the hamper. Sometimes I wash 3 times a day, sometimes it isn't even once a day.

[Crayfish]

The main key is almost always: Get rid of stuff. And then get rid of more stuff. And keep on getting rid of stuff.

There is no organizing strategy, no level of will power and self discipline and hard work, that will make a house with too much stuff into a tidy well-running home. As they say, "you can't organize clutter". It's not possible. You can spend years, decades, a lifetime trying to discipline yourself into having a tidy household with too much stuff, and you will never succeed. So, to reverse that, if you've spent years or decades trying to have a tidy household, and you've failed, it's almost certainly about having too much stuff.

And, really, my next set of strategies are also about getting rid of stuff, because they're about empty space. It's not enough for everything to fit into the storage spaces that you have. You should also have:

(1) "A place for everything", yep. And it should be a _storage_ place - for example, the kitchen and bathroom counters, tabletops, and so on, shouldn't be covered with stuff that's "on display". They should be almost entirely empty, with maybe one or two ornaments that are there truly because you want to look at them, _not_ because you pick them up and realize that you have nowhere to store them. The stuff should be stored in real storage structures, like shelves and drawers and closets and cabinets.

And, sure, in the kitchen and bathroom there will be a small number of things - like the heavy stand mixer in the kitchen, and the electric toothbrush in the bathroom - that really are more convenient when they're out. But if "more convenient" is because it's hard to extract items from overpacked tangled drawers, the answer is not to leave it out, but to clean out the drawers.

(2) space to spare - I'd say the everyday spaces should be no more than eighty percent full. This makes it easy to put stuff in, easy to get stuff out, and when you buy one new thing, you have a place to put it, because the storage designated for that category of stuff isn't full. Then you can take your time (though not too much time) to figure out what to declutter from that space to get it back to no more than eighty percent full.

(3) Like stored with like. So don't stack two different sizes of plates on each other, and don't store socks _and_ panty hose _and_ costume jewelry in the same drawer, and so on. I recently stored some vases in front of the books on a bookshelf; this is a violation of my own rule, and I need to find a proper storage space for the bases. This strategy is intended to achieve:

(4) One-handed retrieval and storage. Wherever possible, you should be able to get out, or put away, an item - a plate, a pair of socks, a book, whatever - with one hand. If you have to use two hands to carefully move a stack of cups to the counter so that you can tuck a cereal bowl behind them, and then put the stack of cups back, something's wrong. This kind of storage can be acceptable for rarely-used stuff like holiday decorations, but the stuff that you use more than once a month should, IMO, be one-hand-friendly. (Sure, maybe things like that heavy casserole can't be moved with one hand, but you should still be able to lay your hands on it and get it out without moving other stuff out of its way.)

(5) Dropoff zones. You're not going to come home and take your purse to the shelf in the bedroom, open the mail and instantly file it, put away items in the bag from the drugstore and put the bag in the paper recycling, immediately after you close the door. Maybe you should, but you're not. No one is. You're going to dump all that stuff somewhere.

So you need a designated place to dump it, so that it won't clutter up the couch or coffee table or some other functional place, while it's waiting for you to find a moment to put that stuff away. This could be an empty shelf, a bench that looks like it's for sitting but you know is for dumping purses and backpacks and bags - whatever you choose. And you'll probably need more than one of them around the house, so that you have one everywhere that you otherwise find yourself dropping things where they don't belong.

I don't yet follow all of these rules all over the house, because I'm not done getting rid of enough stuff. But where I do, I find that they really do work.

Crayfish

[LCBMAX]

Originally Posted by IsaFrench

... I try to do a load every day if possible, if there are not enough "every day clothes" that can go at the same temperature (I don't separate by colors, I go with temperature, it's either 30 C, 40 C or 60C ....) then I either wash all the towels or strip a bed or two ...

This. And my commitment to myself is to put away a load every day too. Otherwise... chaos with clean clothes, not much better.

[Ruthiegirl]

I have embraced my inner Anal Retentive Goddess. I make lists. I post schedules. I post my schedules where everyone (meaning dh) can see them.

That way, when he is irritated that the bathroom is dirty or we have run out of shaving cream, I can point to the cleaning schedule or the grocery list that lives on the fridge. Yep, the bathroom is dirty because today is cleaning day. And no, I did not buy shaving cream. "Was it on the list?" (said with innocent eyes).

And of course, getting rid of anything not nailed down helps a lot.