Staying Organized

Organization looks different for everyone. I’m one of those people who needs my Kitchen space clean and tidy but my car looks like an explosion of matchbox cars, books, clothes, water bottles and some random receipts. Anyone else have certain rooms in their house that if they are a disaster it sets your day off on the wrong foot? Perhaps I have minimal OCD but man, life with a toddler takes messy house to a whole new level! It has been a challenge keeping up with the daily tasks around the house as well as chasing a high energy toddler around all day. Mess after mess room after room haha. My old ways of deep cleaning our house on Saturday mornings and it being set for the week are longggg gone. I have now had to adapt new ways for keeping our house tidy and our space organized.

Here are some of my tips and tricks for maintaining a somewhat organized space. Let’s face it, life with a toddler, some room somewhere will always be messy.

• PURGE or DONATE what you haven’t seen in over a year. Declutter each room to the best of your ability. Go room by room during nap time or while you have someone watching your little. Or if it’s just you, your life is even easier! Make 3 piles, Keep, Donate, Purge. Trust me… it’s the best way to start. Make a bigger mess before you can clean. Sounds counterproductive but it works.
• GET BINS! Bins for literally everything. You can get aesthetically pleasing baskets or clear plastic bins to store things in, but storage containers are your friends.
  • Bathroom – use a small bin for cleaning supplies, a small bin for extra toilet paper and hand soap
  • Bedrooms – bin your shoes, bin your seasonal clothing, bin your random extras hiding in your nightstand. My favorite use of a bin in our bedroom is for our miscellaneous phone cords, chargers, and remotes. Its a cute small basket but it keeps the clutter in check.
  • Mudroom- Bin your mail, make a declutter space where you can sort your mail, leave your keys, and organize items you need when you walk out the door. Once again a super cute tray or basket can do the trick. I’ll link a few below.
  • Closets – Bin your extra sheets and linens. Bin your extra blankets.
  • Toddlers Room – Bin extra wipes, we love to buy water wipes in bulk and rather than saving huge boxes we put them in large clear bins and store them with boogie wipes, hand wipes, etc. Saves Space! We bin our medical items such as bandaids, boo boo packs, and cold remedy items. We bin summer items such as water shoes and sun hats. We bin winter items such as warm winter beanies and mittens.
• Don’t bring more into your house than what your space allows, if your cabinets are already full, don’t buy anything else! haha kidding kinda, but really why buy more stuff until you have time to go through the items you already have.
• Spring and Fall Closet dump- organize your closet by style. I keep all my dresses together, tank tops together, long sleeves together and cardigans with my sweaters. I store my summer clothes in..you guessed it.. BINS until I need them again. My fall and winter clothes come out and color coordinating the different items really helps me find what I am looking for so much faster than rifling through everything.
• Toy Room- Try and rotate your kiddos toys around a tad and once again donate what they don’t use. Also they make bins for everything! Toy cars… found the cutest construction fabric bin on Amazon.. that is where the toy cars now live. Art supplies, we found the cutest wicker basket storage unit for cheap at goodwill. Our arts and crafts now live in those drawers.
• Kitchen- Try and maintain your pantry organization and the rest will follow suit. Make a home for everything. Make a home for your canned goods, make a home for your cereal. Pasta, rice, and small packages, live in the cutest fridge organizer inside my pantry. Make a home for your plates and bowls. Set a specific drawer aside for all of your ziploc baggies and storage containers.
• PUT THINGS AWAY AFTER YOU’RE DONE USING THEM!
  • MY personal favorite tip that can keep anyones house somewhat tidy, get something out? PUT IT BACK. Took me years to perfect this tip, but man it saves me sooooo much time in the long run.
  • Hang your clothes right away instead of letting them form piles on your floor…still working on this one weekly.

These are just a few tips that I have learned once I moved out on my own and after we started our little family. Things we are still working on perfecting and still finding new more efficient ways to keep our house organized. An organized home just helps you have more time for all the fun things you enjoy in life!