It’s no secret that I like to organize. I love bins, trays, and everything in between.  I like my pillows in place at the end of the day…not because I am trying to impress anyone, I just like them picked up.  For me, clutter causes stress.  I never quite realized how type A I was until I had kids, go figure.

One thing with organizing that can lead to a lot of frustration are those areas in your house that never stay organized!  Everyone has them, I have them.  Believe me, if you walked into my house today it wouldn’t be on the cover of a magazine and that’s OK.  However, I can take little steps at a time to keep my house organized.

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Finding the Problem

I believe to organize a space and keep it organized, it boils down to one key thing, finding the problem.  Once you have picked an area that you want to organize, ask yourself why it gets messy? In my house, it can be solved by the following 4 answers.

1. The space is not functional (the space does not work or handle what you have intended it for).

2. The space has too much stuff

3. All of the above: The space is both, not functional and has too much stuff

4. The space is functional and decluttered, my little blessings are just not taking care of their stuff

Below I have picked a few spaces in my house.  Now keep in mind, these are not my pretty spaces….but this blog isn’t about being perfect.  So enjoy coming behind closed doors.  Hopefully, looking at all the different spaces will help you identify some problems in your own house and figure out how best to solve them.

Space #1 Homeschool Cabinet

Problem Diagnosed: #1 The space is not functional

I currently follow a homeschool curriculum with my preschooler.  I store everything in the cabinet next to our fireplace.  It is a hard cabinet to keep organized because it has big open shelves.  The problem for this space is that it isn’t functional, I finally took the time to buy a few organizers to help.  By purchasing a few organizers, it allowed me to use the shelves in the way I intended and at the same time keep things organized.

I bought two organizers, a stackable paper try like THIS and I found a three drawer organizer at Aldi.  Instantly, it provided the organization that the space needed. I know a space is functional when I organize it and it stays organized.  The key word is stays organized.  If something continues to stay organized as you use it, it means that the space is functioning in the way that you need.  One space down, more to go.

Space #2 Basement

Problem Diagnosed: #4 The space is organized and decluttered, my little blessing are just not taking care of their stuff

This space is very hard to keep organized (excuse the spackle everywhere…the basement is still in process).  I have to laugh because as I was uploading this picture, my youngest looked at it and says, “that’s a mess.”  Yeah, I’m aware.  However, when I look at the problem, I have to pin it under #4.  I know this because every toy has a spot in a bin or a place on a shelf. 

My continued goal is to always try to sort through and get rid of as many toys as possible; this helps to limit the problem, but it doesn’t solve it.  Hence, my last post on chore sticks.  Click Here to check it out.  We have began having our kids do consistent chores to help remedy this problem.

Anyways, I showed this mess because throwing more bins at a problem doesn’t always solve it.  Identifying the problem is so important if you really want your house to stay organized.  In this case, we did a quick pick up and the space is back to being organized and functional.

Side note, sorting through toys is an important step right now since Christmas is coming up.  Every October I try to clear out space for new toys in December.  I sell any toys I can and throw the money into my Christmas fund.  Less toys and more money, double win. 

Space #3 Front Closet

Problem Diagnosed: #3 All of the above, the space is both not functional and has too much stuff

Ok, prepare yourself and don’t judge.  My front closet is a disaster.

The problem is #3,  it is not functional and it has too much stuff!  Decluttering is the easy part, adding function can be tricky.  It can be difficult to figure out what you need to make a space function.  With a wide open coat closet, it is hard to make the most of all the space.  You need room to hang long coats, but in our case it also doubles as a broom closet.   If you saw my previous post, we took our broom closet/pantry space out when we renovated our mudroom.  If you missed creating a mudroom, click Here to check it out.

To start, I emptied the entire closet.  It had collected several things that could be thrown away.  I also sorted through our play dough, and the additional bins up top.  It actually surprised me, the further I decluttered…the more I realized that it bordered on solution number 2.  I actually had several bins and shelves already in place, it had just collected too much stuff.

I still think the closet lacks function, but it is not anything that can be easily fixed.  In the future, we may want to totally recreate the closet space to make it function perfectly for our needs.  For now, the bins and shelves allow the space to manage.

Space #4 Storage Room

Problem Diagnosed #2: The space has too much stuff

The wonderful storage room.  This is a space that somehow becomes a gathering place for all those things we want to hang onto.  It does serve a purpose and is very helpful for all those seasonal items, and camping equipment, ski’s and the list goes on. However, keeping a storage room decluttered is hard work as you can see from the pictures below.

I grabbed a couple of garbage bags and starting going through everything.  I tend to sort through clutter by putting them into four categories: keep, donate, sell and trash.  Honestly, I don’t fall on the very sensitive side…so I would rather donate or trash most things.  Almost to a fault, I have tried to keep “special” papers for my kids….but now they are overflowing in a huge brown box.  I guess I found my next project.

UPDATE: I organized my kids school papers!  CHECK IT OUT HERE!

I actually even took the time to remove stickers and permanent marker from some of my bins.  Did you know that Goo Gone can take permanent marker off of plastic?  It worked great.

It takes time to sort through everything…but at the end, when you can see the storage room floor it will be worth it.  My husband and I also made a couple hundred dollars selling things!  Decluttered and more money, doesn’t get better than that.

My craft desk may need a makeover someday, but for now I have a clear space to work.

I truly believe an organized house helps you save time and energy in the long run.  I hope this inspires you to tackle a problem space in your own home.  Have fun organizing!  Thanks for checking out my post!