Organizing Home Tips

If you think that your house is a mess, you’re not alone. Most people have clutter problems. We all hold onto things thinking that we might need them later on. How many of you save magazines and newspapers? If you need to declutter, the first thing to do is to get rid of all the magazines in the house. Trust me, you won’t read the old issues again. Go through every closet in the house, and underneath the beds, find every single copy of magazine and put them in the recycle bin. Then do the same with newspapers and any other subscriptions.

Even professional journals, how many of you read them over and over? Once you’re done with the papers, go through your pantry for expired cans and jars. Then closets, of course, the closets are the biggest challenge. Because most of them hold more than just clothes. Clear the non-clothing items first. Organizing clothing last as it takes the longest time and energy.

Decluttering an overcrowded closet can be fun. That is to say, if you have determined to let things go. It’s easier to say than done if you’re not used to making donations and throwing things out. It can be very difficult to decide to which ones to donate and which ones to keep. First of all, you have to come to a point that you must throw things out, otherwise no closet organizer can help. It’s true that a closet organizer can help, but it you have too much stuff, it just simply won’t work.

If you have clothes that you bought in the 80s at yard sales, it’s definitely time to start making donations. Most people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time, so there’s simply no need to keep them all just in case. That in case probably will never happen. First find the clothes that you wear often put them aside. Then go through the closet and throw out anything that you haven’t wore in recent 2 years or anything that doesn’t fit you. If you’re sentimental about certain piece, then save one or two and put them in the attic or cellar. Then take the thrown out pile and donate them.

I was reading the news and found some hoarding stories of people who literally buried themselves alive. I’m a clean and organized freak, it effects me  psychologically just watching these videos. It is our human nature that we want to hoard things, food and others. It’s part of animal nature and that’s what got our ancestors through winters. But hoarding junks is plain wrong.

The most important lesson that we can learn is that how much we take in and how much we leave out. Boxes and more boxes. Boxes, containers, and shelves are the our best friends when it comes to organizing. When you come home from outside, whether school, work, grocery shopping, or any shopping trip. Put the stuff away immediately. Put them away even if you’re tired. Putting it off will cause trouble later on.

If you and your husband have separate closets, today’s is the day to go through his stuff and your kids’ clothes. It’s much harder to clean a husband’s closet. My rule is to only donate and throw out worn, torn, and rags. He will probably want to keep that old college sweat shirt of his even though you hate it. So the best way to do it is to get rid of clothes that are absolutely rags. Then put the ones in question mark in a bad and let him sort out on his own. If you’re lucky, he might decide to get rid of them for good.

For kids’ closet, if your kids are young, then you’re in luck. Donate and outgrown ones and if you want to keep some cute outfits for sentimental reason, put them in a space saver bag or a plastic container. You can put them in the basement of attic for storage.

Once you figure out what to keep, get nice hangers and arrange them by colors and seasons. You don’t really need to invest a lot to get a custom closets for children’s rooms. But simple shelves in the closets do magic in space savings.

Put off season clothes in plastic containers and store them underneath the bed. It’s easy to get them and it saves closet space.

It depends on how many closets you have the in the house. This is a full day’s work for 6 hours. Closets for the kids, husband, and yourself, linen closets. If you’re like many of us, you probably are going to find many things that don’t belong to the closets. You will not try to organize yet. Just take things out and decide what you’ll do with them.

Start with your own closet and work to your husband’s if he has a separate one and the kids’. Keep in mind, anything you haven’t worn in 2 years need to be donated or tossed out if they’re not in good condition. Many people say donate cloths that you haven’t worn in 1 year. But I think it’s a little harder to toss out the pretty dress that you bought and never worn once. So try the 2 year rule. Put donations in one large garbage bag and thrown out ones in another. Throw out dry cleaner hangers and old plastic hangers. If you haven’t done so, buy some nice wooden or plastic hangers.

Remember, it’s a lot easier to declutter the closet on your own. If you show the clothes to your husband and ask for his opinion. Most likely he’ll like all of them and you end up keeping them all. It’s hard to donate the dress you worn on the first date with your husband. But if you didn’t wear for 15 years and it no longer fits, let it go. Someone can enjoy them as well as you did. The hardest part is to donate the nice piece that you bought on sale and never wore once because it probably isn’t your size. You can always try to sell it on ebay or consignment store. Just put such items in a separate bag.

This is the hard working day. Make sure no kids are around. Try to save 5-6 hours uninterrupted. Start with anything that’s on the floors, tables, and counters. Pick them up room by room. Toss out unwanted items and put them in the garbage bag. Save the ones that you need in the plastic bins. This will take you 2 hours depending on how messy your house is.

Next step, go though your drawers in the kitchen, home office, and bedrooms. Toss out and keep. This will take you the rest of the day. Organize items by bins and mark them using the marker.

The most important part of the day is to clean and declutter. Remember the main reason the house is messy is because you saved too much stuff. So please don’t feel obligated to save. Don’t touch the paperwork such as bank statements, bills yet, just put them in a large plastic bin. You will sort them out later on.

How many of us feel the same way? Our coffee tables are full of books, magazines, paper cups, and everything else. There are socks underneath the beds and we don’t even dare to open the closet doors. If you have been fed up by the mess in your house. It’s time to take action!

Sometimes it’s harder to get started when there seems to be so much stuff to do. But you can do it! You don’t need to hire a professional organizer. That’s true, you can do it all yourself. Just make sure the children are not around and husband is at work. Give yourself 5 uninterrupted hours to clean, sort, dump, and organize. Then do the same the next day, and the next day…

Day one: this is not your cleaning day, but a day of preparation.

• Get yourself half dozen contractor sized garbage bags
• Markers
• 4-6 Plastic bins (large)
• Cleaning supplies
• Shoe organizers if you don’t already have them (plastic or metal)
• Nice hangers
• Storage bags

Always be sure to put things away when you’re done using them. This will allow you to keep better track and better remember where things are and when you last used them. If they sit out for ages and get placed in a drawer somewhere, they do you very little good.

1. Are you left handed? Organise your closet left to right so you can always see what you are taking out. Keeps your closet organised.

2. Put an empty coloured hanger in to separate different kinds of clothes.

3. For left handers – put the shoes you use the most at the left hand end.

4. Never overfill the closet. Store things in colour coded bags. Code by season.

5. For closets with lamps – put a daylight bulb in.

6. Clean it regularly. Taking the clothes out lets you review what you do and do not want in there.

Article by Cheryl Harrell

There may be cash in your clutter. You have heard the phrase “your trash is someone else’s treasure.” A garage sale is one way to put theory into practice. Attentive marketing of your goods by doing an organized set up of your garage sale is the key to receiving the highest prices.

Sort logically
Sort your discards into logical groupings such as toys, books, tools, seasonal decorations. If customers see a haphazard mix of items, they will quickly leave your garage sale. Garage sale aficionados usually have particular items in mind when they shop and do not want to spend time sifting through unrelated stuff.

Display well
Set up tables and clothing racks to display your wares. Shoppers do not like to bend over and pick through items lying on the ground. If you do not have a clothing rack, improvise by placing a pole between two stepladders. Box your books by subject, spine up, so it is easy for customers to flip through them without making a mess of your display. Label the boxes or use large cards to divide groupings of books.

Highlight Special Collections
Display the glass items separately from your books and craft things to make them more attractive and seem special. Perhaps cover the table with a tablecloth. Make sure glassware is clean. People will be more likely to buy and pay more for wares in pristine condition. Have a separate table for holiday items. Make the display festive and group items in calendar order-Valentine’s Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, etc.

Money Matters and Pricing
Use a fanny pack to hold your money. Unfortunately, dishonest people also frequent garage sales and look for opportunities to steal unattended cash. Have plenty of small bills and quarters to make change. You do not want to lose a sale just because you can’t make change. Price book categories consistently-e.g., paperbacks 50 cents, hardbacks $1. Do the same with DVDs. Sell craft items by the bagful. Label and sell the craft bags for a flat rate. Price everything clearly. Customers do not like to search for someone to ask prices.

Expect to Be Insulted
Expect people to give insulting offers for your things. That is the nature of garage sales. Decide on your goal for your garage sale ahead of time: Do you want to make money or get rid of stuff? You usually will get less for items you sell at a garage sale than you would at an online auction. But you also do not have to go through the hassle of listing, taking photos, and shipping items.

Free Attraction
The word “free” is magic. Have a box of free stuff out front with a large FREE sign on it to attract people to your sale. Include toys to keep children occupied while the parents shop.

Plan What Not to Do with the Leftovers
DO NOT bring anything back into the house. The stuff is in the garage sale because it is time to move on. If you do not get reasonable offers for your more expensive items, you may get more for them as a tax write off for a charitable donation than you would if you take a low ball offer. Call for a pick up by a charitable organization.

The keys to a successful garage sale are organization and a realistic attitude. If you set up your merchandise in an attractive way and greet customers with enthusiasm even when they offer you 10 cents for a $2 item, you will be counting cash instead of hauling away clutter at the end of the sale.

© Copyright 2009 Cheryl Harrell all rights reserved worldwide

Cheryl Harrell is a professional organizer for All Sorted Out, LLC. She sees every organizing project as a puzzle to be solved with simple solutions. You may sign up for her monthly organizing tips at her website, http://organizeatlanta.com/.