First of all, there’s no big secret to getting organized. It kind of sucks to do it, there are always a ton of other things you’d rather do, but at the end of the day – the secret to getting organized is to push through it and JUST DO IT. You have to do your dishes, you have to do your laundry, you have to give up doing other things you’d rather be doing to get those chores done.
Okay, now that we got that painful truth out of the way, let’s look at some habits to cultivate to make sure you get more organized.
If You Take It Out, Put it Back!
The hands down, number one thing you have to do is put things back when you take them out. If you take out lotion in the bathroom, don’t just put it on the counter when you’re done. Put it back in the cabinet. Don’t leave clean dishes sitting on the counter or in the dishwasher. Put them in the cabinets.
Only then are your dishes done. When they’re put away!
When you take off your clothes after work, put them in the laundry basket, not on the floor or on the furniture in your bedroom.
Simple changes like these immediately make your house cleaner without taking any extra effort.
Do a Load of Laundry a Day
I used to see this as a task on Fly Lady and thought it was a little extreme. Now I realize that that was my single-self talking. With 3 more people in the house, a load of laundry a day is necessary.
Again, there’s no easy way to do this other than to just do it. I use two 3-bin laundry organizers like these to make sure all of our laundry is constantly sorted. This makes it a breeze to just pull them out and throw them in the wash.
Just like the rule with dishes, laundry isn’t done until it’s put away. Seriously. Put on some music, set a timer for 10 minutes, and fold and hang like a crazy person as quick as you can until that load of laundry is put away. 10 minutes should be just about enough time to tackle putting laundry away. That doesn’t sound so bad now does it?
Spend 15 Minutes in Your High Traffic Areas
I try to spend 15 minutes in each room in our home every day, but this is necessary in our house since we live in a small home, so every room is heavily used.
My favorite way to make the most of this time is to set a timer and break my cleaning up into three 5-minute cycles. You can read more about how I do that here.
A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place
I’ve talked about this before, but in order to stay organized, especially if you live in just 1000 square feet like we do, is to make sure everything you own has a place in your home. The best way to keep yourself accountable with this rule is to label everything. If you are thinking of bringing something home from the store, carefully consider where it fits in your home. Do you have a labeled bin that it fits in? If everything is categorized, it’s much easier to visualize where something will go when you’re shopping and much easier to put everything away when you’re cleaning your home.
We’re not reinventing the wheel here. It’s not difficult to get and stay organized, but it does take some dedication on your part. By establishing routines like these ones, you can ensure that the time you put into purging and getting your house organized won’t be thrown away with lack of maintenance.
Do you have any organizing habits that help keep the clutter monster at bay in your house? What works for you? Let me know in the comments!
If you liked these tips, you might also like:
How to Clean Any Room in 15 Minutes
9 Ways to Make Storage Space Where There is None
Organizing Tips That Actually Work in Our House