After having 3 kids in 4 years, I was overwhelmed and exhausted. Our house was a mess and we were always running late. I knew I needed to get organized, so I started doing some research. Eventually, I came across a handful of organizing tips that really made a difference. In this post, I have compiled the ideas that had the biggest impact on my home. If you are ready to start getting organized, I know these ideas will make a difference for you too!
Let’s jump right into the 19 different organizing tips that will streamline your home and your life!
use this free project planner to map out your favorite organizing ideas 👇
#1 – GIVE EVERYTHING A “HOME” OR GET RID OF IT
One of the most important organizing tips is to make sure that every single item in your home has a specific place to always go back to.
If you can’t find a home for something, get rid of it. 🤷♀️
I know this tip is easier said than done but keep in mind that organizing is a process. It will take time to find a “home” for everything.
#2 – STORE LIKE ITEMS TOGETHER
This is one of the organizing tips that I keep going back to again and again.
It might seem obvious, but it’s often overlooked.
Storing like items together is a great way to maintain order, even in a messy house.
As you work on giving everything a “home”, round up all like items and then find a way to store them together:
Throw all of your shoes in one big basket by the door. In the kitchen, designate one shelf for coffee cups and one cabinet for drinking glasses.
And don’t forget about the toys! Kids will be much more likely to play with their toys when all the matching pieces are grouped and stored together.
#3 – NEVER LEAVE A ROOM EMPTY-HANDED
Never leaving a room empty-handed is a great organizing tip and it’s also a great way to keep your house clean and tidy throughout the day! If you’re watching TV and you get up to make a drink, grab all the trash that’s accumulated in the living room.
If you’re heading to the bathroom, pick up a few toys on your way there.
By doing this, you will help keep your home picked up in the long run. And you’ll make it easier on yourself when it comes time to tidy up at the end of the night!
#4 – USE OVER-THE-DOOR SHOE ORGANIZERS FOR EVERYTHING
Over-the-door shoe organizers aren’t just for shoes!
I have one on the back of every door in our house – for barbies, toys, cleaning supplies, arts and crafts, makeup, and charging cords.
We even use the heavy-duty canvas shoe organizers to store diapers, heating pads, and miscellaneous items.
#5 – CREATE A COMMAND CENTER FOR INCOMING PAPERS
Out of all of these organizing tips, this one has been the most life-changing for my family.
We struggled with paper piles on our dining room table for years. I finally got it under control with a decorative hanging file folder! 🙌
To tame the paper problem in your home, start by taking note of all of the incoming paper that comes through your house on a weekly basis.
Then designate one file folder for each category.
(Bills, school, medical, etc.)
When the paper comes through your door, immediately put it in the appropriate file.
And make sure to go through everything at least once a week!
Consider adding a paper processing time to your weekly routine. It should only take a few minutes to sort through and delegate, file, or toss each piece of paper.
This simple system has truly eliminated the paper piles from our home!
This hanging file folder is no longer available, but here is a similar rose gold version on Amazon.
{Quick Tip} For an easy-to-maintain incoming paper system, I recommend keeping it on your kitchen counter or near your main entry. If there is too much work in order to use the system appropriately, you might avoid using it the way it is intended and the paper will start to pile up again.
Related Post: How to Organize Daily Paperwork
#6 – USE MAGAZINE FILES EVERYWHERE
“File, don’t pile”. ← I repeated this mantra almost daily when I was working on the paper problem in our own home
All those random stacks of paper clutter laying around your house that you don’t know what to do with? Use magazine file holders to keep your stacks under control!
Anything that you want to keep handy – coloring books, planners, printer paper, manuals, reference materials, newspapers, magazines, etc.
They’re great for storing papers that you use frequently! Just place them on a bookshelf with the long side facing out.
You can pick up a couple of inexpensive file holders from Ikea by clicking here.
#7 – CREATE A DROP ZONE BY YOUR MAIN ENTRY
A drop zone by your main entry is the single best way to prevent losing your keys, sunglasses, phone, etc.
Hang a simple shelf right by your door with a dish or a valet tray to contain everything you need to leave the house.
Under the shelf, hang wall-mounted coat hooks for purses, backpacks, and jackets.
Related Post: 20 Inspiring Family Command Centers
#8 – HANG HOOKS ON THE BACK WALL OF YOUR CLOSET
Maximize space in your closet by using command hooks, coat hooks, or even decorative doorknobs placed strategically.
Use them to hang jewelry, hats, purses, scarves, cardigans, etc. The possibilities are endless!
In your coat closet, you can hang them at a lower height for kid’s jackets.
#9 – DON’T STORE OfF SEASON CLOTHING IN YOUR BEDROOM CLOSET
If your closet is packed full of every article of clothing you own, it will be impossible to keep up with and maintain order.
The more cluttered a closet, the more you’ll tend to avoid it. And that will only cause more clutter down the line when you start to avoid putting your clothes away.
To solve the issue, keep out-of-season clothing in space-saving vacuum bags or Ziploc Flexible Totes. Store them in a large plastic bin in your garage, basement, attic, or even the top shelf of your closet.
Use a label maker or a sharpie to label the bin before storing it.
Ready to put these organizing tips into action?
Grab this FREE Project Planner and finally tackle all those home projects you’ve been dreaming of!
#10 – LAZY SUSANS & DRAWER ORGANIZERS ARE YOUR BEST FRIENDS
Lazy Susans aren’t just for corner shelves!
Use them in your bathroom cabinet for frequently-used items, in your fridge to access all the condiments and your medicine/linen closet for medications and toiletries.
Use drawer organizers in every drawer in your house – your kitchen, desk, bathroom, and dresser drawers.
Choose from spring-loaded, plastic, or canvas for linens and clothing. Or you can make your own!
Drawer organizers are a fantastic way to bring order to a deep desk drawer. These baskets from Office Depot corral smaller items like command hooks, velcro strips, and all the other random things that seem to always go missing!
In your children’s dressers, use canvas drawer boxes to separate by category. ← This has really helped my kids learn to be mindful of their clothing.
You can buy a bundle on Amazon and have plenty of enough for multiple drawers!
Related Post: 35 Organizing Products You Will Actually Use
#11 – MAXIMIZE VERTICAL SPACE
If you’re short on storage space in your home, you should definitely take advantage of vertical space and maximize every inch that you can! Here are just a few ways to maximize vertical space in your home:
- Use tiered cabinet organizers to maximize vertical space in cabinets. You can use different sizes for spices and canned goods medicine, lotion, or even small toys to keep on display.
Tiered organizers are a great way to prevent items from getting lost in large baskets and buckets.
- Remove visual clutter by using floating shelves for decorations and knick-knacks. You can also hang a large shelf in kid’s rooms for storing rarely used toys and prized possessions.
- Find creative solutions for unique areas of your home. For example, if you have empty wall space between a door frame and a window, install some hanging baskets or a quirky shelf.
- Add storage to walls with pegboards and wall organizers. You can also add storage to the insides of cabinets with over-the-door organizers.
- Take advantage of wall-mounted coat hooks! Click here to order some from Amazon. Or you can pick up a few for about $10 in the hardware aisle at Walmart. I have one in every room of our home for hats, jewelry, purses, umbrellas, sweaters, and coats.
My favorite place to use them is at kid’s height in their bedrooms because it makes it easy to store all their little bags and purses.
#12 – CREATE AN OUTDOOR SURVIVAL KIT
Keep a basket by your backdoor so you can have one centralized location for all of your bug spray, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, etc.
So the next time you’re heading outside, you won’t be running all over the house trying to find what you need!
{Quick Tip} Keep chalk and bubbles (and a flashlight!) in your basket so your kids can have something to do on a whim!
I got this nifty little basket from Hobby Lobby and I love it! It would also work great in a bathroom. You can store your makeup in the basket and hairstyling tools hung over the bar.
#13 – FILE INSTRUCTION MANUALS & WARRANTIES
Store warranties and instructions manuals inside of hanging folders in a file cabinet just like you would any other paper.
Use different folders for different categories – appliances, furniture, electronics, baby, etc.
#14 – PACK YOUR TRUNK AT THE START OF EVERY WEEK
Does your family have a lot of extracurricular activities? If you find yourself rushing everywhere all week long, pack your trunk at the start of every week!
Use a trunk organizer to store sports gear, ballet costumes, and even your gym clothes all in one place.
#15 – KEEP YOUR PURSE ORGANIZED
Instead of keeping receipts in your wallet (or the bottom of your purse 😉), keep them all together in a mini accordion envelope.
You can use the labeled tabs that come with the envelope or use all of the different pockets at your own disposal.
I keep one accordion envelope in my purse for coupons, receipts, gift cards, and appointment cards.
Once a month, I will sort through it and transfer any relevant receipts that I still need to keep to a poly envelope inside my desk drawer.
{Quick Tip} I stockpile free stickers from the doctor’s office and keep them in my accordion envelope. When my younger kids are throwing a fit, I have plenty of stickers to distract them. 💁♀️
#16 – USE A DESIGNATED BINDER FOR SCHOOL PAPERS
Kids bring home an endless amount of paper from school!
One way to keep it all handy and organized is by using a binder for the entire school year.
Use tabbed dividers to separate by categories such as PTA, scouts, extracurriculars, parent flyers, artwork, and report cards.
Depending on how many children you have, their particular age, and the amount of paper they bring home each week, you may need one binder for each child.
I have a section for general school papers, like the yearly calendar and lunch menu. I also have a section for teacher handouts, PTA information, miscellaneous, and artwork.
In the artwork section, page protectors will store all of the beautiful drawings your children bring home every week.
At the end of the year, clear the binder out and have your kids pick a few favorite assignments.
Add their favorites (and your favorites!) to a school memory box, which brings me to my next tip…
#17 – CREATE A SCHOOL MEMORY BOX
Wondering what to do with all of the memorabilia your kids accumulate over the years?
Instead of letting them pile up in random places, use a couple of file boxes to create a school memory box for your kids.
Use hanging files and file folders to create a tab for each school year – K-12.
And then pick a few favorite assignments, awards, school pics, and report cards to save from each grade.
#18 – ORGANIZE ALL THOSE SAVED GREETING CARDS
If you’re the sentimental type who likes to save greeting cards from special occasions, use a small photo box to keep them all organized.
Create tabbed dividers with cardstock and separate by year, holiday, or family member.
You can use this project to save sentimental cards that you have received. Or you can organize blank cards that you’re stockpiling for the next occasion.
#19 – LABEL, LABEL, LABEL!
There are many benefits to labeling items in your home.
Labeled containers are completely transparent, meaning you know exactly what you’re looking at and other family members know exactly where to put things.
(Tell me I’m not the only one who has a slob for a husband?! 🤔)
But aside from making it easier to put things away, labels can also give an item that ‘final touch’.
I could write a separate post on how and why to label your entire home. But in the meantime, here are a few tips to get you started:
- Be sure to label any storage bins before you store them away in your attic, basement, garage or shed. Use a sharpie or an adhesive name tag if you don’t have a label maker.
- Use bookplate labels to label fabric bins or wicker baskets.
- Design your own labels with printable sticker paper.
- And label your children’s toy storage system so they will always know where everything belongs!
Teaching Mama has a great set of toy labels that you can download for free.
Print them out, laminate them, and stick them to your fabric bins with velcro, brads, or magnets. Or you can stick them to plastic bins with double-sided tape.
bonus tip!
File folding our clothes has been a game-changer in our home!
I’m a cardigan and tank top kind-of-girl, which means I have a tank top in every color imaginable. I wanted to be able to see all of my tank tops and choose the one I wanted without having to dig through a whole stack of clothes. File-folding helps me keep my tank tops separated by category and by size.
It also works REALLY well in my kids drawers because they can easily see which article of clothing they are looking for.
ORGANIZING TIPS SUMMARY
If you’re ready to start getting organized, these organizing tips will be a great jumping-off point!
Keep in mind that organizing is a process. It won’t happen overnight. But once you get started, it truly can be life-changing!
There are a lot of organizing tips here, so take your time. Just focus on one area at a time.
If you want to take your home organizing to the next level, sign up below to grab your free project planner.
Related posts
11 Ways to Organize Your Life this Year
35 Organizing Products You Will Actually Use
Where to Start Getting Organized
22 Brilliant Ways to Organize Your Kitchen
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.