Happy New Year!!!! It is officially 2019 and that means that we all have resolutions and goals for this year. Your goal may be to lose weight or get fit, be a better you, save more money, travel more, be more organized, etc. But, I think we can all agree that most people set some sort of standard for themselves for the upcoming year. I am ready to take on this year and see what God has in the plan for me and my family.
One of my goals is to get more organized. Not that I am bad at it or my house is a disaster or overflowing with all the things(no judgment if this is you), but I definitely have a bin full of pictures of my girls growing up that still need to be put into photo albums. My girls are ages 5 and 4… Oops!
But something really hit me on New Years Eve. When our friends came over, they talked about how clean our house always was. They asked to see our new bed we made (blog post coming soon) and asked if our bedroom was clean. My husbands answer was “Have you met my wife?” And after the night was over it just stuck out in my mind. Now I am not here at all to toot my own horn because the reality is that my house isn’t always clean and we live in it and have messes quite often actually daily, especially with two little kids. But it sat with me and I kept thinking of those comments. When people ask me what I do, it was always hard to put into words and figure out. The more I thought about, the more I realized what works for me. So here it is…
The foundation of having a “clean” or straightened up house, is to have a plan and to have an organization system. Now I will say that our house has quite a bit of storage space and we do use every space we can use practically.
BINS!
So for instance, our closet downstairs has all of our coats hung up, bins for the girls shoes, a bin for hats and gloves in the winter time and a shoe rack for mine and my husbands shoes. We have a shelf at the top and that has bins of toys that the girls play with downstairs, which includes play-doh and board games. you see a theme here? We use bins every where we can to eliminate piles of stuff. That is definitely my number one tip is to use storage bins wherever you can to organize your stuff. E
Everything should have a place
I firmly believe that everything in your house should have a place to be kept. Now I know that it is not always easy. In fact I struggle with this a lot with my husbands stuff. So much, that he has his own upper kitchen cabinet full of his work and workout stuff. The kitchen has a door leading to the garage so one little area of the kitchen was always a drop off and never pick up or put away kind of area of all of his stuff. So I cleaned out a kitchen cabinet and called it his. Ideal? Maybe not, but it works and it keeps it organized into one spot.
Declutter with every season
Decluttering throughout the year is always a good idea. A good purge here and there always feels so good. Whether you donate or sell your items or do both, it is always good to look through what you have and what you don’t use often enough to keep. I generally do this with every season change. Mainly because it starts with me going through the girls clothes and then it leads to me decluttering the house. It feels so good to do! And be strong… make a rule. If you haven’t used it in 3 months, then repurpose it, donate it, or sell it. Maybe you forgot you even had it. Try to use it again and if you still don’t use it in 3 months, GET RID OF IT. I know it is hard, but you can do it!
Organize even the small spaces
It seems kind of silly, but if your drawers and cabinets are organized and tidy, it will be more efficient and easier to put things away and access them when needed. The Dollar Tree has some really great drawer organizers and I mean how can you go wrong with spending $1. for a set of small bins? I use these for our kitchen, bathrooms and basically everywhere I can.
Keep your counter tops, dresser tops clean and free of junk
It may not seem like it, but this makes a huge difference!!! One space I usually have an issue with is our end table in our living room. When my daughter comes home from school, there is always some sort of paperwork to look at and it usually sits on my end table until I go through it and put it away. And when I do, it gives me a sense of relief. It is clear and it feels so much cleaner. Find a space close to where you use something the most and store it away there. If you do a daily devotional on your couch every morning or evening, find a spot to put it near where you use it so it is accessible for you. This will make life so much easier. It will make it easier to get it out and easier to put away.
Do it slowly
Don’t stress it. You can’t get it all done in one day so don’t feel like you have to. Start with one room at a time and give yourself a few days to finish it. If you set your goals too high, you may get too stressed and say forget it. I promise you when it is all done, you will feel so much better.
Realize that some spaces, just need to be left alone and that’s okay!
Have a certain space for toys if you have kids. Now I know that may seem a little unrealistic, but our girls know that they can bring some toys downstairs to play with and go in their room and play with them if they want to during the day. They also know that at the end of the night, all of their toys get returned to their playroom. In our house, it is okay to “throw the toys in the playroom” at the end of the night because we know that about once a week we really clean that space up and start fresh again. This helps keep their rooms and the other parts of the house toy free and keeps all of the toys in one spot. Kids are kids and as much as I do not like the playroom looking like a disaster, I also do not like cleaning it up every night. Therefore, the door gets shut and it is out of sight out of mind until we clean it up.
These are just some simple tips that really help me and work for our family and our house. I read an article the other day that talked about how if you start with an organized space, then it will be easy to keep it organized throughout the year because everything has a space to be put when you are done using it. I loved that so much because it is exactly how I feel. I personally don’t like a lot of clutter, a lot of things out all the time. I may even have a little OCD when it comes to this, but this is what helps me keep my house so tidy when people come over. It is easy to put everything away where it belongs because I have a system set into place. Then all I need to do is actually clean and the house is ready to go!
Next week I will have a blog post about my cleaning routine and schedule so stay tuned!
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