By Cara Mirabella | Leave A Comment
It is so easy to let disorganization and clutter take control of a house. It can be overwhelming. It didn’t get chaotic in one day; it won’t get cleaned up in one day. It has to be taken step-by-step. It is important to make a plan on how to get your house organized. Walk through the house and make notes of what needs to be done in each room. Once you have a list, make a goal to complete at least one thing off the list each day. Keep the list where you can see it.
Organizing Your House? Start With Small Projects
Start with small projects, things you can see improvement in quickly. Try organizing a closet. Sort through it and get rid of things you don’t need anymore. You can donate them, get them ready for a yard sale or just throw them away. As you make more room in your closet, think about ways to maximize your storage space. You can add shelves and other closet organizers.
Make A List Of Projects
As you move through the list, some projects may take more than a day. That is ok. You just have to make sure you keep working on it till it is done. Take about thirty minutes in the morning and thirty minutes in the afternoon working on your list. Before you know it, you’ve gone through the entire house and organized it. The trick now is to keep it organized.
Maintaining Your Organized Home
Each day, keep up on maintaining your newly organized home. The key is to not get into the “I’ll do it later” mindset. If you have something that is in the wrong place, take the time to either put it away right away, or have a designated area on each floor, like a box, to put things that need to go to another floor. Then at the end of the day, everything in the box gets put away.
Establish A Schedule
Another idea to help keep the house organized is to establish a schedule where each room of the house gets a thorough cleaning one day each week. It may take awhile to get in the new routine, but if the family works together, it will be easier. If people remember to put their own things away, that will also help. Try not to be too impatient when people forget at first. Be sure to remind them gently, without nagging.
Keep On Top With A Checklist
If you set up a checklist, similar to your original goal list, you can keep on top of the things that need to be done around the house. Why not assign each family a specific area of the house to help keep organized. They simply have to go through the room and make sure that everything is in its place. While it takes time and a bit of effort, it will be worth it once the house is clean, neat and organized.
What is the biggest challenge you face when keeping your home organized? Email the Organizing Chickie.
ABOUT Cara Mirabella
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It’s important to remember/recognize that NEAT and CLEAN are too totally different words. I straighten the house daily – using the idea with the box/basket on each floor – but I only clean it every few days. A house with a little dust is one thing. A house with dust and four loads of laundry heaped on the couch is another. Tackle neat first, then plan for clean on a regular schedule.
oh “water works”, I am afraid that I am the latter description in your comment… dust and four heaps of laundry…
I’m trying to remember baby steps. We are a family of 6 living in a 3 bedroom apartment. Prioritizing is a MUST in order to keep my sanity!
Blessings,
Karla
Four or my rooms are decluttered and organized and those rooms are very easy to keep neat and clean. The other rooms are a work in progress, one that I am diligently working at, but am not at the cleaning stage yet. I love the idea of going in each room and making a list of what needs to be done, then making little progresses. That will help me not get discouraged. Thank you.
One thing that has made a big difference is making sure everyone in the house puts their stuff away at night (out of the living spaces) so that in the morning I am not spending an hour putting things away before I can clean.
I’m pretty good at keeping my downstairs picked up. But I just can’t seem to keep the whole house clean on a regular basis. I know part of my problem is I do put things off. Mainly because I’m doing important things like breastfeeding and blogging.
I need to start taking care of spills and messes as soon as they happen.
My disorganized house has finally reached its breaking point. I realize that my house is not too small, I’ve just allowed my stuff to get “too big.” For me, the best medicine, I think, will be to simply throw out and donate.
I teach and am enjoying an unexpected snow day, so today is a great day to go to each room and make a list. I’ll do it right after my nap
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**running to the forum** I LOVE to organize. It’s a sickness…really it is.