How do you keep your house organized

[Anonymous]

All of the things you listed are things that should have a home. In our house, nothing goes on the counters. Dishes in cabinets, spices in a drawer during dinner clean up, dishwasher runs nightly and is put away while coffee brews in the morning. Nothing is set on the table. The table is for eating. Create a drop zone for mail and packages. Get a shoe organizer by the door (we still have that ikea cabinet that fits snug to the wall and each family member has their own drawer). Get a basket or bin for dog toys and clean them up before bed while you also fold throw blankets, put the remotes away, clean up the coffee table, etc. Your kids are old enough to be responsible for their own items - backpacks, jackets, shoes, toys.

[Anonymous]

Get a house cleaner every week/every other week if you can afford it - you have to keep the house decluttered so it can be effectively cleaned.

Go through kitchen every gadget of appliance you have not used in six months goes into tub in basement/attic. At the end of the following six months - donate. Get everything else off counters and into pantry/cupboards.

Nothing lives in dining room. Backpacks, coats, etc. are put away when everyone gets home.

If you have a front porch, you can get a metal shoe closet where people take off shoes before entering if you don’t have a mud room. We have show storage systems in kid bedrooms. When they come home the deodorize shoes as needed and put in their rooms.

Get a shredder and scanner, and figure out which records are available online. Then get rid of 90% of your paper.

Before annual trips, donate toys and games - kids will notice less when they get back.

Go through clothes at end of every season, get rid of what is old or unworn. This is a good kid project. Find a charity and make them pack up and drop off.

Go through pantry, spice rack, medicine cabinet once every season - look for expired stuff- kids can do this. Anything you are unlikely to use gets donated.

Go through bookshelves, put stuff you haven’t looked at for a year in a tub in basement. Anything you haven’t looked at in the year following gets donated. Again, kids can do their own books. Carry to basement.

Dogs don’t need that many toys. Store dog park toys outside in a tub or in car. Indoor toys can be in a small basket near their bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

P.s. Both kids have ADD and possibly spouse too.

OP I have ADD. I struggle with putting things away.

I read a great book on organizing when you have ADD. It was written by a professional organizer who did NOT have ADHD but her daughter, I think, did, and it was based on what she learned helped her daughter.

https://www.amazon.com/Organizing-Solutions-People-ADHD-3rd/dp/0760381623/ref=asc_df_0760381623/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598351629263&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=257476546444658479&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9051727&hvtargid=pla-1733313179256&psc=1

Here's one example of a principle I learned. You need to make it SUPER EASY to put things away. If any decisions have to happen to put something away, it will be too hard and the stuff will just be put down on a flat surface "for now".

So for example in my kitchen cabinet - it is OK to have stacking bowls, plates etc but they all have to be the same size NOT nesting. Three mixing bowls that are the same size are fine as long as you can easily get one out and place it back, but if you have to remove two bowls to place the third on top, that's no good. And a small, medium, and large mixing bowl that nest will NOT work. To put the medium one back you will have to pull the large one out, remove the small one that is inside it, and replace the medium then put the small back in .. that's TOO MUCH WORK and I won't do it so I'll just leave the medium on the counter "for now" until I get around to "FINALLY CLEANING THE CABINETS"... and that's how it goes. Same thing for nesting glass measuring cups. They just don't work for me. Either everything stands on its own, or if it nests, everything has to be exactly the same size.

You need to set things up so there are very few decisions to make at the point of putting things away. An over the door shoe holder with labeled pockets for various items works great for an organized person, but a person with ADHD won't take the time to look and see where stuff should go, and they do not remember where it should go. A two ox system is much better. Another great idea I learned from her for kids with ADHD was to have a box under their bed for a "backpack dump". You have the kids empty their backpack every week, but you don't make them actually sort through everything and think about it - that's too much for them. But just dump whatever is in the backpack into the box (removing obvious trash). When inevitably they realize the need a paper that was in there, it'll be at the top of the box most likely so they can find it, so no worried about accidentally throwing out something vital. At the end of the school year it is easier to just trash the whole box.

And every basket or bin needs to be an adequate size to hold what you want them to put away. If the garbage can is constantly overflowing get a larger garbage can.

[Anonymous]

The backpack dump box is a genius idea, thanks PP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The backpack dump box is a genius idea, thanks PP!

The book is full of very useful ideas like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the best pieces of advice I ever read was while you’re decluttering and purging, if you come across something and have the “but I might need it/use it/miss it one day…” then give yourself permission to buy it again if you need it. Seems wasteful but I guarantee you that you won’t need to re buy it. And if you do, then you will appreciate it more! But in my decade of doing this only ONCE have I had to re purchase something and I got it second hand!

I also remind myself that if you are keeping something "just in case", you only need one!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As far as organization goes, when you go to tidy up, is there an appropriate and accessible place to put everything?

If there is, you’re already organized. You can play at the margins to make things easier (like a basket for shoes instead of cubbies) but basically, you’re there.

So at that point it’s just about setting up routines for everyone to tidy and clean.

If, when you go to tidy, you find that the spaces where things go are already full (eg you pick up the jar of cinnamon on the counter and open the spice drawer, but you can’t jam it in there) or you have a big pile of things without an appropriate home (eg you pick up a tennis racket and end up putting it on top of a pile of other stuff in the garage), then you have a clutter/organization problem.

NP here. The issue in our house is, if I am the only person who puts things away, and all the kids and the spouse can't be bothered, it is very hard for one person to keep up with all those messy people who don't notice, care, etc. that things are out of place. It can be exhausting and discouraging, after years of them not putting stuff back where it so obviously belongs.

You can’t parent your spouse. You can’t. But you CAN and SHOULD parent your kids. They need to stop what they’re doing at the appointed time and everyone puts things away until it’s done. A lot of families use housecleaner appointments as motivation to tidy.

I know not everyone can afford a house cleaner, but the only messy room in my house is DC’s bedroom. I mostly just keep the door closed, but he knows that he has to pick up his room before the housekeeper comes, so it at least gets clean every two weeks.

But, seriously — we got very organized when we moved because we were ruthless about not moving stuff we didn’t need. I lost track of how many trips we made to Goodwill. We then moved into a bigger house with more storage, and it was so wonderful, that I got committed to not accumulating too much stuff. If I buy new clothes, I get rid of some old stuff. It doesn’t matter if it’s “good” — if I don’t wear it regularly, it goes. I actually have empty cabinets in my house.

Not only do you need a place for everything, it has to be easy and convenient. If you have to move something to put something away, it won’t happen. If you have to take something to a room that is different from where you usually use something, it isn’t going to happen. My DH always has a little collection of business cards, small parts of things, etc that he is using and wants to keep handy in the kitchen. So he has a nice porcelain bowl with a cover where he keeps those things. Junk mail goes straight into a shredder in the kitchen closet and bills go on his or my desk, which are in a room adjacent to the kitchen.

100% this. We moved in 2021 and I was ruthless about getting rid of stuff and I still am. I was not about to move useless crap across the country. I've also come to realize that DH won't ever throw anything away so I've taken to doing it. Usually when no one is home. They have yet to notice so it's clear the stuff was not needed. Now that we have so much less I have no problems tossing stuff that we normally would have kept just in case. Closets are still somewhat of a work in progress but everything else is in much better shape.

With my kids I will pick up their piles and but it directly on their bed. What they do with it after that is not my problem. The ones at home are 13 and 18 and they honestly don't have *that* much but do leave stuff laying around. I would rather take 5-10 minutes and pick up their stuff rather then nag them and get mad when they don't do it. Honestly, the worst offender is our 20 year old when she's home from college.

When I'm picking stuff up I have to remind myself "don't put it down, put it away". This has actually helped getting things where they need to be from the start.