Small home organization 101
I know you have mentioned your family is living in a small home so I am thinking you are used to having little storage as I am. :) I am presently trying to declutter and organize but I am finding it challenging without having to buy tons of containers and organizers. Do you have any ideas for organizing using items you already have in the home or items that can be purchased very inexpensively (with a minimum budget)? Thank you kindly. Blessings, LynI can't say I'm some organizing guru by any stretch of the imagination, but after three and a half years of living in small spaces, here are some things I've learned:
1) Declutter, declutter, declutter, I repeat, declutter - We all have more stuff than we need. My mantra: If you don't love it and use it, get rid of it. Stick to the basic essentials. It will make it much easier to clean, much easier to organize, much easier to live. One of the major advantages to living in a small space is that you can't have very much stuff. The more space you have, the easier it is to accumulate. So, small homes force me to keep things pared down!
2) Break the rules, sometimes - Just because a cupboard is in the bathrook doesn't mean you must only store bathroom items in it. One of our bathroom shelves houses extra kitchen items and cloth napkins. Another of our bathroom cupboards is designated for extra paper products - plates, napkins, plasticware, etc. Our bedroom closet is home to much more than clothes and shoes (As a side note: we keep our shoes in the orginal boxes. I've done this for years and got Jesse hooked on it, too! It keeps things much more organized, we can stack the boxes, and each pair of show has a specific home. Plus, I've found it tends to prolong the life of the shoe.) - it also has all my violin paraphernalia (minus all my sheet music which I store in a file cabinet), craft and sewing supplies, suitcases, special heirlooms, and more. Go through your home and determine where your extra space is and then designate items needing space to have their place there - no matter where it is. (Obviously, you can't just designate a spot, you also have to train yourself to put the item back in the spot after you use it, but designating a spot usually goes a long way for me to actually putting it back!).
3) Think high and low - Clean out of extra storage space? What about storing certain items on the tops of bookshelves, or the tops of your kitchen cupboards, if you have space there. What about under the hang-up clothes in your closet, under your dresser, or under your bed? We store vintage dishes passed down from my grandmothers on the tops of our kitchen cupboards, utilize every inch of space under our hang up closes in our closet, and we even have a number of items with designated spots under our bed!
4) Hang up your clothes - I've found that it takes much less space to hang up clothes than to store them in drawers. By doing so, we can get by with only one dresser for all of us. Plus, the clothes stay less wrinkled.
That's just a small start - there's so much which could be said on this subject. Would others like to share what has worked for them?
Related: You might enjoy reading a few thoughts I wrote a while back on Attacking the Clutter Monster.
posted by Crystal Paine at 2:15 PM
7 Comments:
Two sayings that have helped me immensely, both from Flylady.net:
"You can't organize clutter - you can only get rid of it!" The less stuff you have, the easier it is to keep your home clean and organized.
"Your home didn't get messy overnight - it's not going to get clean in a day!" Take it a bit at a time. Don't get overwhelmed by the huge decluttering and organizing task ahead of you. ANYTHING you can accomplish, even for a few minutes, is more helpful than accomplishing nothing.
Also, the idea of having a "home" for everything is something my husband and I have to remind each other all the time - if an object doesn't have a "home" to be put away in, it will stay out. If everything you own has a home, it's easy to pick up.
I concur on the idea of everything having a "home"! I've tried to keep the rule for myself that, no matter how on-sale or "perfect" an item is for my house, I won't buy it if it won't have a clear purpose and place to go.
It IS hard to store things without having some furniture or shelving or containers to put them in. Crystal already mentioned storing things under the bed...they do make plastic containers specifically for that purpose. Wicker, such as a wicker chest, is a relatively inexpensive type of storage piece. My kitchen doesn't have sufficient storage, so I've lined the top of my fridge with baskets to store things in.
Crystal's right about finding unique uses for spaces. We don't have an entertainment cabinet in our living room, so I am using a dresser we picked up off the side of the road (I prettied it up by painting it to match the room:o) Those drawers are perfect for DVDs, games, and various electronic gear. If you find that you do need some type of storage furniture / etc, look for deals on used pieces that can be transformed!
Oh...and sometimes you can find great deals on new furniture at Hobby Lobby. They put it on sale for 1/3 - 1/2 off on a regular basis. This week, I bought a tall wood storage unit, complete with three drawers and three large pull-out baskets, for $78. The piece was originally $230!
Sorry for going on so long...but this is a topic I've recently been thinking a lot about as I've been reorganizing my own home:o)
All our furniture didn't fit in our bedroom so we moved our chest of drawers into our closet. It slid underneath the rod, and we didn't need as much hanging space as we did folding space. And once I moved one of our book shelves into the dining room we had more room in the family room where we needed it more. Sometimes it takes a little creativity to realize that things don't HAVE to have a certain one and only spot where they can go. And I would TOTALLY ditto the declutter thing. Oh how that has made SUCH a difference for me!
I really appreciate this post. We live in a small home that happens to be a parsonage as well. We cannot make any major changes, so I am always looking for useful ways to organize our home. Thank you very much for sharing!
His,
Mrs. U
We have a four-poster bed that is the old-fashioned sort. It is high-up to begin with (it came with two little steps, in fact!). Anyway, we put small wheels on each of the four poster bottoms so that we could move it easily. Needless to say, this made the bed even taller and left even more room under the bed for storage. You could probably do this with all of the beds in your home too, as long as those sleeping in them can still climb up into them!
:)
Erin is right about hobby lobby. We bought a large armoir from there for approx $200-it was orininally $800. They also have super cute trunks that you could stack smaller on larger and have tons of storage-get them when they're 1/2 off and its a great price!
Hello! I couldn't agree more with your post. I love to organize and have plenty of tips to help and encouragement to offer on my blog...afterall I am an Organizing Junkie.
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