How to Keep an Organized Home (Simple tips + freebie)

Easy tips that you can do right away to keep your home organized. I’ve also included a FREE download so you can get started TODAY!

Fill the gap: Keeping your Home Organized is ______________. Whatever you think, yeah! I hear ya!

Wake up in the morning (many of us even a couple of hours earlier than everyone else), wake up kids (and husbands), make breakfast, lunch bags, get dressed, do morning skin-care, push kids to get ready, eat breakfast, make kids eat breakfast, take kids to school, come back home (or go to your job), tidy up the house, do some laundry, go out to run errands or sit on your computer to have some work done, time to make lunch, pick up the kids, have lunch, wash dishes, make sure kids do homework, try to do some more work yourself, maybe take a bath, take the kids to extra classes, make dinner, wash dishes (again or load dishwasher), bath time for kids, bedtime for kids, do some more work, maybe go to bed…

Does this sound familiar?

You might also love these other organization posts: Creating New Habits in 3 Easy Steps, Effective Goal Setting: How to set goals and achieve them, and 20+ Organization Ideas for the Home.

Habits and Routines to Keep an Organized Home

Hey! I could list quite some more daily tasks any woman probably might have to do in one single day.

I’m sure you ask the same question every day:

How am I going to get everything done in one day?

Easy answer…

You don’t have to.

Yes, it’s true!

And you know what?

It’s completely fine because we are human beings and because we actually can’t expect to do it all by ourselves in one day.

Hear me out.

We don’t have to have it all done in one day every day. Of course, many of those tasks might NEED to be done and so we do like wake up every morning and make breakfast, take kids to school, lunch, keep kids alive… But there are so many other tasks we can schedule them to make them on different days and different times.

You see, I’m not the most organized person on this planet, but I do like to have some organization in place and I try my best to keep it that way. I try hard to always have an organization plan.

Keeping a home organized is serious business, but it’s possible and doesn’t have to be done in one day. I confess, it doesn’t work every time (life often happens) but it does make my life a little bit easier.

Why is so important to Keep an Organized Home

On one hand, because it’s mentally, emotionally, and physically healthier… On the other…

The main reason I love having my home organized, clean and clutter-free is because I believe in energies, in the universe, you get what you give (call me crazy).

I believe that when you keep rooms clean and organized, especially when you move things around you keep the energy flowing and the house feels lighter. Maybe it’s a silly crazy way of seeing it but I truly love the feeling when I finish cleaning or tidying up the home every morning.

I’m not going to lie, just like anyone else, I don’t actually love cleaning and organizing. Let’s be honest, it’s not fun at all, especially when it’s routine and you have more people living under the same roof with different perspectives. BUT, I do love the feeling and sensation of lightness and freshness my home gets when I’m done.

Because I don’t love so much organizing but love organization, is that I try my best to KEEP everything organized and I just have to go through the apartment just tidying up and fixing here and there. It makes it all so much easier. The cleaning? even easier.

Want to know what’s the key to making this happen?

The key is in creating habits and routines.

Easier said than done, I know!

But here’s the thing, creating habits and routines it’s hard but it’s not impossible. Once you create them things start going on autopilot. You don’t have to think hard or make any efforts.

When you incorporate your new habits into your daily routine, with time, you get used to it. Things start to flow smoothly. Of course, we need to be flexible because life happens, and sometimes what you had to do today could not be done for whatever reason. You can do it the next day or even later the same day without making a big deal of it.

But Hey! Flexibility doesn’t mean procrastination. It doesn’t mean, “Nah, I don’t feel like it, I’ll do it tomorrow”. Flexibility means, you have a heavy headache, one of your kids got sick, something unexpected happened that requires your attention. Otherwise, you need to stick with your routine and habits if you want your organization to work.

Where to Start to Organizing the Home?

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I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say:

It’s absolutely and frustratingly hard to organize a home when you don’t even know where to start and you don’t live alone (especially the last part, right?).

So, If you’re feeling ready to tackle the mess and create a beautifully (and almost effortlessly) organized home, you need to start by creating habits that will help you get there and then keep it that way.

I’ve seen (and applied to myself) that organized people do nothing more than several different organizing and cleaning tasks that can be quickly completed throughout each day to eliminate an overwhelmingly unorganized home at the end of the week.

Here’s the KEY:

An organized person does SMALL things during the day to minimize the BIG mess at the end of the day and week.

Can this really be true?

No doubts about it!

You might be an unorganized person or maybe you like organization and you are organized to some point but you get easily overwhelmed by the lack of time on your day. Which, of course, leads to a messy house. That’s fine, been there, done that. I can tell you, both are fixable.

The first step to organizing is learning how to declutter. There’s no way you can get anything organized if you have tons of junk or things you don’t use wasting your precious space.

FIRST, declutter, THEN organize, and THEN keep organized with habits and routines.

So, decluttering huh!.

Yup!

Get rid of everything you don’t use. We all have too much stuff that can leave our homes feeling stuffed and messy no matter how much we organize. That’s why decluttering is the key to being organized.

What to Declutter.

This part of the process might take some time, so take a deep breath and take it slow. You don’t have to do it all at once, ok?

Go room by room, space by space, linen closet, laundry rooms, basements, garages, attics (if you have one), pantries, closets, shelves, and start pilling up or putting into bags or bins all the stuff you know you don’t use.

That includes:

• Old vitamins and medications. Are they expired? yes? Trash.
• CDs and DVDs you don’t use anymore.
• Clothes that you don’t like, are damaged or doesn’t fit anymore, take a special look at the season clothing. A trick, if you haven’t used it for over a year, give it away. The chances that you will use it again are almost ZERO.
• Shoes. The same rule applies from above.
• Old towels, bedsheets, and rags. If you haven’t used them in a while, get rid of them.
• Books and magazines that you don’t use. I don’t mean literary books but like school/college books. Books that you know you are never going to read again.
• Socks without a match.
• Pens that don’t work, short crayons, damaged pencils, etc, you know what I mean.
• Useless paper. Like mails, receipts, greeting cards.
• Junk drawer, especially the kitchen drawer.
• Accessories. old useless hair ties, bobby pins, hair clips, headbands, broken earrings or without a match, anything you stop using years ago. GIve away or trash.
• Spices and cans. You probably have quite some of those expired.
• Old mugs and dishes, pots and pans, and decorations. Same year rule from clothes applies.
• Appliances that no longer work. That includes the original boxes that we sometimes keep just in case.

Once you have gone through everything on every room and got rid of everything that you don’t need or use, you are ready to get organized.

I’ve read it a gazillion times, organizing your home shouldn’t be a pain, it should be easy and normal. The problem is when we procrastinate or just let things pile up! I learned so much from 2 amazing persons.

Firstly, my mom who is an actual organization freak and I use every strategy that fits my home and style.

And second, Abby from Just a Girl and Her Blog who I could say is another organization freak without hurting her feelings because she says it herself (If you are reading, I Love you, Abby!). She has an amazing way to explain her systems and strategies and I must say I’ve learned A LOT from her.

In order to keep my home organized, I’ve mixed up everything I’ve learned and tried from others with systems I found easier or just more functional for my needs and I’ve got a pretty good rhythm. I’m sharing it with you.

Organized home strategy

Before I proceed, DO NOT go crazy buying organizers and containers yet. You might have what you need, so wait.

1. First thing is first. Take everything out of its place. Like Abby says, “It has to get worse before it gets better”.
2. Check if there’s any extra purge you can do.
3. Find all the boxes, baskets and container you might already have at home (even shoe boxes work) set them aside.
4. Put all alike items together (example: all tools, all office supplies, all stuffed toys, all barbies, all cars, etc). If they don’t have a proper place yet then pile it up and set a note so you can find a container/organizer for them. Go for the next space.
5. Set a place for each group of items in each room. Decide if each group needs a container or goes to drawers and take notes of what kind and size of if you need dividers.
6. Make sure each group of items it’s easy to take and put back. Super important to keep things organized. When it’s hard especially to put back, it’s likely that it won’t.
7. Make an inventory of the boxes and containers you already have and which ones can be used for your categorized items to store each category neatly and in a way that is easily accessible.
8. If you have enough drawers, consider using dividers there are plenty of option, from store-bought to handmade.
9. If you still got items that need special containers, then go shopping for new containersand storage solutions according to your notes and organize your items.
10. Make or buy Labels. Label everything that is not easily visible. You can also add a list of items that are stored inside. This can be especially helpful when using mate container and you can’t see what’s inside.
11. Start refilling your spaces once you have everything separated, categorized, stored and labeled.
12. Tweak as needed. Sometimes the first round doesn’t get it right, so feel free to tweak until you find the best place for each item or group of items.

Related blog posts you might find interesting:

• Drawers Dividers for Desk, makeup, linen, etc
• Upcycled Box Drawer Organizer

At this point, your house is up and running again and each place tidied up and organized. Woohoo!

Doesn’t it feel a lot better already, so light and fresh?

Every time I do that, I get this feeling of relief, like I removed a huge weight from my back and my spirit. I just love it.

How to actually keep your home organized?

Here come habits and routines.

Let’s start by understanding habits. Habits are those actions you take on your day-to-day on autopilot. Like brushing your teeth, taking bath, walk your dog, making lunch, etc. Those things you just do. Bad habits are really easy to acquire but good and healthy habits are really hard.

I used to be all over the place. It was easier to just do things as they appeared or were needed and that wasn’t working for me. I was usually overwhelmed and so unhappy.

Often times I just procrastinated things because I had to deal with the mess first and let’s face it, we never feel like dealing with a mess.

One day I said I can’t live like this anymore. I really couldn’t. So I decided to create my daily and weekly routines. It involves personal and home habits.

I had to create quite some habits in order to make things work for me. It did! It was not easy, some days I wanted to just put on yoga pants and a t-shirt and move on. But, I took a breath and said let’s do this.

It is said that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. That means that if you commit to doing a task every day at the same time and in the same order it eventually becomes your habit and part of your routine. I decided to target 30 days.

Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize

Let’s start by creating a list of all the important things you need to get done in a day. List them all. You can do the following exercise on your own or you can use the Free Workbook I created for you if you prefer.

Then let’s prioritize. Create 2 columns daily and weekly.

Under daily, write down those tasks that you truly need to get done every day. Be serious and honest. Don’t put things here that you could do weekly.

Same as for Weekly. All those things that can wait for a full week but them here. If your house won’t fall apart and your family won’t die, then it can wait.

Now that you have that organized put it on your calendar, for the first month, keep that list handy so you can check it out when you are not sure what you have to do.

Let’s see how to keep your home organized each day and week.

Firstly, decide what time of the day is best for you to put your routine into action. In my case, the mornings are the best. I have a list of tasks before I take my girl to school and then another when I go back. Then my normal day starts. At nights, hubby and I turn ourselves to leave the kitchen clean.

Habits for a Painlessly Organized Home.

#1 Make a to-do list and follow it.

Any type of to-do list will do, you can even buy those magnets and put them in your fridge. Include the off-routine you gotta do each day like appointments, special projects, specific errands.

It’s a good practice to have it set the night before so you have that off your way.

#2 Clean up and pick up as you go.

This could be the best habit you can acquire. You go around your house anyway, right? Then make the most of it.

If you are in your bedroom and you are heading to the kitchen, take a look around and see If there are things you can take with you to put it in the right place. Or if on the way to the kitchen you find misplaced things in the hallway, pick them up and take them with you.

There’s no need to waste trips around the house.

#3 Have a place for everything and keep things where you use them.

This will end up saving you so much time and frustration because you and your family members will know exactly where something should go because it has a specific spot.

Also, when you need something you won’t waste time looking for it because it was put somewhere random.

I honestly can’t tell you how many times I have been searching for something that I think should be in one place but that my girl or husband put somewhere else not even them remember.

#4 Take and put it back.

It might sound like a stupid task but it will change everything for the better. If every time you take something and put it back after using it, you don’t have to get around the house cleaning up or looking for something because it will always be where it belongs.

For example, you need to clean a stain on the table, you went to the cabinet, took the cleaning spray, cleaned the stain, and then put back the spray to the cabinet.

You need to remove your nail polish, so you go get the nail polish remover, use it, and then put it back. Don’t leave it on your table of where you were using it.

This saves a huge amount of time.

#5 Keep flat surfaces clear.

This one is the hardest. The struggle is real. This type of surface usually takes up a large area of a room like kitchen countertops, dining room tables, beds.

So when you get them cleaned off and organized the rooms they are in will look so much better.

#6 Use a timer.

Sounds silly but it works. When you set a specific amount of time to get something done, you are optimizing your time because psychologically you have this need to finish before time’s off.

When you set a timer it lets you know that you only have a small amount of time and it encourages to try and get done as much as you can in that period.

You’d be surprised what can get accomplished In 20 minutes when you set your mind to it.

#7 Make your bed (and every bed).

Seriously, it makes a huge difference. On a crazy day, once I have my bed done if everything goes down, I feel like I did something and that gives me motivation for the rest.

When you make your bed, your room looks neater and it’s a great start.

#8 Avoid bringing new unnecessary stuff into your home.

I mean you can set boundaries of how much can come in, especially when you don’t have much storage space. With kid’s stuff, it needs to be able to be contained to one space, and new stuff in means old stuff out.

Say no to buying things that you don’t need just because it’s on sale. Let’s be honest, the last thing you need is the clutter and this will save you money.

#9 Getting things done is better than perfect.

And I mean it. I’m so perfectionist that I ended up doing nothing because I got stuck in one task until I got it perfect.

At this point you need to optimize your time, so done will be 10 times better than perfect. This doesn’t mean done badly, just don’t focus so much on the details, if it’s aligned or in alphabetical order (yeah! I’m like that), just get it done in a decent way and move on to the next task.

#10 Use downtimes in your advantage.

Some tasks in our days need us to wait. Instead of checking our phones or sitting to check our Facebook, get some quick tasks done like loading the dishwasher, picking up out-of-place items, sweeping the floor, or cleaning the mirror.

You won’t believe how much can be done in those extra minutes.

#11 Stop Procrastinating

Procrastinating is for sure the easiest thing to do, but letting all those chores build-up creates even more resentment when doing them.

So, find the best time weekly or daily to clean and stick to it. Creating a routine will help keep you from procrastinating and maintain a more organized home.

#12 Don’t Hang Onto Garbage

If you throw out those old receipts, boxes, and junk mail immediately after using them, you’ll be able to reduce garbage and stop the buildup of clutter. If some receipts contain items in warranty, the best thing to do is to scan them and save them all in one folder in your computer.

#13 Get everyone at home involved.

If everyone in the household has chores and plays a part in the home organization, everything will be easier for everyone. It’s normal that kids don’t want to do chores but they can definitely get used to it once it becomes a routine.

My girl is never happy when it comes to chores but she does them and it helps a lot.

My Daily Routine to keep my Home Organized.

I wake up at 6 am every morning, start my computer, in the meantime, I make some coffee and check my Instagram and FB.

When Coffee is ready, I sit on my computer, check and reply to emails, reply to FB and IG messages or comments.

Then I either update an old post or start writing a new one. I work until 7:45 am.

I wake my girl up which easily can take about 15 minutes. Once she’s up, I go to the kitchen and make breakfast and prepare a lunch bag.

After breakfast, I go to my bedroom, make my bed, take anything that doesn’t belong to the bedroom and take them away. Then I go to the bathroom, wash my face, do my skincare and make-up routine, get dressed and ready to go. I ask my girl from time to time if she’s ready in order to add some pressure to the process.

When my girl is ready, I help her brush her hair (she still has problems making her own ponytail). Take off to school.

When I come back. I clean the kitchen so it’s ready for lunch. Then I go to my girl’s bedroom and finish tidying up. She’s 10 YO so she makes her bed as good as she can especially because it’s a bunkbed, so I just help a little bit and pick up stuff that might have forgotten.

She’s responsible for having her clothes, toys, and school stuff in the right place but she’s a kid and sometimes something gets off place. I just fishing up details.

Then I go to the living room/dining room and pick up stuff that shouldn’t be there and put them back when they belong. Usually, there’s not much to do (except when I’m photo-shooting styled photos or in the middle of a DIY).

Finally, check bathrooms and entryway for off-placed items.

At this point I spent about 30 minutes, give it or take. If I have errands to run, I go at once. If not I sit on my computer and keep working or resume any project.

About 1 pm I start making lunch (here we eat at 2 pm). My husband does the dishes after lunch while I go pick my girl at school (she has lunch at school). When I go back, I help my girl with any homework she might need help with and go back to my work.

About 5{wish} pm I go to the gym. Once back, I make dinner. Hubby helps with bath time so I can take a bath too or do dishes.

It’s finally time for bed. On a normal day, I’m in bed before 10 pm. But sometimes I need to sit and work a bit extra,

Not every day is the same. Some days I do more or less than others, I give a quick vacuum or do the extra mopping. My husband is usually in charge of taking out the garbage when needed. Twice a week I do laundry.

And once a week we all help clean the house. My girl cleans her bedroom and her bathroom. Hubs clean his office space, kitchen, and vacuum, I dust the apartment, clean our bedroom and bathroom and mop the apartment.

Not sure if I’m forgetting anything but that’s pretty much it. Maintaining it’s always easier than organizing, so what I usually try to do is keep things in the right place, do small things every day and keep things running smoothly.

Of course, there are those days when we just can’t do things and I just accept it and do it the next day or re-schedule things for that specific day or week.

Hope this helps you get a fresh start on your organization process. It’s not that complicated it just takes little extra willpower on your end to start those habits and routines and then things will run smoothly and you’ll keep your home organized.

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