Self Help

To get everything in your house organized is not a quick and easy goal. It may take several months or even a year if you have a large home. Once you get things settled, however, you have to make only minor refinements and then you can reap the rewards for a long time. Before you dive in, you need to understand the theory and make an overall plan whether your home is big or small.

Provide a Definite Location

You want no question as to what belongs where. Use dividers of various sorts to create cubbyholes, fences, or boundaries. Your house is somewhat like a giant filing system where everything has an assigned slot. If it doesn’t have a place, how can it be put away? Who will be able to find it? Don’t let things stay where they happen to land as they come into your house.

To start with, where do you keep the newspaper until everyone has read it? Then where does it go? Is the daily newspaper allowed to dominate a room? Make your decision and follow through. At my house the newspaper is kept at the breakfast table and then it goes in the firewood cupboard until trash day. Why not directly to trash? Sometimes it is needed to start afire, or someone may want to look at the grocery ads, or my daughter might have a current events assignment from school, etc.

Keep It Simple

You will want to make boundaries and assignments that are not so difficult that they discourage tidiness. Each item must be easy to put back. For example, at my home, visitors are sometimes disappointed that my cupboards and closets don’t look like a showcase.

My clothes, towels, fabric, and spools of thread are not arranged in rainbow order. I am doing great to separate my good clothes from my work things. The silverware is separated by big dividers, but the forks aren’t nestled together. Shoe boxes serve as drawer dividers for underwear and socks, but they are not lined up with “smiley faces” as a military inspection might require.

Each bedroom has a dishpan in which to toss winter hats and gloves (when dry) and a hook for the coat. Organization does not mean meticulousness; it means you can find things without too much delay; it means your system is easy to restore. You will want to create definite boundaries, but too much detail can keep people from putting things back
where they belong.

It takes only a little thought to decide for yourself. Create a system that everyone can use and understand. Don’t be afraid to label shelves or boxes to help give things a territory. We have a box (with an open top) that identifies the spot for the plastic grocery bags that will be used as trash liners, and there are separate boxes for shoelaces, extra light bulbs, rags, hats and gloves, bills, jar lids, etc.