Ten Ways to Organize Your Home For The New Year

The new year brings forth new ideas and resolutions, some of which we keep and others we discard. Many people want to lose weight, get healthier, stop smoking or save more money.

One of the most profound resolutions many parents choose is to become more organized over the next twelve months. We have compiled a list of our top ten tips for organizing the family home during the new year, and think these quick tips and tricks will help you declutter both your home and mind.

Start small by cleaning off horizontal spaces. Just the sight of seeing a clean shelf or kitchen counter gives you motivation to do more. Making sure your first few organizational tasks involve decluttering areas that are visible — it will help you make more of an impact and help continue the jobs throughout your entire space.

Play the 12-12-12 game. Grab your spouse, girlfriends and the kids and get to tackling those unwanted items around the house by playing the 12-12-12 game. Locate 12 items to get rid of that you don’t want or need, choose 12 items to donate to a local family or charity, and select 12 items that should return to their proper “home” within your home. The more you play, the more fun the game gets!

Schedule a date with Charity! Give yourself a time frame by setting a date with a local charity to do a “home pick up.” Having a date set in stone will give you motivation to complete the job by the deadline you’ve set, and will also help get rid of the collected bags and boxes of unwanted items.

Put those Cords out of Sight. Charging cords, computer cords, and plug in’s are all ugly and annoying. Get rid of those eyesores by bunching and clipping them together with clothes pins or Washi Tape labels.

Divide and Conquer the plastic bag collection. My husband takes his lunch daily in those grocery store plastic bags, so we have an overabundance of them in our kitchen cabinets. Convert an empty baby wipes container into a decorated cylinder that can help you grab one of those bags in a quick pinch without having them overtake your kitchen.

Create Cubbies. If that coat closet by the door has been overrun with jackets that no one wears and a slew of photo boxes from 10 years ago, it’s a great time to clean it out and add some functional cubbies. Use a hanging canvas shoe organizer to create quick cubby spots for gloves, hats and outdoor items you need quickly. Assigning each family member his or her own spot also allows for personalization and fewer issues with losing those needed items.

Sift through the paper clutter. A home’s number one enemy, paper clutter adds up before you ever realize it. This is the time to get rid of old bills and organize that planner you have. Set up a file folder that contains the essentials, and get rid of the rest. You don’t need old newspapers and magazines from 1997 anymore, so dispose of the old cluttering papers. Turning some of your reading into digital items will, over time, help reduce the paper struggle you deal with throughout the entire year.

Categories isn’t just a board game! Sort your children’s beloved puzzles and games by putting each into a Tupperware box and labeling all according pieces with a number. When it comes time for quick pickup, just look at each piece’s listed number written on the back and put in the corresponding labeled box. This can help reduce the hours of matching games together to stow away.

Tidy up that garage. It’s one of the hardest places to start to organize in the home, but the garage can be a place where all your “don’t wants” can turn up. Toss the things you don’t use anymore and create a container for rakes and yard work items by putting up a broom holder on the garage wall and hanging those items out of the way. Hanging items can give more space to an area and may motivate your gardening sense come spring.

#10

Replace those bulbs. One of the easiest and most cost-efficient ways to organize your home is to replace light bulbs. By removing old bulbs and replacing with LED bulbs you could see a change in energy that would last almost the next 10 years. This is a great way to start revamping your home for the new year and promoting an energy-efficient change. LED bulbs also last an awesome 20,000 to 50,000 hours between changes, so this could get you through the entire year!

Organizing the family home can sound defeating when taking on the entire task at once. Motivate yourself and enlist those in your home to help by using the above tips, and you can be on top of your resolutions this year!

Lacey Noland is called many names: Mama from her 3-year-old twin daughters, “Duchess” from her husband, Coach and “Lou” as nicknamed by her sisters. From Ocean Springs, Mississippi, she is a freelance writer and also has a parenting-themed blog, “Lou Times Two.” In her spare time, she loves baseball games, painting, decorating, and spending time at the beach.