In this post, I’m sharing 12 tips to maintain organized spaces. Some of these were taught and others were hard learned but these tips help me maintain a space that is guest ready in 5 minutes!
Tidy Up Several Times a Day
This may sound cumbersome but when you build this habit, but this is the key to becoming a naturally tidy person. There are some downsides such as putting things away as soon as you’ve finished with something but others haven’t. Sounds odd, but this can actually happen.
It also doesn’t have to be a long tidy-up. Simply developing the habit of looking across the room for things to take back into another room with you can go a long way. Taking it all the way to its home is where the real power is. For help building this habit check out the 75-Day Tidy Home Challenge!
Use Labels
Our brains can perceive words without any conscious effort, it’s pretty much the same idea as speed reading. By scanning our environment, we convert the text into meaning. This makes labels a powerful tool for tidying up. It also communicates a common organization system to anyone who can read.
Be Critical of Where New Things Will Go
Before you buy something, think about where you will store or place this item. If it doesn’t work, return it promptly. Simply doing these two things can reduce the number of items you acquire significantly.
Add Containers to Bound Things
Giving items a physical boundary helps trigger when it’s time to let things go. It also works for paperwork. If you have a tendency to pile up paperwork, make your boundary smaller to encourage you to follow through more often. Using physical limits is a better cue than any other system.
Respect the Boundaries
You set the limits, now you must hold them. Our priorities might change, which will require a shift in what types of items we keep or how many of each we keep, but it should not change the total volume of the items we keep. You can adjust smaller boundaries within the overall boundary, but you cannot create space without giving up something else of equal size.
Set Realistic Expectations
We’re all busy and a bit distracted. No matter how appealing a system might look, no one has the time to sort Skittles by color into clear containers. Likewise, frequently used items may need to be left visual and mail may need a home inside to be dropped. We’re often carrying loads of groceries when we bring in the mail, so who’s going to go through it first while the milk sits out? No one.
Accept Your Utilization Needs
Everyone has different requirements here. For example, when I’m trying to start a new habit I often leave one thing out where I will see it to prompt my memory. It takes a long time for something new to become a habit so visibility counts. Additionally, you can’t tuck your daily medicine under three other containers in a faraway cabinet. It won’t work for you. You’ll leave them out.
Always consider where you use an item and how frequently you use an item and adjust the space to make utilization realistic. Items in storage forever are not serving you!
Leave Empty Space
It’s almost automatic anymore. If we see a shelf, we’ll fill it to the max. However, pulling a towel out of a crammed stack is annoying and leaves all the towels disheveled. Leave space to pull items out and put items away. Even a bit more doesn’t hurt. Just because you have the space, doesn’t mean you have to fill it.
Don’t Buy in Bulk if You Don’t Have Bulk Storage
This may seem obvious, but many people will buy so many consumable but non-perishable supplies that they will last more than a year. This is just not responsible if you do not have the space. The amount people spend on a sale will often be more expensive in the long run because they will lose it or have to get rid of it for the space. Be territorial of your space and don’t let those marketers cause you to overspend and overstock!
Finish the Entire Laundry Process
It’s amazing how many people act as if putting laundry into their closets or dressers is not part of doing the laundry. The laundry stays in piles or in laundry baskets, never to rest in their homes. It isn’t just washing and drying. Finish the task completely.
If you can’t, you have too much stuff. It takes mere minutes to put laundry away. You don’t even have to fold and hang it all, but it does need to end up in a drawer or a closet.
Finish the Entire “Doing the Dishes” Process
Dishes also need to be put away. Even if you insist on letting them air dry, put them away the next morning. However, drying dishes isn’t so bad. Put the dishes away. All the way.
Put a Stop to Stuff-Shuffling
This one is so insidious, we typically don’t know how it even happened. How much of your garage is full of items you already decided to donate/sell? Did you mean to load your car and then something was set on top and now it’s all mixed?
This happens all the time. By not finishing the process of getting things out of our house, we create a clutter-catching spot where all avoided decisions end up and when you next look through it you’re angry at yourself or others for mixing your piles!
Stop avoiding making a final decision and making maybe piles all over. Make a final decision to get rid of it and then load your car, or leave it where it was. Moving things to other places only makes it worse.
Did I miss anything? Add any of your maintenance tips to the comments below.