De-clutter:

Get rid of it--Don’t keep things that you don’t use. If you need encouragement to get rid of things, invite a friend to help, or get the whole family involved. If you can’t bring yourself to throw things away, see what the recycle shops will take. If the recycle shop won’t even take it, you should just throw it away.  Another option takes more effort, but you could organize a swap with other people in the church, or through the PTA at your child’s school--most people would be eager to swap children’s clothes, toys or books.  Or find out if there is a local flee market and sell things there.

 

Hide it--If it’s not pretty, put it in a drawer, cupboard, shelf, basket, box, or behind a curtain. Only decorative items should be on display. If there is not a convenient place to put each item, it gets left out and looks messy. Find or make a storage space for every item that you need. Books look nice on a shelf, but other items tend to look messy. The solution: buy pretty baskets to store things on the shelves--each item is easy to get or put away, but it looks pretty. This is especially good for children’s toys. Lots of small baskets keep the toys organized and easy to find. If you have one big toy box that everything gets dumped into, it is easy to put things away, but the toys don’t get used as much because it is too much trouble to try to find the items that go together.

 

Organize it----figure out ways to store things that makes it simple to find them, and simple to put them away. If the place an item belongs is in the back of the closet, it will be left out until a more convenient time to get everything out of the way to put it where it belongs. If lots of things are stored on top of each other, it is bothersome to get anything out. It is far better to get shelves or a set of drawers so that each item is easy to retrieve. If there are dividers in a drawer, it is much easier to find the item you want. than if they are all jumbled together. Most hundred yen stores sell items that can be used as drawer dividers, but if you can’t afford that, use things that you usually throw away--cereal boxes, kleenex boxes, square pet bottles, margarine tubs, etc.

 

Store it where you use it--Store towels near where you dry dishes.. Store plastic wrap near the refrigerator. Keep cleaning supplies in each bathroom so you don’t have to go get it.

 

Make it work for you--Figure out a system that works for you. For example, I use lots of spices in my cooking, and I keep them on a lazy susan so that all are easily accessible. I keep them in alphabetical order so that it is easy to find the one I am looking for, otherwise I spin it round and round and have a hard time finding it. But other people scoff at bothering with so much organization. What ever you decide on needs to work for you, not your husband or the lady next door. Keep changing what you do until it really fits how you do things.

 

Label it--If many people use the same items, labeling the storage boxes AND the space the box belongs in will make it more likely that your husband or children will put it away in the right place. But don’t over do it--if you are the only one who uses the items, and you know what is in each box or drawer, there is not need to label them.

 

Make it uniform--anytime the storage items all look alike, it looks neater. But, again, don’t get carried away.  if you have doors to hide it, who cares?