Take Control Organizing

It is very common when organizing to find something you want to keep because it holds a special memory.  However, when trying to decide where it should go, people often get stuck.  They don’t necessarily want to display the item but are really unclear of where it should go!

Solution:  Memorabilia Boxes

This is a great solution because it allows items like old stuff animals, yearbooks, travel memorabilia, things like that to have a home.

You can organize the memorabilia boxes by each person in the family.  Depending on the age of the person will determine how many boxes or bins you may have.

I have a bin that is more designated towards my high school and college years.  I also have a bin designated to my husband and I which contains wedding memorabilia, old cards, pictures etc.

I have a bin for each of my children.  This is a great place to store items from when they were babies and young children.  You can organize it by year of age or by grade in school.

The options are endless when it comes to how to categorize your memorabilia bins, the point is to have a place for these items to go.  No longer the days of wondering what and where the ticket stubs from your favorite concert should go!

You can use any kind of organizing bin, clear or solid, depending on preference.  I do recommend labeling the bins, so you are not wasting time opening them up and figuring out who’s who.  You could even color code the bins to recognize which one belongs to whom.

Knowing you have a system will make organizing a lot easier!

Happy Organizing!

One of the fastest ways to create clutter in your home is leaving it for later!

I’m tired, I have no time, I don’t feel like it, I will….. do this later! 

If you catch yourself putting an item down in your home and thinking you will take care of it later…. Beware… You are starting to accumulate clutter!

What is clutter?  

Typically it’s an unmade decision.  It’s item that doesn’t have a home and you are not sure what to do with it, so you do nothing and think.. I will take care of this later!  However, later never comes and before you know it, you have a pile of “stuff” in the corner!

We are all guilty of procrastinating from time to time.  It becomes a problem when later becomes never!  It becomes a problem when we lose time looking for items we know have but can not find. It becomes a problem when the clutter starts to take over our space!

Here are some strategies to eliminate the “I’ll do it later” scenario:

1) Make Decisions – Clutter is typically an unmade decision, it’s now time to start making some!  For everything, there is a place.  Every item in your home needs to have a designated place to live. A place for you to retrieve and return the item when you are done!  If the decision has already been made, it will be much easier to maintain your organization!

2) Touch it Once Rule – The touch it once rule is basically touching the item only once, you pick it up and put it right away. This is not easy, believe me I know from experience how hard it is, but it can be very effective!  Even if you don’t do it with everything, every time it does work, you have just prevented clutter from building up!

3) Set a limit - If you can’t break the habit of putting clutter away immediately, consider setting a limit.  Have a basket or bin for these “later” items and when the bin is full, you must take care of it, start making those decisions and contain your clutter!

Happy Organizing!