Simple Habits To Stay Organized Everyday

Being organized isn’t a natural skill for most of us; it involves a willingness to change patterns you’ve stuck to for a long time. Keeping both your home and life in order is a daily practice, but it can be a difficult one to maintain, and it can take a few steps to adjust your behavior.

Here are simple habits to stay organized every day.

To-Do Lists

Having a schedule and to-do lists are vital when staying organized. Take a few minutes the night before to plan out the next work by prioritizing important events Planning your day out allows you to block off portions of time, so that an appointment or task won’t catch you by surprise and derail your day.

Declutter

Regularly decluttering your home can be very helpful in staying organized. Streamline your home by decluttering in these ways:

• Go through piles of papers and sort what is essential and what can be thrown out.

• Donate books to streamline a cluttered bookcase. Do the same with records or video games overflowing from entertainment centers.

• Discard old and expired medication that might be taking up space in your bathroom

• Fold and hang clothing, and donate anything that hasn’t been worn in over a year.

Make Your Bed

Making your bed every morning helps to set up a small win to start a day. Taking this tiny by meaningful action will propel you into positive action. Don’t worry about doing it perfectly every morning; even just rearranging the blankets and pillows can help you start your day off on the right foot.

Designate Everything

Give every item in your house a home! Categorizing everything, even the little things, will simplify organizing. When you’re attempting to designate an item, ask yourself where you would most use it or where others in your household would search for it. This can take some clever and outside-of-the-box solutions, but be sure to properly store cleaning supplies and other corrosive items.

Point of Use

When you’re organizing your belongings, thinking about their purpose will help you decide where they live. Place things in drawers and cabinets with the most used in front to avoid creating frustration or confusion when searching for something.

With these simple habits to stay organized every day, you’ll keep your home and life in order!

Struggling With Clutter In Your Small Living Space

Many millennials’ experience with homeownership extends to their parents’ houses and a dorm or apartment with a nine-month lease. When it’s time to move into a house or apartment complete with a deed or contract, that transition may prove difficult.

One challenge that many new tenants face is clutter. Although living in an apartment or small house may feel cozy at times, it also allows clutter to accumulate quickly.

Why Clutter Appears

Despite one’s best intentions, piles of “stuff” can take up valuable territory — physically and even emotionally. Here are some reasons your living space may be in disarray:

1. Uncertainty of What Constitutes as Clutter: The definition of clutter varies from person to person. However, a good rule of thumb is that if an item is broken or not useful, aesthetically pleasing or sentimental, it might be time to donate or toss it.

2. Inability to Let Go: Many people tend to hold on to a specific piece of clothing or home item if it’s sentimental, a gift or being saved for a just-in-case event. Emotions can make belongings feel irreplaceable, but you should recognize when something is ready to go.

3. Lack of Organizational Routine: Most clutter piles get bigger simply because they become part of the general landscape. By implementing a functional routine, cleaning could become second nature and clutter won’t have time to accumulate.

4. Impulse Shopping: Impulse buying can be a recipe for disaster. Don’t buy sale items or hobby supplies if you’re not sure where to store them or when they’ll be used. Buying on impulse may give instant gratification, but it probably won’t help you in the long run.

To learn more about the psychological effects of clutter and what you can do to combat it, check out our resource.

Struggling With Clutter from Mo2 Properties

Goodbye Clutter: 4 Useful Tools for Organizing Your Home

Home organization isn’t something you can do without the proper resources. In fact, it’s the collection of tools you use that gives you the ability to maximize your available space and make this process possible in the first place. This is why, if you’re going to tackle one of these projects yourself, you must have everything you need to succeed. These are some of the most useful tools for organizing your home and the benefits each can provide you as you sift through the clutter.

Drawer Dividers

Drawer dividers are incredibly versatile items that allow us to store small objects in an orderly fashion. Whether you have tableware or little knickknacks in your drawers, these cubbies keep everything separate so that you can find what you’re looking for easily. These products can even organize your hand tools in the workshop or hygiene products in the bathroom.

Plastic Bins

We also recommend that you have a set of larger plastic bins on hand. These containers work great for keeping large collections of items in one place. For instance, they work particularly well for clothing and holiday decorations. Because of their air-tight seal, they effectively protect more fragile items from dust, humidity, and insects as well.

Storage Lift

Another useful tool for organizing your home is a mechanical storage lift system. They’re a bit more high-tech than some of the other products on the market. They consist of motorized platforms that raise your possessions up into the attic space. Attic storage lift systems have a series of benefits, including saving you time and energy, reducing your risk of injury, and allowing you to use your attic space in more versatile ways. With such a tool, it’ll be much easier to keep the rest of your home orderly.

Label Maker

Having a label maker can be helpful too. With several boxes of items to sort through, labeling each one takes the guesswork out of finding what you need. As such, you no longer need to worry about locating something, even after storing it away in the attic or garage. This tool is particularly effective for enabling you to find seasonal décor and memorabilia from years ago.

5 Remodeling Ideas for A Clutter-Free Kitchen

Tiny kitchens don’t seem like a bad idea in theory. When you think about it, how much space do you really need to cook a meal? It turns out that you actually will need more than expected. 

Many times, having a tiny kitchen can be more difficult than anticipated. After all, there are a lot of things that go in the kitchen that we don’t realize. From small appliances, a gadget for every need, plus food and dishes for the entire family. 

Having a tiny kitchen means that space gets easily cluttered, provides limited space for cooking large meals, and prevents you from being able to socialize and gather in the kitchen.

If you desire a clutter-free kitchen that is more conducive to your lifestyle, consider these five kitchen remodeling ideas. 

1. Flooring

Flooring can make or break a cluttered look. Even if everything is completely organized, if the floor is busy, a small kitchen will still look cluttered. Consider simple flooring like vinyl kitchen flooring in a solid color. We will talk about colors down below, but simple colors or patterns when it comes to flooring are best for a clutter-free kitchen. Flooring is a vital part of tying a kitchen all together, making the space usable, and easier to clean. 

2. Organization

Let’s face it-- if things aren’t organized, they are always going to look cluttered. When remodeling your kitchen, including elements of organization is key. Maybe you choose taller cabinets so that more things can be off of the countertops, or you could remodel an unusable space and make it into built-in shelves for better storage.

 Another idea is to rearrange the order of the kitchen. For instance, for maximum efficiency, the sink, the fridge, and the stove should be in a triangle shape. Having everything in the best place possible can really help with clutter because you no longer have to keep things near certain areas for convenience. 

Keep in mind to use every little space you can from additional storage on an island to the space above the fridge. Organizations can be implemented in a variety of ways. 

Regardless of the layout of your kitchen, there is always room for improvement using remodeling when it comes to organization. 

3. Fixtures

Remodeling your kitchen to have more minimalist fixtures can be a simple upgrade to make your kitchen look clutter-free. Fixtures include everything from lighting and faucets down to the drawer pulls and handles on the cabinets. Be sure that at the end of your kitchen remodel that you replace all the fixtures to update them. Choose fixtures that have simple lines and are the proper size to avoid a cluttered look. Don’t forget to have plenty of light to make the space feel more open.

If you don’t have a window, consider having a few different light sources like different combinations of an overhead light, under cabinet lighting, or pendant lighting. 

4. Colors

Colors, patterns, and textures do a lot for the look of a space. When remodeling your kitchen, go with light colors to reflect light and simple, classic patterns to avoid the cluttered look. Add a subway tile backsplash for a quick remodel project that will bring your cluttered kitchen to life. Also be sure that the look of fixtures, walls, backsplash, cabinets, and flooring is all cohesive so that the eye isn’t drawn to as many places at once giving the appearance of clutter. You could even consider going with a monochrome look where everything is different shades of the same light color. For instance, shades of gray, white, or beige. 

5. Open Up Space

One of the biggest things you can do to remodel and create a clutter-free kitchen is to open up space. If there is a wall to take out or additional space in the dining room that you can use, you should consider opening up that space. Adding more space in an area decreases the look of clutter because things can be spread out more. If you can’t gain any more space in the kitchen, then consider creating flexible spaces.

Flexible Spaces

Flexible spaces are exactly how they sound. Spaces that can be used for multiple purposes. One flexible space that is common in the kitchen is a kitchen island. Many larger kitchens have permanent kitchen islands, but even if you don’t have space for a traditional kitchen island, a prep cart can do wonders for creating more space. 

Additionally, you might add a countertop and cabinets in the dining room which can be used as a prep station, a dining bar, and storage all in one. When remodeling your kitchen, think about how you can create flexible spaces that can help declutter and open up space. 

Need Help Decluttering?

Achieving the goal of having a clutter-free kitchen can seem like climbing a mountain. If you are struggling with decluttering, call House to Home Organizing, your expert in home organization. They are ready to help!