Organising our homes, 1 day at a time!

[Mommabear20]

A thread for anyone wanting some company and motivation to get those pesky messy corners cleared and tidy!

Bring your organising hacks and let's do this!

@TruffleNoir when my DC were little I stored all their cuddly toys in a bean bag cover (so the toys were the stuffing for the beanbag). The see through pockets that you hang on the back of doors are really useful for cuddlies and dolls etc too.

Today I reorganised one of the food cupboards - putting half packets of pasta into empty mason jars etc to halve the space taken up. I put some chalkboard labels on them too as one DC has to have gluten free. I ordered some artists chalk pencils on Amazon which arrived today so I have also been going round the house rewriting my other chalk labels a bit more neatly - so satisfying. I also organised a muddle of minature cans of tonic, bottles of gin etc into some pretty Laudree boxes (and labelled them as well). Looks so much nicer.

What a lovely and kind thread ❤️. Yes I am very ok otherwise luckily but just feel our house is constant battle of stuff. So many presents from well meaning friends etc I have no room for and don’t know where to put, more books than shelf space to put them on etc and the worst space is the kitchen as we cook from scratch and it seems a constant clutter zone and endless.
BrieandChilli that is just such a touching offer! I so appreciate everyone’s goodness as long for a calm space and feel I can never sit down as hate mess. Our DC are 15 and 10 and everyone including DH is so helpful when asked but all their schedules are quite hectic. We are expecting a baby soon too and I feel the best help will be to go more minimalist so the clutter can’t resurface in the first place.

My most helpful step so far has been a lovely shoe rack from Garden Trading which was a wonderful find from their seconds on EBay!

Trying to declutter and organise too.
No space for a filing cabinet unfortunately. So I have different ring binders for car, house, bank etc . I need to keep on top of filing stuff in it and getting rid of out of date stuff.

For those asking what we do for kitchen storage - Kilner jars for things like pasta/rice/cereal, a three tier mini shelf for cans (as I'm short it means I can see what is at the back and nothing is hidden) and lazy Susans in cupboards for things like bottles of oil and tall sauce bottles in the bottom cupboard and jars of peanut butter, honey etc in top cupboard. Fridge has little clear plastic storage drawers/boxes in (all labelled with 'cheese' etc).

Re yesterday (sorry I've just caught up) I finished Marie Kondo's book, and labelled my card boxes (I have storage boxes for birthday cards, Christmas cards and other cards like thank you cards).

[quote stealthninjamum]@Wildrobin are you ok? Do you want to tell us a bit more about yourself and your clutter problem? Someone might be able to help. It can be overwhelming, especially if you have young dc or unsupportive partners, but keep going and I promise it will get better.

I just realised I didn’t do the hour of digital organising I said I would. Will put it on the to do list for next week.

Another one her with a dymo label maker. All our stationery / crafts bits are labelled. I love it.

This week I bought some plastic A3 wallets. Dd2 loves drawing so all her little sketches are going in it (normally she leaves them lying around the house) Also she has a tutor so her work there is in the folder. I have also found a clipboard and I have designed a timetable in word which I will attach to it. Dd2 has autism so I am trying out ways of planning to help her. We already have a family calendar app but she never looks at it so I’m thinking she’ll look at something more visual so I might look for stickers to go on it.[/quote]
Widgit online subscription is great for making visual support materials for children esp ASD

@Wildrobin what space do you have in your house? Do you have a garage and an attic?
We went from a house with neither to one with both which has been a godsend for me! All the used a couple of times a year stuff in the kitchen (picnic stuff, Christmas themed kitchen stuff, baking stuff that isn’t regularly used - special shaped tins etc, ice cream maker, slush or maker etc etc all went into the garage. Accessible onthe occasions we need them but frees up the kitchen. I also got things like special stand for pan lids, stand for baking trays etc for inside the cupboards. All things like pasta etc goes into glass jars. Utensil and cutlery drawers have dividers in so easier to keep neat and know where everything goes.

Books we did have a purge and although we are all avid readers we had thousands of books we had to pare them down a bit! We boxed up all the special kids books that we wanted to keep for future grandkids etc and put into attic. Others went to charity/preschool.

Hello all, what a good idea for a thread. Bring organises really helps my life happen better. I am currently working on organising my finances, we aren’t in debt I just want to have more of a handle on it. So I have bought a diary to write money out and back account funds daily. It is a week to a view so I can then see what happens easily without flicking back and forth in a note book. This has been on my mind for a while so it’s nice to have it up and running successfully.
My next project is to organise all the photos I have printed off for years and years but not done anything with. I need to get some albums and photo frames and get them organised.

I haven’t even finished the pens and pencils yet 😳 did the bulk of them - got rid of loads - but it’s the other categories I’m not sure how to organise especially as the smaller drawers are smaller than would be ideal 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’ve been a bit inspired by finally watching an episode of Sort Your Life Out but feeling quite unwell today so not acting on it.

I’ve also been listening to the audiobook Atomic Habits and I’m loving it - it has a lot about making habits as easy and obvious as possible. This could include making frequently used things more visible, changing locations of items etc. So I’m trying to think about that and how I can work it into organising the house. I just want less chaos.

Slowly freeing myself from the clutter and being brutal with throwing things away. Charity shopping where possible. Feels therapeutic and the challenge is not to fill the empty spots.

BrieAndChilli that is a very helpful suggestion thank you! we have loads of external storage (a cold outdoor office we already keep stuff in but it is quite disordered and huge wooden shed for anything too ) So the idea of a system within it instead of just ‘clutter ‘ we never touch could make a huge difference to feeling better about it. I feel much more positive and might look into stackable boxes. Mine tend to break so I hope I can find some that don’t crack !

Today I have done one batch of filing under my new system and have labelled all the dogs' storage boxes (things like 'rope toys' and 'balls' they have a small box for each category). Every day feels like a good step in the right direction.

I desperately need too. This morning I started and cleaned out too small clothes from DDs wardrobe, stored the ones I want to keep and took the rest straight to goodwill so they’re not hanging around. I have a bag of dresses with tags on I’m going to offer to a neighbour for her new DD.

Next step is culling the plushies. Then toys

@Rummikub That's where I can fall down too, not getting rid of out of date filing. I look in the Utilities file & I have the previous 3 year's Council Tax statements as well as this year's!

@Wildrobin Welcome 🙂 I can see you getting good help so I'll just say the best thing I've found is to set up systems that work for everybody concerned, ones that are simple to stick to. Not easy when there are multiple people I know!

I bought new folders today, as some of the ones I had were taller that the filing cabinet separators which made it harder to see the tab which identifies the files group. Little things like that are a pain when you're trying to keep organised I find. I believe it's called 'the stress of small annoyances' 😀

Can I join please. I’ve been lurking in the decluttering thread but have realised I don’t have huge amounts to get rid of it’s more making it all better organised. Or at least I don’t have huge amounts to get rid of that I want to get rid of If I was aiming for true minimalism I’d have to get rid of loads!

Does anyone use the toss app? I’ve been using it to try to focus myself on some of the neglected areas but it keeps giving me the same areas despite me marking them as done. I’ve had bathroom cabinet and medicine cabinet five and three times respectively.

TruffleNoir
For toy storage I would recommend a really good declutter. Then I use trofast (ikea)
Shelves for books and finished lego projects.

An underbed storage box works well for lego as it's shallow and wide so the kids can find all the pieces they want easily.

Then I have a wigwam I throw all teddies into and kallax with drone boxes

@Wildrobin what do you find the biggest problem areas are? Someone might have some ideas.

In my house it’s the bathroom surfaces: there are 6 of us. 1 uses soap, 2 use men’s shower gel, 1 uses ladies shower gel, 2 use baby eczema wash. 2 use baby shampoo, 1 uses normal shampoo, 1 uses prescription medicated shampoo, 2 use Afro shampoo. 1 normal conditioner, 1 Afro conditioner…
So many products and that’s before you open the cupboard to discover my facial products and teen skin products and face masks. Teens are really bad for having lots of things open at once too. Add in the bath toys, cleaning products and spare loo roll etc and my bathroom always looks terrible no matter how organised it is!

The other main culprit is discarded clothing that I gather up to be left on the stairs for all eternity. And craft/colouring stuff. We do not need any more pens or pencils or crayons or colouring books EVER!

Does anyone else have a bit of a clash of organising styles with others in the household? For me it’s all about being easy to tidy, so I have open boxes inside drawers and cupboards that it’s easy to Chuck stuff into. I tend to store stuff where I use it so don’t really make a mess, I use stuff then pop it away with zero effort. So I always open my post in one area, envelopes and junk go straight into recycling and I have a letter rack with one section to action and one to file. The action stuff is mostly done straight away if I can. When it looks a bit full I file it all. My partner thinks my letter rack is clutter and refuses to use it because he prefers all storage to be hidden away BUT he then opens post wherever, leaves letters and envelopes strewn around and files stuff away in his meticulous “proper” place only when he has huge piles of it everywhere. Similarly he gets annoyed that I have a couple of pens in the kitchen and living room (tidy in drawers 😉) because pens live in the office. But he never return the pens he uses to the office so they’re just left lying around for ages! He drives me mad and he doesn’t think my organisation is organised at all 🤣

Tat sounds really irritating!
Especially the letter rack. I love a letter rack.

I’m trying to see if I can make some sort of filing system without having a filing cabinet. Was looking at a storage ottoman and would wondering if there’s any potential there. Apart from the few folders the test of my paperwork is everywhere

Pen box done. Found a temporary solution for all the rubber bands, paper clips etc - spare Petri dishes which DH got too many of (DS is home educated and keen on science). Lids don’t fit tightly so not ideal but it’ll do for now.

Added another photo that made me laugh today - three boxes of staples ffs. Because I never know where we have stuff we bought, so I buy another!

Hello everyone, I am enjoying reading about all the organising going on!

I am decluttering. My goal is a big bag a week. Our house is not awful, but just very full and so it’s hard to put anything out of the ordinary away!

-lifeispassingby ooh thanks I like the look of widget online. Before I saw your message I had downloaded a few pictures of beds and books (for homework and bedtime reading) and had sort of created my own in word but I might see if dd2 wants to created her own chart using widget online. She has pathological demand avoidance syndrome as well as asd and we’ve never really found structure and routine have worked as they become demands to her but our paedetricians keep telling us to do visual timetables so I’m really going to give it a go. It sounds stupid but before it’s always become a piece of crumpled paper but this time we have a clipboard!

For anyone needing sturdy storage boxes, I recommend Really Useful Boxes. They have lids, they stack, and are generally transparent, and being plastic you can stick labels on (or write something in paper and shove it inside). There is a huge range of sizes and shapes. They are not the cheapest but they are robust. You can sometimes gets deals by buying 3 at a time. We've had deals from Asda (Click & Collect) and Rymans (spent over £40, so they delivered free).

I can recommend Really Useful Boxes too - I use the shallower ones for my sewing cupboard and it is helpful as I can stack the more frequently used on top of the ones I rarely use. I've had them for years and they are still going strong.

Not done a lot this weekend as I was volunteering at a vaccine centre yesterday and went to see DD and take her out for lunch today as she tore a ligament in her ankle yesterday and was feeling very sorry for herself. However I'd ordered a shelf organiser which arrived yesterday so I was able to rearrange my evening shoes - now the heels sit under it and the flats on top and I was able to squeeze a couple of pairs of evening boots on the shelf in front - 10 pairs of shoes on one shelf is an organisational win....

@Rummikub - if the papers you want to file are A4 size you could make yourself some magazine files out of cereal packets to put inside the Ottoman - not the sturdiest but free which always helps.

Always like a free hack, I have some cheap £1 for 5 IKEA magazine files I could try till I find an alternative. In my head the magazine files are labelled and neat!
Off to measure.

Hi everyone, a good day for organising here, have started reading Dilly Carter's book, have labelled a number of things (DS' artwork folder, my sentimental folder, my leads/chargers box). I also started on the airing cupboard (a problem area for me), organised a load of bedding into two storage boxes (properly folded and labelled) and have now ordered more storage boxes as I've run out (again)!

Oo can I join here aswell? I've just joined the sister decluttering thread and most of it will be decluttering to be honest and then organising what remains as I go so would love to keep up with all your tips. Today I've had a paperwork sort out and consolidated 3 file folders into 1, got loads of shredding and have labelled up nicely the remaining one so it's all easy to find.