You are moving to a new place and you want to get organized so you aren’t lugging unnecessary items, you simply want to eliminate clutter and turn your home into a well-organized space or you want more free time and less planning – whichever the case may be, there are some helpful solutions that will get the job done as quickly as possible.
For starters – Take inventory of what you have. When we are in a place for a long time we can accumulate many things. Taking inventory will show us what we can get rid of and what we need to buy. For example, if you go through your tupperware and you find you have 20 tops with no bases, discard them right away and order yourself a new set!
Don’t hoard! Donate, give to another person, recycle or toss anything you have more than 1 or 2 of. For example, you may want to keep 2 graters if someone else is using it if you are cooking a meal that requires shredded vegetables but why are you keeping 2 handheld can openers AND you have an electric can opener? Give one away. Do you have 7 loose socks with no match and you can’t pair them with another? Discard them.
I am a huge advocate of reusing and upcycling things for future projects or endeavors – but if you haven’t reused or done anything with materials you’ve “saved” for another time in the last 3 years, consider using those materials first before you start storing away more items.
Next, labeling goes a long way. This is especially helpful in the kitchen. You can label specific drawers such as “pasta, rice, grains” and another drawer as “snacks” and another as “canned goods.” This way you will always know where everything is and if you ever have any guests over, they will easily be able to find what they are looking for as well.
Order or use containers to compartmentalize items in one specific location. Wicker baskets look especially nice in kitchens and bathrooms with open shelving units and make things easily accessible. For drawers, you can use dividers – everything that is hidden away in drawers can turn into a clustered mess overtime.
For meals, make a list for the week of all the meals you plan to cook each night. For example, “Monday – Chicken with rice pilaf, Tuesday – Lentil soup with grilled cheese sandwiches, Wednesday – Tuna casserole with string beans, etc. etc” This is especially helpful for families or busy individuals. Make the list before you go food shopping Sunday afternoon.
For cleaning, sometimes we get so caught up in the workweek or simply overlooking things, we can often forget to do more deep cleanings on certain areas of the home. Its helpful to make a list on a whiteboard in the kitchen and use it as a checklist to be sure it gets done. It doesn’t have to be done every day. Once every two weeks is sufficient for some families.
Keep a visible calendar in a place you see it often with important times and dates. Placing it in the kitchen on the refrigerator or next to the front entrance of the home.
Although these are a few ways to keep your home and your life organized, they can come in very handy when starting fresh or reorganizing your space!
