1. Use an ice cube tray to organize small items, such as paper clips and thumb tacks in the office, eyelets and brads in the scrapbook room, or buttons and notions in the sewing room.
2. Put the date that you bought spices on their lid (or the bottom — your choice) as a way to keep track of how old they are.
3. Open top baskets or clear containers are great for organizing kids’ toys. If you do that, you can buy a bookshelf (instead of an expensive “toy organizer”) to store toys.
4. Speaking of those toys, use pictures on the front of the baskets or containers for kids that are not old enough to read. Better yet — use a picture AND the word in order to introduce them to the words.
5. Hey — one more toy idea…for large toys, you can put a picture of the toys directly onto the shelf as a visual reminder of where that toy belongs.
6. We use a (flat top) wooden toy box as a bench for our kids to sit on when they play video games. The same toy box can be used as a side table for someone sitting on our couch. And…we have it filled with blankets! Whenever you get the chance, buy furniture that has multiple purposes.
7. If DVDs and games are over running your home, take the plunge and take them all out of their cases. If it makes you feel better, keep 10 or 15 of the empty cases and stick them away somewhere. And, of course, if you want, pull all of the inserts out and file them away. Once you have all of the DVDs or game discs pulled out of the cases, put them in a zippered binder that you can buy in most electronics departments. We did this and now have four binders (of different sizes): DVDs, GameCube/Wii games, Playstation games, and Computer games/software. We *LOVE* this system and it has really freed up space in our home!
8. Don’t feel obligated to your things. Don’t keep things you don’t like or don’t use. It just clutters your home and makes you feel bad when you see them. Sell items you don’t use or donate them, if you can. You’ll feel better and your house will instantly be more organized.
9. Likewise, evaluate anything that you seem to have too much of. For instance, do you find it difficult to open the drawer that you keep large utensils in (you know, things like wooden spoons, ladles, whisks, spatulas, etc)? If you do, then you need to pull everything out and go through it. Do you have duplicates of many things? Are there some things that you never use, but maybe have just kept because it was a wedding shower gift (even if you have been married for 15 years)? Use this same idea with other things that seem to be overruning your home and life.
10. When you pick up your mail, head straight to the shredder. Immediately shred or throw away anything that you don’t need.
11. Oh, and then when you are done getting rid of the junk (so that it doesn’t sit on your counter and collect dust)…put your bills and mail away. Designate a spot for mail and put it there. All of it. All the time.
12. While you’re at it, keep envelopes and stamps with it. Well…unless you sit down to pay bills somewhere else. If you do this elsewhere, then keep all of those things where you will need them to pay bills. (You know, unless you already pay all your bills online, which can help you be even more organized, by the way!)
13. If you decide to organize a room, envision what you will do before you do it. Make a plan. However, if you are starting to work on the room and you come up with a plan that will work even better, then go with it. You will be more organized if you have a plan, even if that plan needs to be tweaked.
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