Share your best organizing tips

1308 Views 20 Replies 18 Participants Last post by SleeplessMommy, Apr 24, 2006

Amys1st

Discussion Starter · Apr 14, 2006

Waht are you best tips for organizing? We all share the frugal tips etc, well its time for organizing! I do so many things like decluttering, etc but I am looking for new ideas since its Spring and time for that "spring cleaning" gene to kick in.

1 - 20 of 21 Posts

jrose_lee

· #2 · Apr 14, 2006

I am going through my house right now and I have bags and bags of things I'm going to donate. I guess that's my big thing right now. If I don't think I want to move it in 9 months (we're moving hopefully...yea!) then it's getting donated.

Someone else probably needs this stuff more than I do!

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Kincaid

· #3 · Apr 15, 2006

Get things out of the house the DAY you bag them up. Otherwise, they will sit in garbage bags or rubbermaid bins for MONTHS till you get motivated to do a yard sale. Don't wait, if you purge, do the yard sale within a WEEK or drop the bags off at Goodwill. If they sit longer than a week.... they are going to become part of the "furniture" of a room.
Anyone who has ever decluttered and then stared at a bag in the closet or garage for the next 7 months knows what I am talking about, LOL. CLose the loop within a WEEK is my best organizing advice.

kewb

· #4 · Apr 15, 2006

So true. If I don't make arrangements that day to get rid of it the bags will sit there for 7 months.

kymholly

· #5 · Apr 15, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by kewb
So true. If I don't make arrangements that day to get rid of it the bags will sit there for 7 months.

Great tip!

I am totally lurking on this board... I am a hopeless slob!

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aisraeltax

· #6 · Apr 15, 2006

mail gets sorted immediately...and ALL The junk mail gets tossed.

there are numbers on another thread for ppl to contact to stop junk mail, etc. but i dont have the link.

my biggest org. survival mechanism is that there is a place for everything. even the "junk drawer" (and i have one in teh kitchen and one in my bedroom) is a place and things can belong there (kitchen scissors is one example).

cant wait to see more tips.

tessamami

· #7 · Apr 16, 2006

repetition, you know, more than 1 basket, coat rack, etc. looks neater than 1 organizing thing.

In my bedroom, I'm trying to get several coat racks in a row, to hang up pants that can be worn again, towels, etc. And there is something about it. . . .you know, 5 of these in a row, that looks really neat. . . .

moonrunner

· #8 · Apr 18, 2006

A magnetic hook on the side of the fridge holds the scissors, another holds the thin plastic cutting mat. Hooks in the bathroom hold wet towels. Suction hooks on the large bath mirrors hold a couple necklaces and look kinda pretty. Hooks by the front door hold baseball caps and the bag-o-bags (canvas) for shopping. Hook things hold the microfiber duster and the swifter. You all get the idea. Hooks and baskets are my favorite organizing tools.
Moonrunner

tamaralv

· #9 · Apr 18, 2006

Shoe organizers. You know, the ones that hang over the door and have about 16 or so pockets with clear windows on them

I have one on my bedroom door that I use to hold scarves and gloves, seasonally (read : in winter it is scarves and gloves, in summer it holds pareos and beach/swim goodies). I have one in the bathroom for lotions, hair products, brushes, etc. I have one in the kitchen (yes, I'm a shoe hanger junkie) that is inside the pantry door that holds packets of sauces, small bags/boxes (ex: spices, jello mix, top ramen, etc), potholders, an apron, food coloring - basically anything that would get lost actually sitting on the pantry shelves). And I *want* to get one for the inside of the office/craft room door to hold some craft supplies (up high - scissors, crochet hooks, etc, plus other small items or works in progress. I have aplan! lol).

I also have used the following system in my last 5 kitchens and love it: if you use plastic storage containers (tupperware or whatever) and can make the space, devote a drawer for the lids to the tupperware.

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aisraeltax

· #10 · Apr 18, 2006

the shoe hangers are a great idea. Lillian Vernon has some hangers like that but they are mesh, so you can see through them (I have a couple for the kids room) but now i am defintiely going to get more shoe hangers!!

momof3sweeties

· #11 · Apr 19, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kincaid
Get things out of the house the DAY you bag them up. Otherwise, they will sit in garbage bags or rubbermaid bins for MONTHS till you get motivated to do a yard sale. Don't wait, if you purge, do the yard sale within a WEEK or drop the bags off at Goodwill. If they sit longer than a week.... they are going to become part of the "furniture" of a room.
Anyone who has ever decluttered and then stared at a bag in the closet or garage for the next 7 months knows what I am talking about, LOL. CLose the loop within a WEEK is my best organizing advice.

Yep I agree!! The flylady book recommended putting the bags in your trunk so you can get rid of them the next time you are out. I keep bags in my laundry room and when something comes through stained, with holes or too small for my kids...it goes into a bag. (Ebay, giveaway or throw away. ) When the giveaway bag is full it goes in the truck. The throw away bag goes directly in the garbage each time I do laundry.

I love bins and hooks.

Great...if everything has a place, life can be so much easier!!

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MomToKandE

· #12 · Apr 20, 2006

I'm trying to get rid of things! I'm officially giving up on ebay and just donating stuff. I have a pile next to my computer of things that I wanted to sell or at least freecycle but I never get around to it.

Momtwice

· #13 · Apr 20, 2006

If you can afford/approve of cable TV, there are several decluttering/organizational shows that I watch often to brainwash myself in a positive way and change the "negative tapes" in my head. I grew up in a home with two horribly messy parents and this has really worked for me.

Some of them include
Mission Organization
Clean House
neat
Clean Sweep

eloise24

· #14 · Apr 21, 2006

Baskets and boxes to hold stuff! My bathroom closet looks much better with six large buckets to hold stuff- extra shampoo in one, personal care in another, meds in another, etc. I keep craft supplies in old shoe boxes, with nice labels on the side (print from computer), etc. I work at a group home, so I keep my boys' towels organized by number (craft paint on the towel). Laundry gets organized by day and child. Everyone has a special cup, so that we aren't using tons of glasses every day. Little things like that help keep us organized and running smooth.

eloise24

· #15 · Apr 21, 2006

oops, it posted twice . . . sorry about that!

KC in KS

· #16 · Apr 21, 2006

So where do you all get your baskets and bins? Inexpensively, I mean?

We just moved into a new house, so I need to redo my organization system. I've tried garage saling for baskets, but have not had much luck. I'm really fighting the temptation to go blow some $$$ just to get the stuff dealt with.

eloise24

· #17 · Apr 22, 2006

I usually pick all my baskets up from thrift stores for a buck or two. All our thrift stores have tons and have them super cheap. Our local dollar tree has the cutest plastic bins, in a good range of color and size. HTH!

kellid

· #18 · Apr 23, 2006

One thing I do with my plasticware is after washing and drying, I put the lid back on the container and throw it, yes throw it, under the sink where I keep all the plasticware. My son plays with it all, and I throw it back in when he's done. My husband has a mysterious way of losing the lids or the containers and I end up with an abundunce of one or the other. Now if theres not a match it goes to the trash.

Penelope

· #19 · Apr 24, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kincaid
Get things out of the house the DAY you bag them up. Otherwise, they will sit in garbage bags or rubbermaid bins for MONTHS till you get motivated to do a yard sale. Don't wait, if you purge, do the yard sale within a WEEK or drop the bags off at Goodwill. If they sit longer than a week.... they are going to become part of the "furniture" of a room.
Anyone who has ever decluttered and then stared at a bag in the closet or garage for the next 7 months knows what I am talking about, LOL. CLose the loop within a WEEK is my best organizing advice.

Ok, this tip gave me the resolve to move the bags of items to be donated, plus more, into the car and then I drove to the thrift store and handed it all over! It was six or seven big bags of clothes and a wool rug, all in good shape but no longer used here, and I'm *so glad* it's gone! Thanks.

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KoalaMama

· #20 · Apr 24, 2006

Love the shoe hanger idea! I'm going to get on that.

I still have a lot of work to do around here, but here are some things that have been helpful for us...

I'm in the process of moving our CD collection off the shelf (which my son wants to topple over) and into CD binders. It's going to take up a fraction of the space, and I should be able to sell the cases and get back the money I spent on the binders.

We turned our den closet into a storage area by putting in a plastic shelving unit that could fit bankers boxes. The boxes hold all of my fabric and craft supplies and everything is easy to get at.

We use shoe boxes for loose photos, cards, papers, notes on the kids (stuff that hasn't made it to a scrapbook yet), etc. They get stacked on the top shelves of our closets.

The kids' clothes is kept in the closet in a shelf with pull-out baskets. There's a basket for socks/underwear (and the socks are sorted in a shoebox), one for pajamas, one each for tops, one each for bottoms. By keeping everything in the closet we don't have to take up a lot of floor space with dressers.

And our best move toward being more organized has been to get rid of things. I keep going through and tossing more and more stuff. I figure if we don't have it, we can't make a mess with it!

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