How To Organize Your Home | WIN Home Inspection

Tired of seeing a cluttered house after a long day at the office? Home should be a place of refuge—a place where you can relax but that’s just not happening when a messy living room or kitchen is what welcomes you. So, how to organize your home efficiently? We’ve rounded up some tips to help you get started.

Start from Scratch

Sometimes the best remedy to the incessant mess is more mess. You read that right—go on, take out everything in a room, put all that stuff in another room, and never mind the mess. A little more of the chaos won’t hurt. Getting all those stuff out so that all you’ll have left is an empty space—you’re on your way to progress.

So now, you have an empty room and one ultra messy room where you placed your stuff. Congratulations! It is way easier to organize into an empty room. And now, you just gained one more compelling reason not to put off this task to next year since you have to contend with that ultra messy room unless you start.

Let Go of Some Stuff

One more advantage of tip # 1 is that you can take an inventory of all the stuff and get rid of those things that no longer serve you. Be unrelenting. You would be surprised at the number of things you’ve accumulated over the years. And if you haven’t used them recently, then there’s a slim chance you’ll use it—ever.

Remember: space in your home is valuable. And things have to earn their place in your home. You can even give minimalism a shot. Otherwise, you can guiltlessly throw it in the donation box or in a rubbish bin.

Have a Go At It—One Room at a Time

If the clutter wasn’t made in a week, what makes you think you can organize your home in a day? Cut yourself some slack and just work on those rooms one by one. What’s important is that you get started. And when you see the pristine look of that one room, you’ll want to keep the ball rolling and work on the next room. 

A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place

Designate a place for everything and let everyone in the house in on the plan. The floor is not the place for dirty socks. Neither is every place with a flat surface the best storage for a book. Place a laundry basket in every room and have an area where all books should be stacked neatly. 

You can even make this fun by assigning a specific color for everyone. This way, no one will ever have a hard time finding their own stuff and everyone will be held accountable for cleaning after their own mess. Now, you’ll never have to wonder whose towel it is on the floor.

For small things, it’s best to organize them in a storage container. Stuff in your fridge, make up, cleaning products—everything has to have their own storage box. And when it comes to food items, take inspiration from the grocery store: new items should be placed behind old stocks.

Most importantly, have everyone in the house agree to put everything back to where they took it. Not only will you save lots of time looking for items when you need them, but it’s also easier to maintain an organized home this way.

Like Attracts Like

Group everything together according to their purpose. Put all your spices in one place and all your cereals in another. When you are organizing your linens, make sure that pillowcases are stacked next to their matching sheets. This way, if you take out the sheet when you want to use it, you won’t have to disarrange a stack of linens just to look for its matching pillowcases. 

Don’t leave anything unturned. Be methodical. Yes, even those socks need to have their match; otherwise, their place is in the rubbish bin.

Less Room for the Laundry

Your laundry room doesn’t have to take a lot of room. In fact, give yourself a favor and lessen the space of your laundry area. It will force you to be more resourceful with limited space and you’d have no room for unnecessary items. Plus, nature abhors a vacuum. And it seems the same thing goes even with your laundry room. Large, empty spaces always get filled. In this case, that will just mean more dirty laundry for you.

Hide those Cables and Cords

Cable organizers are a thing. And with the number of gadgets, along with their cables and cords present in any modern home, this type of organizers are fast becoming something you couldn’t do without.

You’re not just taking care of the clutter either. This is also a safety issue. It’s way better to keep those power strips hidden and away from the reach of kids and pets.

Labels are Your New Best Friends

Once you have placed stuff in their designated containers or bin, put a label on the storage in a way that’s visible. This way, you know which bin you can find your art supplies and you don’t have to rummage through those arranged storage containers just to get to that one art supply that you need. 

Set Up a Routine

Now that you’ve started organizing your home, keeping it that way should be the next course of action. Find a routine that works for you. For instance, Saturday is laundry day. Monday is pay-the-bills day. Every first Tuesday of the month is the clear-out-old-foodstuff-from-the-pantry day. You get the drift. This way, you prevent tasks from piling up. Besides, being organized is not just something you do, it has to be a way of living.

Delegate Some Tasks

You don’t have to carry the burden alone on your shoulder. For an organized home to work, everyone has a role to play. Train the kids to put away their toys. Someone has to take out the trash. And even if you have to hire a neighbor to clean your garage or mow your lawn, do it if that’s more efficient for you. Time is always the biggest enemy for tasks like this and if you simply don’t have the time to tend to it, someone else will be happy to do it for you. 

Place Trash Bins Everywhere

Make it easier for you and your family to throw your trash instantly by placing garbage bins in strategic places around your home. If throwing that litter in a bin is as easy as leaving it on top of the counter, the choice is a no-brainer.

Clean Up Every Day

Clutter happens gradually over time. A bit of paper stashed here. A book out of place. An empty cereal box in the countertop. And it all adds up over time. If that’s the nature of the problem, so too should be its solution. Five minutes of cleaning time after dinner can work wonders in reducing—and maybe even eliminating—the clutter. Just get everyone in the house to pitch in and a couple of minutes every day will save you several days of cleaning up in the future.

Learning how to organize your home does not just take time, it also takes discipline. It takes discipline to get started and a strong resolve to maintain it. But once you make it a habit, your home will once again become what it’s meant to be—a place of refuge and comfort from the chaotic world out there.