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I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve struggled with organization. With a family of five, there is just so much stuff!
Although I’ve been working on decluttering my home a little at a time, I still have a long way to go.
But in the meantime, I still want my home to look nice.
It’s all about simple organization though. Like if it’s too complicated, it just won’t work for my family.
For example, there are times that you need to do a quick pick me up, like when company is coming over.
You need organizing tricks that you can implement quickly that will instantly make your home look better.
Related: Help for the Overwhelmed Stay at Home Mom
Those are the types of realistic organization tips I’m going to talk about in this post.
How to Organize Your Home
Tackle the Main Living Spaces First
This is typically the kitchen and living or family room. If certain rooms are not going to be seen, don’t worry about those rooms until you have more time to devote to organizing.
I recommend doing a quick cleanup in each room.
Kitchen:
- Load dishes in the dishwasher (or doing them by hand)
- Put away any food left out
- Take items off of the counter that don’t belong there and put away
- Wipe countertops
- Straighten placemats and wipe table
Check out this video from Brittany Vasseur for more really great Kitchen Organization Ideas!
Living or Family Room Organizing Tips:
- Fold throw blankets and put them where they go
- Arrange throw pillows
- Pick up random items off the floor
- Put away any games, books, or anything else left out that’s out of place
- Wipe off/dust any coffee or end tables, entertainment center or TV stand
Utilize Bins & Baskets
By using baskets, you can clean up a room quickly.
The only downside is that now you have baskets full of stuff to put away later!
But when you need the house clean and organized fast, this is one of the best organizing tips I know.
Just grab a basket and collect all the items that are out of place.
You can even get your kids to help with organizing.
Give each of them their own basket. Then assign the rooms you need them to go through and put anything out of place that belongs to them in their baskets. They can take it to their room and put their own stuff away. Yay!
Baskets and bins also work well for storage in the kitchen and living room areas.
- Keep a basket on your kitchen counters to store fruit and veggies. To me, the kitchen looks more organized when things are in a basket rather than simply laying on the counter top.
- Use baskets to store food in your pantry.
- Have a coffee bar? Baskets and bins work great for storing coffee, spoons, etc.
- Utilize a blanket basket for your extra throws in the living room. Instead of leaving them on the couch (which I’ll admit, we do a lot), store them rolled or folded up in a basket that you keep in the room. This means they’ll be out of the way, yet handy when you need them.
- Bins work great to store video games and movies, either alone or on a shelf.
These realistic organization tips do make your home appear cleaner!
Tip: We use this for storing extra pillows in our living room and it works great!
More Realistic Organization Ideas
Cabinets or Shelves
Furniture for storage and organization is so helpful.
At our house we have a game cabinet where we keep all the board games and card games.
We have a video shelf where we keep our DVDs, and a TV stand with drawers where we keep video games.
When the kids were small, we had an art cabinet that contained all the coloring books, paper, crayons, colored pencils, markers and the like.
And we always had a toy box in the living room and family room when they were babies and toddlers as they would play in the main living areas most often. Keeping one in the room just made sense back then.
So making sure everything has a place is crucial for keeping the house clean and organized.
Keep People Accountable
Even young children can be taught to be responsible for their own items.
When they take out toys to play with, they put them away when they’re done.
Make sure kids bedrooms have ample room to store their belongings.
Again, shelving, toy storage organizers, bins, toy boxes and baskets are great options for kids. You can find many of these inexpensively as well.
Even the adults in the home should be accountable for organizing their own personal items.
It’s a good habit to get in to putting things you use away right after you use them.
It’s a hard to do if you’re used to just setting things where ever when you’re done with them, but the more you do it, the easier it will become.
How to Make Your House Look Nice Inside
The reality is that no house looks good all the time. Unless it’s not lived in, that is.
When you have a family, your house will be in chaos at times.
Kids make messes. They play with toys. They leave clothes on the floor. That’s just the way it is.
And I’m guessing that despite the frustration of not having a perfectly organized or clean house all the time, you wouldn’t have it any other way.
A messy house is a small price to pay for a happy life. (Please don’t email me saying that your house isn’t messy and you’re happy. I’m glad for you, I really am. This is for those mamas who struggle because their house is messy even though they try hard to keep it organized.)
You know how to truly make your house look nice inside?
Enjoy the happy faces of your children.
Let them make messes. Let them be kids.
There will always be time to clean up later.
Seriously!
It’s hard to keep an organized home when your kids are young.
I’m sorry if these aren’t the realistic organization tips you wanted. But they’re the ones I’m led to give you.
Don’t make anything more important than enjoying your kids…not a spotless home or a perfectly organized house.
The time flies by all too quickly, trust me.
Enjoy it now. That is the best organizing tip I could ever give you.
I hope you have found these realistic organization tips to make your home appear cleaner helpful.
If so, please Pin it!
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