Tips to Maintaining Your Home: Organize
Anyone who knows me or has been to my house, knows I like things kept a certain way. Keeping the house maintained and clean was a lot easier before I had kids. Now, it’s not as easy for me to quickly clean up the house before visitors come by. So, how do I maintain the house and still have kids that live in it? One word? Organization.
Here are some of my fool-proof steps to help keep each room in your house organized and ready whenever someone decides to pop over:
Bins – if you are keeping them out of sight, like the basement or a closet, grab cheap bins that seal shut. Also, make sure you pay attention to the type of bin you are purchasing if you plan on stacking them. You want to make sure they all fit well together on shelves.
Racks – instead of just stacking those bins, store them neatly on racks. You don’t have to spend a fortune on these racks. A good pointer – wait for Black Friday, they usually go on sale at stores like Home Depot and Lowes.
Canvas and wooden storage containers or baskets – this is best for areas in the house that are exposed but need organization. Think toys. I utilize these like crazy in the playroom. You can get fun colors of the canvas bins from Target. If you are looking for something that disguises well with your decor, you can grab a cute basket or wooden crate from Target, Home Goods, or Kirklands to store items.
Labeling – we recently purchased a label maker and aren’t really sure what took us so long to do so. It’s great! We have been using pictures along with words to help our daughter understand what toy items go into which bins in the playroom. It’s helped her to learn some accountability and independence when it comes to cleaning up after herself.
Keep it small – don’t let it all pile up. This is when the task seems to get so overwhelming that you give up on it altogether. Believe me, I have a section in my house that I am currently ready to tackle: mail/school paperwork. I need a better filing system and I am on the hunt for a decorative and efficient filing stand.
Organized mess – allow yourself a little organized chaos as long as you know what’s there and where to find it. We have a junk drawer. There are regular items that I use daily in that drawer but no matter how hard I tried, it never stayed organized, so I gave up. I know where to find the items I need from the junk drawer, when I need them.
Do you have any additional tips or advice you would like to share that help you maintain organization in your home? Feel free to share it with me in the comments!
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