I'm not sure I have any great organizing tips, so to speak, but I can tell you a little bit about my recent experience. I have spent the better part of the last two years (in my spare time) updating my house in preparation to sell it next spring (painting, fixing up....the list is a mile long frankly). Organizing isn't too difficult if you don't have that much to organize. I'm still in shock over the amount of "stuff" I had accumulated over the years and there's no way I wanted to move all of it to a new place. I've had garage sales, given stuff away, repurposed things, etc. You just have to take a long, hard look at what you have and decide what you need and don't need. Once gone, it's obviously easier to organize what you have left.
The 15 minute a day clean-up idea is one I've used for a long time. As the previous poster said, it's amazing what you can do in 15 minutes. When my kids were young, we would do this once every few days -- me, husband and two daughters. Fifteen minutes with the four of us gave us an hour's' worth of picking up and cleaning. And it was not a hardship on any one of us.
I also live by the rule of never leaving a room without something in your hands. If your shoes are in the living room and you're headed to the bedroom, pick 'em up and take them with you.
I did repurpose a shoe holder into a tool holder, which I thought was a pretty ingenious idea. It's one of those shoe holders that's a rectangular piece of some kind of fabric with pockets on it. I hung it in my garage and I keep all my small yardwork tools in it, as well as my garden gloves and my old shoes that I wear for working in the yard.
I also repurposed another shoe holder (what is it with me and shoe holders?
) that I keep in the basement to hold my paintbrushers, rollers, painter's tape, paint stirs, etc.).
After I redid my kitchen, I reused some of the old kitchen cabinets. I put a couple in the basement to hold laundry supplies, and I have several in the garage -- one for car cleaning supplies, one for pool supplies, and another for yard stuff (the stuff that doesn't go in the previously mentioned shoe holder).
The major reorganizing project I did during my house renovation was to install closet organizers in all of the bedroom closets. I bought Rubbermaid closet organizers (at Lowe's, I think), and I sprang for a couple of the "extras" like pants hanger and baskets. I love my closets and it's made a world of difference. (I don't have any shoe holders left though, so my shoes are tossed on the floor of my closet. ha!)
A lot about organizing is really about lifestyle. You just need to determine what works for you. I am not an advocate for buying expensive containers at someplace like The Container Store when a cheap container from
WalMart will work just the same. (Don't get me wrong -- I love The Container Store.) But, there are a lot of great organizing/container tools out there and they do make a difference.
Sorry this was so long. Good luck to you.
Debbie
