Category: How to Declutter

As we close the chapter on the cold, dark winter months and step into longer days filled with sunshine, it’s time to show our homes a little decluttering and organizing love. The thought of decluttering and organizing all the things can feel overwhelming. Here’s the thing. You don’t have to tackle your entire house to begin to feel the difference of less clutter and more function. The key to your success is to focus on the primary areas of your home that make the biggest impact on your day to day routines.

5 Quick Spaces to Declutter and Organize

Entryway

This space sets the tone for how you feel when you walk in the door of your home. Keeping it clutter free and organized also helps set the stage for a quicker, less stressful departure as you head out for your day. No more frantic searches for keys, purse or other daily (and highly needed) items.

• Remove and store away all things winter
• Add in your spring decor
• Use baskets or bins with labels to catch daily items
• Add hooks for hanging items like bags and purses

Bathroom

Your bathrooms are definitely high traffic areas. Being able to quickly and easily find what you need can help save you time when you are getting ready for the day or winding down. A well organized bathroom is a game changer for busy, frantic mornings. And who doesn’t love clear countertops!

• Check all your products and toss anything that is expired
• Clear your countertops, leaving only daily essentials like toothpaste
• Use labeled bins, drawer dividers and storage containers to group like items together
• Add a back of the door organizer to create additional vertical storage space

Linen Closet

“Extra” closets can often be a magnet for clutter. We toss the fitted sheet with a hole, but feel like we need to keep the top sheet. We don’t know why exactly, but it’s what we do. And then we shut the door and move on. Reducing the amount of linens you have on hand will make keeping that closet organized so much easier.

• Discard or donate worn out linen, stained or excessive linens
• Set a limit of two sheets sets per bed, one on and one in the closet
• Add labeled baskets and bins for small items like hand towels or supplies
• Use shelf dividers to keep everything neat and organized

Playroom and Toys

If you have kids, those kids have toys. And if we are being honest, they likely have way more than they need. We all know those toys rarely stay in their dedicated space and often find their way strewn about the whole house. As we gear up to spend more time outside, this is a perfect time to sort through those toys.

• Make this a team project working with your kid (age appropriate of course)
• Help them decide whether to keep, donate or trash toys
• Create play zones to help keep toys where they belong
• Add clear, labeled bins to easily see what’s inside

Shared Living Spaces

Whether this is your living room, den or family room in the basement, any space that is shared by all can quickly become messy. Creating an organized system for these spaces can help all family members keep the space clutter free and ready for all of that family fun time.

• Clear horizontal surfaces, using minimal decor and keeping only essential items handy
• Consider using furniture with hidden storage like drawers in a coffee table for remotes
• Use decorative baskets for small blankets, magazine and toys
• Have everyone participate in a daily reset to put things back where they belong

Getting your home organized doesn’t (and really can’t) happen all at once. You will be amazed at the impact these seemingly small projects will make in your home. Quick wins build momentum to move on to those bigger projects like your kitchen or closet. Let’s ocus on progress, not perfection. Every drawer, shelf or surface you purge and reset helps create a calmer, more functional home for you and your family to enjoy.

If you need a hand decluttering and organizing your home, we’re here to help! 
Are you local to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and surrounding areas?
Contact Organized Jill for a complimentary consultation.

I love sharing organizing advice and strategies with my community!
This interview with the Winston Salem Journal focused on how
to make room in your home for what matters most to you.

The Organized Jill team helps declutter and organize closets, pantries, bathrooms and craft rooms. They also help homebuyers unpack, find storage and create systems to help homeowners and renters start out in their new place. Every system is tailored to clients’ needs.

“We always take the time to learn about our clients, to listen to their needs, priorities or concerns and personalize the experience,” Moore said.

If you need a hand creating lasting organized system in your home, we’re here to help! 
Are you local to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and surrounding areas?
Contact Organized Jill for a complimentary consultation.

Do you feel like certain spots in your home are clutter magnets? Like no matter how much you tidy up, it’s always a mess. Maybe it’s the mountain of shoes by the door or that pile of papers on your kitchen countertop. The good news is, it’s not just you. The even better news is you can turn those catch all areas into organized and functional spaces. No, you don’t have to throw everything away. You just need a system that works. And we are going to show you how to do that!

Hot Spots

The first step to taming the madness is to identify the hot spots in your home. Take a stroll through your spaces and focus on the areas where everything that comes in seems to land. This step shouldn’t be too hard. They are likely the spots that cause you frustration and overwhelm every single time you look at them. Take note of the types of items that are consistently showing up in these areas too.

Categorize the Mess

Sort through and create categories for the items that are in these hot spots. Look for patterns or similarities. Dumping grounds usually catch the same types of things over and over like mail, school papers, keys and clothing. Of course you will always have those random items as well. Creating categories to see what belongs and what needs to go will help as you begin to create a system to get and keep these areas organized.

A Home for Everything

One of the biggest contributors to clutter in your spaces are those homeless items. If you have a place and system for everything, it makes the task of staying organized and tidy so much easier. In this step, you will take a look at the type of items that tend to land in your catch all zones and create a system that matches those habits. Why? Because if you create systems built around the way you and your family normally live and function in your home, it will be much easier to stay organized.

• If mail, papers and receipts tend to stay piled up on your kitchen counter, place a paper sorter in that spot.
• Is your entryway table scattered with keys and sunglasses? Add a hook system on the wall and a labeled tray on the table.
• Do you have a chair in your bedroom covered in “not quite dirty” clothing? Add a door hanger for these items.
• Does your pantry seem to stay in a constant state of disarray? Add a few labeled baskets for your main items.
• Are you beauty products scattered across your bathroom counter? Use drawer organizers to keep everything contained.

Maintain the Magic

Here’s the thing about our homes. We live in them, everyday. Getting organized feels great! Staying organized takes a little work. Setting aside time for a quick reset to prevent the clutter from creeping back in is the best way to maintain your organized systems. Ceate family habits that work with your needs. Do you spend a lot of time in your car? Create a car unload routine where everything comes in every day. Pick a day of the week to clean out your mail and paper sorter. Do a 10 minute reset before everyone goes to bed at the end of each day. Put all shoes, bookbags, jackets and other random daily items back where they go. Get the whole family involved and make it a fun game. Regular tidy up sessions keeps daily clutter under control. And you get to enjoy living in a calm, functional home!

If you need a hand creating lasting organized system in your home, we’re here to help! 
Are you local to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and surrounding areas?
Contact Organized Jill for a complimentary consultation.

Do you often feel like your brain is always “on”, with all of the things you have to do circling around in your mind? It can feel never ending with the responsibilities you have for family, work and your home. From making sure everyone is where they need to be everyday to planning meals to laundry, the list never feels done. It’s overwhelming and exhausting carrying around this invisible mental weight. The good news is you can reduce your mental load by simplifying your routines, schedule and home.

What is mental load?

Mental load is all of the things you are thinking about that need to be done. Whether you are physically doing them or not, they are always there silently running in the background of your mind. It’s like your brain has too many tabs open or is covered in sticky notes, reminding you to schedule that dentist appointment, buy milk, wash towels and plan dinner. It doesn’t matter that you just got out of bed and haven’t even had breakfast yet. Your system is overloaded so it slows down, things get forgotten and you become stressed and overwhelmed. Mental load is invisible clutter and just like physical clutter, it can pile up fast!

Ease Your Mental Load

So how do we take back control and reduce the mental clutter that’s dragging us down? The first and ongoing step is to get the list out of your head so your brain doesn’t have to remember everything. Write down what you need to do. You can create a family calendar, use a weekly planner or a simple notepad. Have multiple lists, if that helps, to separate what you need to focus on now and what can wait until later.

The key to having less to do and think about is to declutter. Work on decluttering all the things. Your spaces in your home, your schedule and your routines. It’s important to know it’s ok to reduce any unnecessary obligations that take up too much of your time. Once you’ve decluttered and removed what doesn’t serve you, you can switch gears and focus on creating systems and building routines to keep your home and life running smoothly.

If you have big home projects you can’t stop thinking about, create a plan that breaks that project down into smaller, manageable pieces. Again, write it down. If you want to declutter and organize your pantry, break that down into actionable steps like “toss expired items” or “organize snacks”. You don’t have to finish a task all at once, any progress is progress.

As you declutter and build routines, the systems start to do the heavy lifting for you. Labeled bins in the pantry, shared chore charts and a running grocery store list on the fridge isn’t just about being organized. It literally takes the pressure off of your brain. Planning your meals is easier because your pantry is organized and you have a weekly meal plan. You get to close the “don’t forget the appointment” tab in your head because you have it on the list now.

Gain More With Less

More Energy

Decision fatigue is real and really stressful. Carrying  a heavy mental load is draining. When your home and life is streamlined with systems in place, you reduce the number of decisions you have to constantly make. This naturally reduces the stress and overwhelm you feel when you are always scrambling and gives you more time and energy to do the things you want to do.

More Focus

With all those tabs open, it’s impossible to truly focus on any one thing. With less to think about, your brain has more space to give to the thing you are doing now, allowing you to more efficiently work on the task at hand. You will get more done in less time and be able to look past your day to day to plan and implement your bigger goals and projects.

More Control

When you reduce your mental load and create organized systems in your home, you will begin to feel more in control of your life and responsibilities. Your days run smoother, there’s less stress and more predictability. We all know we are not the best versions of ourselves when we are stressed. You will have more balance in your home that will be felt by you and your family.

When your home and life has organized systems that work, you and your brain can finally relax!

If you need a hand decluttering and organizing your home, we’re here to help! 
Are you local to Winston-Salem, North Carolina & surrounding areas?
Contact Organized Jill for a complimentary consultation.