How to organise your home in 5 easy steps

I am in the process of getting organised! Now don’t get me wrong, I love an ordered home but when you live with two young children, a husband that doesn’t feel the need to put things back in the right place and when you, yourself are rushed off your feet…well it can sometimes get a bit disorganised. So my mission over the next two months is to get back on track and to share some of these ideas along the way. Here are my basic steps to creating an ordered home.

 

 

 

1. Make a mess by pulling everything out before you start

You cannot make an omellete without breaking an egg can you? Well you need to take this on board when organising your house also. Pull everything out of the cupboards so that nothing is left and then take a look at it all….have you created a huge pile of “stuff” behind you? Well we need to deal with this next, but first get cleaning those cupboards before you even think of putting anything back in! Maybe line the drawers with wallpaper or wrapping paper to create a sense of prettiness or fun that you see every time you open them!

 

2. It is now time to de-clutter

Us vintage loving people find it hard to downsize but if your cupboards have become disorganised then it is probably because you have too much stuff crammed inside! There are two ways to do this in my opinion:

Firstly group everything into type – for example, white blouses or bottles of shampoo (clearly this depends on which cupboard you are tackling!) If you have more than say 3 then think about giving some away to charity or selling it on eBay or Facebook selling sites. Maybe give it away on Freecycle or donate it to a friend. Whichever way you choose, downsizing your stuff will make you think clearer and tidier! Now I do find this hard believe me (I have a lot of white shirts) but if they don’t fit inside your wardrobe then it is time to purge. Plus if it is broken or stained throw it away NOW!

The second way to decide whether to keep or throw is to ask yourself: Do I love it? Does it make me happy? If you don’t know then out it goes!

In my opinion, now is time to throw out all sample bottles of cosmetics that you never wanted in the first place, McDonalds toys that were never asked for, odd socks that you feel that one day will be re-paired, bottles of cleaning materials with a tiny bit left in, any storage or Tupperware that has lost its lid….you get the picture!

 

3. Group similar things together

Your life will be made easier if you group your things together whether it by colour or type as it makes tidying easier plus quicker to find things resulting in less mess as you go along.. In the bedroom, hang all your shirts in colour order, group sets of lingerie together and store all your jewellery by type. This goes for toys too; we have a drawer for people and one for cars, a box for dolls clothes and tins for crayons, hair bobbles etc. This way even the children can find things when they have lost them, as I have gone round putting them in the right place! (And sometimes they do too!)

 

 

 

n the kitchen, group all food types together. Position sauces together, cooking ingredients, baking bits etc so you can clearly see what you have before you go shopping and when you are cooking. You could also create some clever perspex dividers to organise the space like these from Simply Plastics

4. Choose clever storage, or  any storage!

Now it is time to store smaller items in boxes, jars and tins. We store food in Kilner jars and in baskets, and of course we use tins for biscuits and snacks. We also use tins for colouring pencils. Moshi Monsters, buttons – in fact we use tins to store most things!  If you don’t have these items already, see what you do have that could be used such as shoe boxes for makeup, buckets for cleaning materials, even flower pots! I always keep my eyes peeled at car boot sales for storage as it can be quite expensive new.

 

5. Label everything so everyone else can see where it goes!

Of course you now know where everything lives but in order to get the rest of your household to join in the organisation party you will need to label things. Of course you want them to look nice so consider making your own. My tutorial to create labels is coming very soon!. I then just bluetac them into place so you can move them about in the future!

Happy organising!

Kate x