The Best Ways to Keep Maintaining Organization in Your Home

Keeping your home organized doesn’t have to be really hard or complicated. I use to think it was and would get behind on things all the time. My home was never clean and I was always stressed out about the mess and didn’t want people to come over and see it. 

When we made the decision to move to a new state it was a fresh start and I was determined to make some big changes in my home life. It’s now been a month since I moved in and a few months since we were packing to move and I began making some of these changes. I am excited that I have found some ways to make keeping your home organized easier and that it’s been a success for me. 

1  Do a little bit daily 

One of the big mistakes I use to make in keeping my home organized was not doing something every day. I use to avoid certain chores and then when I would go to do them it would be such a huge task that I was miserable doing it so I avoided doing it more. Making the problem worse. Since moving I have been more consistent with nightly clean up and tidying up the house during the day. 
Even tasks I use to hate and dread like laundry doesn’t get so bad when you do a load a day and don’t let pile up. Now that I see how well this works at helping me keep organized I am determined to keep doing it. 

2. Get creative with vertical space 

I have fallen in love with using vertical space. I love over the door hangers especially. We use these in both my closet and my daughter’s room. It’s such a great way to keep things put away and organized without having to find room in drawers.
We use to use one in our old kitchen because I didn’t have much of a pantry and the little pockets were great for holding granola bars, fruit snacks, seasoning packet’s etc. I also love using hooks on the back of drawers for bathrobes or towels in the bathroom. 

3. Go digital to lessen clutter 

How much of the clutter around your home is paper? If you are like most people I bet you have a lot. From old magazines, books, stacks of papers on your counters and tables. I hated all this paper clutter and have slowly been getting rid of paper over the last year and am going to continue going digital to get rid of this clutter problem. 

I first started going digital with books. I use to have shelves and shelves of books and they took up so much space. I started using my iPad and the Kindle app to read books. I kept physical books that I really loved and knew I would reread or want to share. Then I donated books I didn’t want to keep to the library bookstore. I also went digital with the majority of magazines that I read. I got a monthly subscription to Texture so that I could read tons of magazines on my iPad.

I also went digital with the majority of magazines that I read. I got a monthly subscription to Texture so that I could read tons of magazines on my iPad. This was a great way for me to read the magazines I love and I was spending so much on physical magazines that the monthly subscription to Texture was cheaper for me and I had no old magazines around the house. 

Now my next step is going digital with paperwork. I am going through the book Paperless Home by Donnie Lawson (he’s the husband of superstar blogger Abby from Just a Girl and her blog. Which is how I found out about this awesome book) and he has put together the ultimate guide to getting your life organized on Evernote so you don’t have so much paper clutter and can easily find what you need on your computer or phone. You should check it out it will make your life so much easier and more organized. Yay! 

4. Give everything a home 

After so much purging during our preparation to move we got rid of a lot of stuff. We also were moving into a larger home. So I wanted to make sure that things got a proper home. At my old home, there were way too many areas of chaos filled with things that had no real place. I know that is one of the reasons the house was hard to keep tidy. We had too many things and not enough space. 
I think that y giving each object a proper space it will give me and my family an easier time tidying up and things will stay organized with less effort. Also, I need to be aware of this when bringing in new things that I buy or receive as gifts. They all will need a place to go. Try doing this with things in your home too.

5.  If you think about it just get done 

I am a procrastinator, I have always been one and that is a part of why I have been so messy and disorganized. I can admit that and it is something I have been trying to change and fix about myself. 
One of the ways I am trying to become less of a procrastinator is by just doing things around the house as I think about them instead of thinking oh I will do it later. I always told myself I would do things later and then didn’t do them and then things would not get done. 
So now I try to catch myself as I think about things maybe taking things to the kitchen, I should sweep the floor, I need to wipe down the counters, etc. As I think about those tasks just do them especially if they are small and quick tasks. By getting them done then stuff just stays tidier and your home is less chaotic and cluttered. 

6. Make a commitment to doing what needs to be done and make a schedule

This was not something that I ever did in the past but something I am trying to get in the habit of doing now. I’m not much of a schedule follower but I know that my husband and daughter do better when there is a schedule of what tasks to do and when they should be done. 
Following a routine and a schedule allows you to make sure that things are getting organized and cleaned often enough and not being forgotten or put off. You can create your own routine checklists on Canva or other computer programs. You can also find countless printables for free or to buy all over the place online. To great bloggers who create printables is Abby from just a girl and her blog and Laura from I heart Planners. 

7.  Change bad habits and create good ones 

So much of what we do each and every day is a habit and not even something that we really think about but something that we just do automatically. I love learning about habits and how to change them and create new ones that will help us to get things done. keeping your home organized will be easier if you create habits that help you to be more organized without even thinking about it as often. 

8. When your overwhelmed go for just 15 minutes

One of the worst feelings is when you are totally overwhelmed by a big mess or too much to do. When I would feel this way I would fall back into bad habits of procrastination and just try to ignore and avoid the problem instead of dealing with it. 
A way to do this that I have found to get through this is to just aim to do 15 minutes of decluttering or cleaning. See what you can do in that small amount of time. Often you can get more done in only 15 minutes than you would think. 15 minutes of focused effort can be just the start you need to get things done. 

9.  Everybody helps 

Also, no one in your family should not be expected to help. This means parents and children all have chores and tasks that are expected of them. When one person, usually the mom, tries to take on more than her share of the housework it can cause things to not get done, lead to resentments or conflict in the family. 
So divide up the household chores among all the family members. In my home, I do certain tasks and my husband has other tasks. Then as our daughter has gotten older her chores have changed and she’s had more expected of her. 

10. GET RID OF STUFF

A simple way to make a big difference in the organization of your home is to get rid of stuff. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have too much stuff. We are people with too much clutter and junk. This stuff can make our homes cluttered and messy. I can’t believe how much stuff my family use to have. 
When we started to get things packed when our old house was for sale we started to purge. We got rid of so much stuff and I don’t miss it at all. Check out my list of things you can get rid of that are just clutter.  Once you start getting rid of things and you start feeling how great it feels to not have so much clutter you want to keep doing it. I can’t believe how much all the junk we had was causing me stress and unhappiness. It feels so much better without it. 
 
If you are having trouble keeping organized and feel overwhelmed by the clutter and mess of your home I hope these 10 ways of keeping your home organized are helpful to you. I like to keep things simple because if like me cleaning doesn’t come naturally for you. You are more likely to do these things if they are easy to do and simple.  Complicated or time-consuming tasks are not probably going to be successful for keeping your home organized.