From the Desk of Clearissa Coward’s Command Center – Divinely Organized
No More Guilt Organization Tips
Are you looking for a way to free yourself of the guilt of clutter? Of course, you are. We all are. Let’s just admit it…I won’t tell anyone. When you stalk Pinterest and see all of the beautifully organized spaces, you begin to feel inadequate. I know, I know, so do I sometimes. There I said it! But we are going to stop that right here and right now. We will vow to no longer allow ourselves to have guilt because our homes are not perfecto.
Perfect is not what we are striving for here. Let’s all be realistic here. We all do not live in a picture-perfect home with storage space to spare. Nope, many of us live in compact spaces. Some of us have 3 or more children and pets. And even more of us have full-time jobs, families, community obligations and must we say this…we need to and deserve personal time as well.
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With all that we have going on, how do we keep Pinterest perfect homes? The answer to that is we don’t. What we must do is find that happy medium that works for us and our families. I love an organized space…yes, I do. And I like to share organization tips with you all, but I do not expect every tip, hack or technique that works for me to fit and work for you and your family.
You see I believe the stage of life, as well as organizational style, determine how you organize and maintain your home. What I expect you to do with the information I provide, is to use what you can and to tweak the rest to make it fit your style.
So, in this post, we will accept reality and take the guilt out of organization. Follow me into the “I don’t have to be perfect” land of organization. No more guilt. No more shame.
First Things First
- Tell yourself and accept that no matter what, if you have children, you will also have some level clutter. The trick is to make your organization with children work for you.
Now for the hacks/tips
- When you begin an organization project in your home, begin with messes and clutter that you see every day. Organize your kitchen, garage, and family room before your hallway closet. Do this because if you get the spaces where you spend the most time organized, you will be more apt to go further and organize spaces that are not visible. I say this over and over again, organization is a process.
- A great hack for organizing and maintaining your dresser drawers is to use drawer dividers for socks, underwear, lingerie, and tiny items, to keep them separated and to make it easier to maintain the organization.
4. Use this same principle compartmentalization to organize your silverware, with clearly defined places for every fork and knife, or drawers for ties and socks or, underwear. Think in this same way for every aspect of your home. This will save many hours of searching for things. It will dramatically cut down on the clutter of items left out “for now” or “until I find a place for it.” Develop a new mantra: a place for everything and everything in its place
5. By allocating everything in your house to a place. This way your family will know exactly where to find it and where to put it away. This will make your life easier because you can assign duties to other members of the family because they will know where things should be returned.
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6. Keep items that are used frequently in places where you can easily reach them and store them close to the place they will be needed
7. Hang hooks for your keys and purse at the entry to your home, so each time you walk in, you can hang them up. A family station where keys, wallets, a charging station for phones, and mail is a great addition to your organized space. Remember to place a trash container near this space for junk mail. No need to take the junk mail further into the home. Get rid of it at the family station and never handle it again.
8. Get rid of all junk drawers, or allow yourself just one that you clear out once a week or more. When you establish certain items are being used repeatedly, designate a specific space for them and remove them for the so-called “junk drawer
9. Enlist a new rule: throw out one old thing for every new purchase that enters your home. I have practiced this rule for about 2 years and can attest that it truly helps in the maintenance of an organized space. By doing this, your place will not become over-crowded and you will wear what you keep.
10. Make a mental note to observe what things pile up in your house and where they cluster, and then come up with a place nearby that becomes the official home where those things will reside. For this purpose, baskets, shelves, and folders will work well.
11. Never go up or down empty-handed when using your stairs. Always grab some items that belong to upstairs rooms and quickly put it away while you are there. You will be surprised how well this little hack works.
12. If you do not maintain them on your mobile device, create a number of brightly marked folders for discount coupons, invitations and other time-sensitive papers that just clutter your counters. If you do maintain this type of information on your mobile device, you can create folders as well to keep them organized and at your fingertips.
Things you no longer need:
- Expired medications.
- Clothes you no longer wear.
- Extra paper or plastic grocery bags.
- Makeup and samples you have never worn.
- Sunscreen that’s expired or more than one year old.
- Expired coupons.
- Cookbooks you rarely use. Download your favorite recipes only.
- Magazines you meant to read but have never taken the time for. Read them online.
You will free your mind to remember your daily chores by getting rid of your clutter and organizing your home top to bottom. Be vigilant about deep cleaning every two weeks or so. However; if you have a daily and weekly routine, your deep cleaning will be much easier.
What are some of your cleaning and organization hacks? Leave them in the comments section below.
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Until next time…I remain in my Element – God Bless!
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Share this post with your friends. I greatly appreciate it.
XOXO,
You always have such good tips and encouragement! Thank you!
Great tips and reminders – things we should all do but sometimes forgot. I do get tired of the perfection imposed from some pins. Totally unrealistic.
Hi Carol,
Yes I agree. Some expectations only make people feel anxious and inadequate. No need for that. Thanks for stopping by.
Thank you Helen. I try to encourage. Thank you for stopping by.
Great tips and read and love the keeping it real. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thank you Helen. I’m so glad you enjoy the content.
One thing I would add about magazines – I share subscriptions with my daughter and a couple gal pals — we recycle back and forth until we have read them all (saves on duplicate subscriptions, also!) and then drop them off at the doctors waiting room. Love your blog — always good tips and projects!
I think everyone has clutter and can get rid of lots of stuff. Helping daughter get her pantry organized this weekend.
Oh fun Dee. I love refreshing pantries. Enjoy!!!!
What a great idea Sandra. Sharing subscriptions. I may add that to my next tips blog if it’s okay with you. That is awesome. Thanks for stopping by.