Organize: Group Like Items and Label!!

Now that you've gotten rid of tons of stuff, you have more room to work with to organize what you kept in your home!

(Notice how all similar things are grouped together in the photo?)

Organizing is one of my favorite past-times! When everything has a happy home to live in, my life is so much happier! It's wonderful to know where to put something at the end of the day and not feel like I'm just jamming it into an already over-filled closet! And, possibly more exciting, it's a happy experience to know exactly where to find something when I need it!

I have three organization tips I like to suggest to friends when they are trying to take control of their house:
1. Group things together in ways that you use them. 

Example: Put all the kitchen gear you use frequently in the cabinet that's most easily accessible, the less used gear in a harder to reach cabinet, and the hardly-ever-used gear in the annoying corner cabinet that's hard to access. My Pyrex pans are in an upper cabinet on the first shelf so that I can easily get to them. My springform pan is in the corner cabinet. Even though they are both baking pans/dishes and could be "organized together" into a baking cabinet, I don't use them equally so I have them in different spots.

2. Use Labels to help everyone in your house know where things go. 

Example: In your closets, hang little hand-written tags about what goes where. When different family members goes to put something away, they have a friendly reminder that it goes on the second shelf on the right side as opposed to just being thrown anywhere. 

3. Don't try to be like Martha Stewart or Pinterest!

Example: Use what you have to organize. I use various sizes of cardboard boxes that my online purchases come in as bins instead of buying more plastic bins or decorator boxes. I use notecards, sharpies, and packaging tape to make my labels instead of buying a labeling machine or printing them. I use pretty scrapbooking paper to make those boxes and labels look a little prettier if the box is going to be looked at daily. 

Example: See Small Notebook's The Lost Rule of Organizing as a reminder when to stop organizing.

1 comment:

Sophie said...

I was thrilled to see you label too! I did this before the birth of a child knowing that family and other helpers would be coming and I didn't want to always answer questions about where to find pasta, tea, etc. And to encourage others to put things in their place.