4 Organization Maintenance Tips from a Pro Organizer
“Life organization ain’t a track meet, it’s a marathon”.
- Ice Cube, and me.
First things first, answer these questions, dw I’ll wait:
Why do I care if my house is organized?
How will it feel when my house is organized & tidy?
How does disorganization affect me, my family?
Getting super clear on how you want your space to feel on the daily and why staying organized is so important to you, is going to log the end goal in your brain and thus reinforce these habits. Visualization works! Imagine your space clutter-free, walkways flowing easily, and every item having a home.
Staying on top of your space takes effort. Daily effort. But the good news is because it’s a daily effort, it need only be 15 minutes a day. That’s 1/4 the time of a standard Netflix series episode.
These are my favourite, tried & true tips for keeping an organized space.
Timer tidying.
This one works so well for us. At the end of the day before bed, we try to do a “10-second Tidy” (S/O Big Comfy Couch). We set a timer for about 15 minutes and we both go to town returning things to their homes, wiping the counters, finishing up dishes, sweeping the floors, and folding/rehanging clothes.
Sometimes we don’t get it all done and that’s okay. The goal is to get as much done as possible within a set timeframe and then quit when the buzzer goes. With this method, you know there’s a set end which mentally feels more manageable than a nebulous “let’s tidy up”. The timer method adds a competitive aspect, so if someone in your family doesn’t thrive off timed pressure, don’t force it.
2. The 1-minute rule.
Another system I’ve put into practice is the 1-minute rule (wow can you tell I thrive off time-based actions?) If it takes a minute or less, I do my best to do it right then and there. Putting away my coat and shoes as soon as I walk in the door, putting the dishes in the dishwasher right after a meal, wiping up a splash mountain water spill after I’ve washed my face. They all take about a minute, so the logical thought is that it’s pretty much always manageable.
When we think about the REVERSE of not doing these tiny tasks however, things inevitably end up in a giant mess really fast. By the end of the day, these little things can start to feel overwhelming alongside the general cooking, cleaning, laundry routines.
Moral of the story, take the minute to do the thing!
3. One of these things just doesn’t belong
Before you leave a room in your house, look for something that doesn’t belong there. If you’re getting up from the couch and there’s an empty wine glass, hand cream, popsicle sticks (all actual things I took from my living room last night) take it with you and replace appropriately. Scan and replace, kinda like the bend and snap…
Doing these quick scans before leaving an area prevents random clutter from piling up and keeps those shared areas of the house (kitchen, living room, dining area) looking and feeling orderly and tidy. Super tip: Teach and model this practice with kids early on.
4. No place like home
Are there items in your house that seem to just float around room to room? Extra shoes that don’t fit in a closet? Mail or receipts that sit on a table? If something doesn’t have a set “home” how can you expect anyone to put it away? First, decide if keeping these things around is necessary.
The next step is to invest in organization product or movable storage solutions. These could be hooks for bags, baskets for shoes, a cube shelving unit with labelled bins for toys – look for ways to assign a home to the floating items in your house and you’ll notice a huge reduction in clutter.
What do all these maintenance tips have in common? They don’t rob from your future self. My husband actually coined this, and I must say I felt like a proud kindergarten teacher watching her student correctly identify all the animals on the chalkboard when he said it. “Staying organized is a gift to your future self”.
So cute. But really, so very insightful and true. What better way to lighten the load on yourself then to tackle small but impactful tasks so they don’t pile up at the end of the day when you’re most exhausted?
Whatever method you choose to maintain organization in your life, make it a daily effort. If you have a partner or there are little people living with you, involve them in the process and communicate why it’s important (“I feel more motivated and more focused when things are tidy, I want to blame and argue less when things are tidy”). The more everyone is on the same page with the why, the easier it’ll be to make it a habit.
Now go load the dishwasher :)
