Tips on KEEPING the house organized

oh em gee

Sun, May 23 2021, 2:53 am

I am losing it! I need ideas!

Bleemee

Sun, May 23 2021, 3:30 am

Throw it all out.
🙈 Close to the truth.

TWeiss

Sun, May 23 2021, 3:43 am

Each item needs a home, a place to go back, labeled bins a amazing! What kind of things to u find laying around? Or by organized do u mean a daily schedule?

shmoosh

Sun, May 23 2021, 4:13 am

It’s a matter of putting things away in the right place right away. Letting things build up makes it harder to reorganize.
Organizing the first time around is more complicated but given enough patience and time, it’s doable. Basic would be to designate a place for everything you want and throw out whatever is just taking up space.

ra_mom

Sun, May 23 2021, 9:08 am

#1 is purge. That's the #1 best way to keep organized. It will also make you think twice before bringing something home into the house.

#2, which is really part of #1, is a place for everything, and everything in its place. Either find a place for an item so that you automatically know where to put it and that there's room for it when you see it out of place, otherwise get rid of it.

Reserve 5 minutes each day where you set the timer and just purge and re-set. Because you know that every day, new papers, magazines, prizes arrive and #1 and #2 are important.

There's a nice hotline that you can follow that goes through the house methodically in 15 minutes a day and you maintain the entire home. I remember doing it 10 years ago.

sweetie2shoes

Sun, May 23 2021, 9:35 am

ra_mom wrote:

would you share the phone number?

ra_mom

Sun, May 23 2021, 9:37 am

sweetie2shoes wrote:

would you share the phone number?

Hakol B'seder
347-772-1188

SuperWify

Sun, May 23 2021, 9:45 am

Maintenance is very important!

realsilver

Sun, May 23 2021, 10:38 am

ra_mom wrote:

This is amazing, thank you,

wigboutique

Mon, Jul 05 2021, 2:52 pm

Hi, I wanted to share some tips with you that have been working for me, someone who has a very neat freak and organized husband Bh

Kitchen:
1. My rule is to leave the kitchen the same way I came (unless in a rush to leave the house, etc). Meaning I will make sure to clean up the mess right away, put stuff back where it was, etc. You will get used to it over time and it will become a habit!

2. Do the dishes every day before bed (or before if you have time, but usually I do it before I go to bed)

3. Ikea containers literally saved me! Putting food like oats and sugar into their own separate containers also reduces waste

4. Try to keep a minimal of daily utensils around, the less you are using, the less the cleanup will be. For example, I have around 3 desert spoons and forks (each) and a set of forks and 3 varied cutting knives. I find that’s all I need! You can always store the extra utensils a different spot.

5. Make the countertop minimal (I just have utensils holder (which doubles as a drying since it has holes in the bottom, they have very stylish ones in Aliexpress for cheap), area that I dry plates on a towel, kettle, dish soap, dish brushes and that’s it.

6. I even use containers in the fridge, there are fridge containers that you can buy (clear plastic ones) and the good quality ones last a long time. I use one for the dips for Shabbat but you can reserve one for milchig / fleishig / fruits etc .

In the laundry room;
Can’t live without containers, I use a container to put the softener, which also serves as a space to put extra stuff laying around to organize later, and use a container or two to put the laundry powder, this reduces mess so much.

Living room:
I use the area under my couch for storage (if you have extra stuff this is great, but not everyone has the type of couch that can fit stuff under)
There are plastic containers that are very large but height wise can fit under a couch)

bedroom: again most of the stuff is not in this room but I use the bedside tables I have for extra storage, which really helps to not make it cluttered.

Closet:
Clothes organizers from AliExpress are only a few dollars but help to keep order.
Also:
I divided my wearable clothes from the ones that need a repair, or those that I’m not wearing every day into a different container (that’s under the couch, haha)
But seriously if you have extra clothing that has not been used or you don’t like them as much as you used to, give away to a Friend/gemach or throw it out. Very important

Bathroom:
Use multi story trays (again, I found a very cute one on Aliexpress for like $15) to put your bathroom items on and also for the shower, a rack will do a good job to keep it looking minimal and keep you from having to organize it all the time.
Use containers in the cupboards to put stuff.

Main focus: if you have stuff laying around that you’re not using on a daily basis, but need: store it away somewhere. keep the every day usables within reach. Less clutter = clearer mindset. And makes it easier to be clean too when you’re not picking up every single thing!

zaq

Tue, Jul 06 2021, 9:28 am

Assuming that you have already organized, designated a home for every item in your dwelling, and purged everything for which you could not designate a home, teach your family to live by this maxim:

IF YOU MOVED IT, PUT IT BACK.

Zehu.

There ain't no magic. A houseful of Container Store organizers won't keep your house organized if folks don't put things back where they belong.

mom2mysouls

Tue, Jul 06 2021, 10:17 am

Go through shelf by shelf and see if you are using everything. Whatever is not being used, store or give away...

Also double check if that place is where the item is meant to be. Something that is used more often, needs to be more accessible, while the opposite is true.

Once used, make sure to put back things in its original place.

A clean table, counters, and floor will always give your house a neater appearance. More space helps you think clearer.

#ibelieve

Tue, Jul 06 2021, 10:53 am

O.H.I.O
only handle items once
Make signs around the house to remind you.
You take off your pjs put it in the hamper right away. Come in with shopping bags from a shopping trip empty it ASAP don’t let it sit around…
Also for toys or other items (if your tight on space) buy 16q draws, they sell them in two heights put all your Toys in there. Shorter ones for puzzles, books, doll clothing… and higher ones for magnet tiles, clicks etc when the kids want a toy you just pull out that draw and when done they slide it back in (they are stackable). Another bonus about that is you can put away loose toys with one hand (if your holding baby…) just pull out the draw and drop the toy in
Good luck!!!
And remember maintained is the key

Grateful2bhere

Tue, Jul 06 2021, 11:44 am

Things that have helped me:
Organizing rule "like with like" (ie, all office supplies in one area, vs scattered in many parts of home).

Book The Life Changing magic of Tidying up, by Marie Kondo (I take her process (all at once a little intervention like) & emphasis (keeping only what sparks joy) with a bit of a grain of salt, however overall approach have continued to be very helpful for me

Grateful2bhere

Tue, Jul 06 2021, 12:07 pm

(repeated in error)

Zeleze

Wed, Jul 07 2021, 5:46 am

NEVER push off what needs to be done

It won't go away by it's self, will only make the mountain higher/harder and more complicated

Needs to be done, do it. even if it's midnight, otherwise in the morning it will be twice as hard

zaq

Wed, Jul 07 2021, 9:04 am

Zeleze wrote:

Needs to be done, do it. even if it's midnight, otherwise in the morning it will be twice as hard

I disagree. To quote Socrates, "Know thyself." Your statement is true only for night owls. Morning people, otoh, will work twice as fast with half the effort the next morning. The only things I would insist on not deferring for the morning are washing dishes, sweeping the kitchen floor and putting perishable food away in the fridge, and that's because not doing so puts you at risk of spoilage and attracting vermin.

Of course if you always do things right away, unless you eat dinner at 11 pm, you won't ever have dishes to wash, a floor to sweep and food to put away at midnight, because these chores would have already been done hours earlier.

Night owl or lark, the best time to do chores is when YOU have the most energy (as long as you don't vacuum or use other noisy appliances when the world is sleeping.)