Everything In Its Place

Do you have a dumping grounds at your house?  We have a few such areas in our home.  One of ours was our front entryway.  Everything from keys, the GPS unit and a bunch of... stuff would continually pile up and patiently wait for someone (Mom) to come along and clear it away.  

I tried a little experiment.  First, I started sliding the pile into the drawer beneath.  After a while, the family caught on and pretty soon the dump ended up hidden away.  That it what I call 'winning the battle.'  Now for winning the war.

Before

Dumping drawer got organized with some leftover plastic Chinese food take-away containers.  Talk about a "win-win" situation.  My tupperware cupboard got cleared out and so did this drawer!

After

So far so good.  We're going on 5 weeks now and I'm happy to report it looks just as tidy.  And would you believe it?  We can always find the keys.  And the hairbrush.  And... well, you get the idea. This is one of my home organization success stories.

Now, I don't claim to have every inch of my home fully organized to perfection...  Yet.  But I do have a few ideas that have worked successfully and might just be the solution to an unsightly dumping ground in your home.

Assess the Situation

There are two ways to approach a home organization project.  One, and most common, is to already have an area (or 2) in mind that needs some help.  Another approach is to walk around your home with a notepad, opening closets and cupboards and creating a list of projects to tackle.  Pay particular attention to areas that are continually needing sorting/cleaning.  My front entryway was a good example. Children's play rooms are also infamous for needing good organizational help. When compiling your list - whether mentally or on paper - you can even rank your project sites according to their level of needed attention! 

Sort-On-Site 

Before you begin to devour a cluttered area of your home, be prepared to sort-on-site. I like to take 3 boxes, buckets or bags with me. One is for trash. I have learned that no matter how often I clear out cluttered areas, there is always trash. The second box is for items that need to go to another room. This is an important box as it will save you time in the long run. Without this box I often become distracted from my de-cluttering process because I have left the room to put something away! The third box is for items you intend to put back into your current project area. Sometimes I add a fourth box/bag for items I don't know what to do with. (Save that one for later...)

Storage Containers

Once you have disposed of the trash and delivered the items from Box 2 to their proper location, you can begin to re-assemble your project site.  Often you may need the use of appropriate storage containers.  Assess your needs and determine the size, shape, and quantity of containers you need.  You may be able to re-use something you already own, such as a shoe box or a clean Chinese food take-away container (as I have pictured above).  The 'Home Storage' section of your local supermart may have lots of neat-looking containers, but you can save money while achieving the same objective by searching what you might already have on hand.

A couple personal examples:

Top shelf of my utility room: Planters/ window boxes (for flowers) hold medicines and first aid items.

An old watercolor paint palette serves as a tidy organizer for my sewing notions and hides away neatly inside a drawer.

Label
Not a lot to say about this one, it's pretty self-explanatory.  Not every container will need a label as its contents might be perfectly obvious. I like to use picture labels for anything that kids might need to interpret.  Otherwise, some self-adhesive address labels and a Sharpie are my preference.

Above: I have labeled some staple baking items that reside in a pull-out drawer in my kitchen.  I am happier reading which container has sugar and which one has flour instead of hefting out both every time I am baking.

Practicality

Finally, some practical advice: Put things in a place that makes sense. Store your shoes near the door you enter/exit. Put your tools in your working area. If you tend to comb your kids' hair as they're walking out the door for school, keep the hair accessories near the front door! You get the idea.

Be sure that medicines, cleaners and other harmful chemicals are stored out of reach of children and pets.  On the other hand, if your organization project involves the kids' playroom, think about arranging things in a way that is convenient for them to access. 

Along with that, don't be tempted to over-organize.  Having too many containers can be overwhelming to maintain.  If you want your 4-year-old to put away her dress-up clothes, perhaps provide one large tote box for everything, not 8 separate containers for hats, accessories, dresses, tiaras, etc. (This is the voice of experience speaking).  Grouping items into general categories can be more effective than having things color-coordinated, alphabetized, etc.  However you decide to organize, be sure that it is done in a practical way that will be manageable to maintain.

Happy Nesting!