Help me!!!! (Organization tips)

[sunshineluv]

I may just be hormonal but I was all upset last night about the state of our house. It is like it is never clean. It is so hard to keep up, with having to make bottles and lunches and dinner and washing pump parts. We get home from work around 6, feed the kids, bath, play, then they are both asleep by 8.  From 8-10:30 we have to get everything ready for the next day, I shower, and any relaxing that is done happens then.  Oh, and laundry!

I know this is just life with two small children, but I need my home to feel more comfortable to me.  I need some tips on how to be more effecient with cleaning so that my house can seem somewhat bearable through the week. My house feels cluttered and messy, and I may go insane!

I know not everyones tips will apply, I wish I had taken pics of my house, maybe I can add some tomorrow . I am tagging @thadsrad bc I know you were trying to get organized before.


Any tips? (we do have a cleaning lady every 3 weeks or so)

My ideas:
Basket for shoes by the front door
Laundry Hampers for the kids room
Toy bin for downstairs
Remove Basketball goal to outside
Get rid of coffee table
Clean out clutter from kitchen counter for extra space

[muppetinma]

We have this near our front door to keep our shoes under control.  Andrew has also learned that's where we put on shoes, so when we're getting ready to leave, he hops up on there and waits for his shoes.  

And we have two of these that hang inside the pantry door, one for me and one for DH.  Each pocket is labeled with things like mail to sort, receipts, paystubs, to shred, etc.  It has definitely helped with all of the mail that piled up on our kitchen 

[jfh]

Gawd, I feel ya. The state of my house has a huge bearing on my mental state, and.....it's not good. One big thing for me is just getting rid of stuff. The more stuff you own, the more stuff there is to get cluttered! So take a chunk of time and a bunch of bags and make some thrift store very happy.

Another thing for me is having a clear place for things like household bills and other paperwork to go. I work from home but I don't like to keep that stuff in my office because it distracts me. I don't have a great solution yet - right now I sort mail using the magazine rack that Muppetinma recommended, and I have a section of closet shelves just for envelopes, stamps, and other random home-office supplies.

I use A LOT of plastic shoebox-style boxes from the Container Store. I put just about everything in them, then all my random crap can stack neatly in closets.

My bedroom closet is tiny so I use those tiered hangers that hold a bunch of t-shirts in a small amount of space, as well as hanging sweater shelves.

Lastly, my standards have gone way down. That has probably done more than anything else to help my mental state, lol. I still need things to be somewhat orderly, but I can overlook more of the straight up dirt and dust. My windowsills are like little science experiments. It's not good, but it's the best I can do.

[Beener]

I have bins everywhere for kid toys. That way, each night I just shovel the toys in there and my space feels decluttered.

[artgal84]

I feel ya. The things that help me are getting rid of things we aren't using. Just clearing out spaces and then it feels good to know everything that's left is useful.

Also, I read this once in a magazine, just focus on one space at a time and clean it until it's done. Instead of doing a little in many spaces. It's more efficient and you will feel much more accomplished. This works well for me. When I'm short on time I will just do the kitchen and family room.

[lauranicole91]

Almost all your ideas are things we already utilize. Everything except the basketball hoop problem.

How are you with mail? Does it pile up unsorted often? I used to have a bad habit of letting it pile up, now I am sure to be quick to shred, recycle, pay bill, or file away right away!

We also decluttered the living room by getting a huge ottoman to put all her toys in like you mentioned. It's so nice to look at my clean living room at night.

[dixeedeluxe]

I like to give myself permission to have one crazy disorganized room. In this house, that room is the kitchen. It helps keep me calm and I can focus on other things.

Buying more bins has kept things off the floor, but doesn't make me any more calm. It's just shifting mess.

I do kid laundry once a week. I have one large hamper that has both of their clothes in it. When it gets full, I seperate it into 2 loads (one per kid). I turn everything right side out BEFORE I put it in the wash. It makes putting clothes away easier. When I put laundry away, I roll up little rolls of outfits for the week. My kids get dressed at daycare, but if I was dressing them in the morning, it'd be just as efficient.

[dixeedeluxe]

My shoe basket. It's a mess. If I didn't have it, the shoes from winter would most likely be put away.

[laurack]

OMG I have only been back to work a few days and I am dying. I mean, I'm not a neat freak by any means but the clutter is killing me. Having to wash pump parts, bottles, defrost milk, put away milk, make matildas lunch, get their clothes ready, get my clothes ready. Oh and of course make dinner and go grocery shopping?! aaargh

the house is constantly cluttered. Our neighbor popped by yesterday with her five year old and I was dying. Its not DIRTY per se but there is just crap everywhere. The laundry is piling up

[Deleted]

For the kitchen counter I have a basket in one of the cabinets that I put paper crap in to keep it off the counter. It has seemed to really help.

[jg183]

I have a thin 3 drawer organizer I keep in my pantry. The top drawer is "to be filed" and the other drawers have a job too. Any bills to pay stay out until they are paid (most of ours are automatic online but med bills sometimes arent)
I try to declutter the kitchen counter/table often it makes my whole life feel shook up when it's messy- other areas are another story though!

[rainbowchip]

Washing pump parts and bottles everyday started to kill me so I just did a separate dishwasher run with all of that stuff. It saved me so much time!

I have come to the conclusion that the only way my house is going to be clean and clutter free is if we stay outside all day.

I don't know if it's just because Dylan is older or if it's due to having 2 kids but I look back at pictures from when Dylan was lyla's age and the house is so much less messy.

[jg183]

oh and for pump parts/bottles (I EP'd so had a ton) I bought mesh laundry bags (like the lingerie ones) and would zip them closed and put on top rack of dishwasher.
It made it so much easier

[Deleted]

muppetinma Where are those hanging organizers from? We have the mail piling up on the kitchen counter problem as well. When we take care of it, it just goes into another massive pile on the bed in the guest room. Problem not solved. I love your idea of inside the pantry.

[muppetinma]

Jul 31, 2014 8:49:29 GMT -5 @pambeesleyhalpert said:

muppetinma Where are those hanging organizers from? We have the mail piling up on the kitchen counter problem as well. When we take care of it, it just goes into another massive pile on the bed in the guest room. Problem not solved. I love your idea of inside the pantry.

We got them at the Container Store years ago.  

[devonpow]

My best tip is to take a weekend and purge. Be vicious. Set up a donation pick up with an organization like Big Brother Big Sister or Vietnam Vets so they come right to your door and you just need to throw it in bags.

After that, figure out what your main areas of clutter are and find a way to contain it. A set tray or bowl got mail (and I go through the mail in the kitchen as soon as it comes in so I toss all envelopes and junk immediately into recycling), toy box, whatever it is. It has to be a system that works for you and your lifestyle or it don't work.

[katfco]

Instead of getting rid of the coffee table, can you store bins underneath it? We have lots of bins for toys, but we don't just put toys in willy-nilly. One bin is for musical instruments; another is for animals; another is for Lego and Duplos, etc. We do have two "random" bins, for toys that are just little singles or don't have much of a category. We also got a 9-cube shelf to store them in. We left some of the shelves bin-less and store larger toys in there.

How many sets of pump parts do you have? Do you store it in the fridge between uses or wash every time you use it?

[jsillyfun]

I think out kids are still too young for this but my mom was VERY strict about making me up away whatever toy I was playing with before I was allowed to take out a new one. I plan to do that when mays a little older

[tuck]

Step 1) Get rid of a ton of stuff. Seriously. Most people won't really even notice if 50% of their stuff is gone. I recommend starting in a bathroom- it's a small room, so it doesn't take too long to see a big difference. Plus, there shouldn't be a ton of emotional decisions- either a medicine is expired or it isn't, and a lotion stinks or it doesn't. Do not leave an area to move stuff until you are done- have a bag for garbage, a bag for donate, and a bag for putting somewhere else.

Once you get a space cleared, protect the clean space. That means no one is allowed to put something in that space just because there is room. Unless something genuinely, logically belongs in a newly cleaned space, don't put it there.

Let this process take as long as it takes.

Step 2) Take pictures of your newly cleaned space. It's way easier to see clutter in pictures- a lot of time your eyes will just filter it out if you're just looking.

Step 3) Make a chore chart with what needs to be done daily, weekly, and monthly. If the house is really, deeply decluttered, it should only take 20 minutes or so during the week, and an hour or two on the weekends, especially if you hire out some of the jobs.

Other ideas: with laundry, can you start a load when you leave in the morning and put it in the dryer as soon as you get home? Then you can either put it away warm or alternate washing and putting away. Have you ever looked into capsule wardrobes? The basic idea is you have a set number of items per season, but you pick them based on how they all coordinate together. So, your blouse works with your dress pants and fancy skirt, but also looks nice unbuttoned over a tank top with shorts. Having fewer clothes means you have to do laundry more often, but there's fewer items to put away each time.

[shevacc]

Wow, I love all of tuck's suggestions!

I tend to tackle organization to solve specific problems. Here are the 3 that seem to best fit yours:

1. The front door area - we used to kick off shoes in a pile and hang jackets on the banister until that got full and they'd fall in a pile on the floor, then the area became a free-for-all. We now have two floor mats (just generic door mats that don't say "welcome") for shoes. If there are too many pairs of shoes out that we're spilling off the floor mats, I throw the least often worn pairs in the back of the closet. We also have high wall-mounted coat hooks (from IKEA) for grownup coats and a low wall-mounted coat rack underneath (that G can reach) for G's coats and daycare bag.

2. Mail - this is still a problem bc DH still dumps (and loses) mail in random places, but I'm working on husband training. When I get the mail, I recycle the junk right away and put the few useful things in a wicker basket near the front door. I've asked him to put it all in the same basket (he won't go through and do the recycling) but so far no luck.

3. Clutter - I need to keep at least 1 counter in the kitchen clear to have a work surface for packing lunches, prepping dinner, etc. I've done 2 things there. First was to designate a "no raw meat/eggs/etc." counter in the kitchen. It took much yelling and screaming, but now DH follows along too. That was bc he rarely cleans up after himself, even if he was just prepping raw meat and I didn't want us all to get food poisoning from setting fruit down in raw meat juice. Second is to declutter and clean the "no raw" counter first. It rarely takes more than a few minutes even when things are really rough. That way I always have at least one area in the kitchen I can work at even on the worst days.

I agree with the advice to fully finish one area/surface rather than doing a little in a lot of areas. I quickly pickup the floor in the living room (toys get thrown into bins and books get stacked). In the kitchen I try to have as little on the counters as possible and fully clean off the kitchen table. By the front door, I make sure nothing is on the floor except the mats with our shoes. I tend to let go of most everything else and give myself permission to have a bunch of junk on the dining room table, etc.

[sunshineluv]

Jul 31, 2014 11:18:46 GMT -5 tuck said:

Step 1) Get rid of a ton of stuff. Seriously. Most people won't really even notice if 50% of their stuff is gone. I recommend starting in a bathroom- it's a small room, so it doesn't take too long to see a big difference. Plus, there shouldn't be a ton of emotional decisions- either a medicine is expired or it isn't, and a lotion stinks or it doesn't. Do not leave an area to move stuff until you are done- have a bag for garbage, a bag for donate, and a bag for putting somewhere else.

Once you get a space cleared, protect the clean space. That means no one is allowed to put something in that space just because there is room. Unless something genuinely, logically belongs in a newly cleaned space, don't put it there.

Let this process take as long as it takes.

Step 2) Take pictures of your newly cleaned space. It's way easier to see clutter in pictures- a lot of time your eyes will just filter it out if you're just looking.

Step 3) Make a chore chart with what needs to be done daily, weekly, and monthly. If the house is really, deeply decluttered, it should only take 20 minutes or so during the week, and an hour or two on the weekends, especially if you hire out some of the jobs.

Other ideas: with laundry, can you start a load when you leave in the morning and put it in the dryer as soon as you get home? Then you can either put it away warm or alternate washing and putting away. Have you ever looked into capsule wardrobes? The basic idea is you have a set number of items per season, but you pick them based on how they all coordinate together. So, your blouse works with your dress pants and fancy skirt, but also looks nice unbuttoned over a tank top with shorts. Having fewer clothes means you have to do laundry more often, but there's fewer items to put away each time.

 You are awesome, I could give you a hug right now. This gives me some hope!!!

 Project declutter starts tonight! 

 

[sunshineluv]

Jul 31, 2014 9:42:05 GMT -5 katfco said:

Instead of getting rid of the coffee table, can you store bins underneath it? We have lots of bins for toys, but we don't just put toys in willy-nilly. One bin is for musical instruments; another is for animals; another is for Lego and Duplos, etc. We do have two "random" bins, for toys that are just little singles or don't have much of a category. We also got a 9-cube shelf to store them in. We left some of the shelves bin-less and store larger toys in there.

How many sets of pump parts do you have? Do you store it in the fridge between uses or wash every time you use it?

 That's a good idea putting some storage bins under it, that may work with one of our coffee tables.

 I store the pump parts in the fridge, I use one set a day, but she drinks out of Avent bottles and I pump into medela bottles, so lots of parts.

 We have one big bin for toys, and henry loves to dump it out. I don't mind that bc it is so easy to clean up.  We have a cube shelf in Annabelle's room, I may need to get one for the den. 

 I think step one will be to get rid of a bunch of stuff, then step 2 make a home for the stuff we keep.

[sunshineluv]

Jul 31, 2014 8:31:08 GMT -5 dixeedeluxe said:

My shoe basket. It's a mess. If I didn't have it, the shoes from winter would most likely be put away.

 Our front door looks like that sometimes, minus the basket...

 I think I will clean out the coat closet and put the basket in the bottom for shoes, nice and hidden but still convienent.

[sunshineluv]

Thank you everyone!

This is so much better than going on pinterest and looking up tips, I get overwhelmed there too.

I have a plan! I can do this. DH will be so annoyed, haha.

[muppetinma]

Jul 31, 2014 9:42:48 GMT -5 jsillyfun said:

I think out kids are still too young for this but my mom was VERY strict about making me up away whatever toy I was playing with before I was allowed to take out a new one. I plan to do that when mays a little older

Not too young.  Andrew does this with hardly any reminding.  He also knows that he must put all of his toys away before bed.  Don't underestimate a two year old's abilities.

[tuck]

Jul 31, 2014 14:18:26 GMT -5 sunshineluv said:

Jul 31, 2014 8:31:08 GMT -5 dixeedeluxe said:

My shoe basket. It's a mess. If I didn't have it, the shoes from winter would most likely be put away.

 Our front door looks like that sometimes, minus the basket...

 I think I will clean out the coat closet and put the basket in the bottom for shoes, nice and hidden but still convienent.

Our shoe holders are in the bottom of the coat closet. I like being able to close it and not see any of the mess.