5 Ways To Keep Your Home Tidy
Do you wonder how some people have clean and organized homes? This post will show you how to keep your home tidy and clutter-free with five easy-to-execute solutions.
Picture this: Shoes and backpacks lying on the floor; keys, papers, and pens scattered over the kitchen counters; electronics on the coffee table; and a purse (or two?) sitting on your comfy reading chair. You get the idea, and it’s a hot mess! All of it is making your home look cluttered.
Before you run and hide, let me tell you that there is an easy fix for that. All you have to do is, go back to basics and apply the most important principle of organization, which is defining zones. Today, I am sharing with you five clearly defined zones that help keep our home tidy and the clutter at bay.
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1. Create (or improvise) a mudroom
When you designate a space in your home where you can keep shoes, backpacks, purses, coats, sweatshirts, and the like, I can assure you that half of your clutter problem is solved.
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If you don’t have a mudroom, you can create one. You don’t need tons of space as long as you use it wisely. I improvised a mudroom inside of a closet we have under the staircase.
I placed a 6-hook over the door rack where I hang my purse and our son’s backpack; a coat hanger on the wall where we hang sweaters and occasional bags; and an old bookcase where we store our shoes on the bottom shelf.
2. Create a Docking and Charging Station
Nothing makes a countertop look more cluttered than a web of wires and electronics. Today, we have many electronic gadgets that sure make our life easier, but if we do not designate a space where to keep them where not in use, they can easily take over our home.
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You can transform a kitchen drawer into a charging station, use an actual charging station like this one, use a mail organizer, or you can even DIY one like fellow blogger Kris at Driven By Decor did, which is my personal favorite!
We currently use a simple wood desktop organizer with drawers where we keep iPads, cell phones, and loose items (mostly those screws that hubby brings from work) and all the family knows where to find their electronics and where to put them back to charge when not in use.
3. Have a Catchall Basket
Having a catchall basket is a great idea to help you keep your home tidy. You know me and how much I love my baskets! Place a basket in a strategic area in your home and drop in things that need to be put away at a later time.
Better yet, have a basket or bucket for each family member. I love this arrangement of buckets from Emily at ReMarkable Home, make sure to check them out.
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A catchall basket is especially useful when you live in a two-story home. Place it at the bottom of the staircase and let the basket catch all those loose items you might find throughout the house that need to go back upstairs. Whenever you are making a trip upstairs, distribute the items to the rooms they belong to. In our home, we love our Kouboo stair basket.
4. Have an Organized Junk Drawer
The junk drawer is the number one drawer where everyone checks for batteries, sticky notes, a pen or a flashlight. They are definitely a must-have in any household.
My junk drawer was a total disaster, and the day I decided to de-junk it, I turned the most useless drawer in the house into one of my favorite ‘zones’ … ever!. Because it is organized, finally!
Decide on the things you would like to keep in the junk drawer and define zones for each one of those items. I guarantee you that you will never have to go on what it feels like a scavenger hunt when looking for something inside of it.
At home, we use this expandable drawer organizer made out of bamboo. I love it! Each compartment helps us define zones, and when everything has a place, it is easy to find and easy to put away. Success!
Our junk drawer keeps sticky notes, pencils, pens, markers, crayons, erasers, stamps, flashlights, etc. But, the one essential item that it holds is my car and my house keys. I made it a habit (even before we had this super-organized drawer) to place them in their little square compartment every time we come back home. For some people, a key holder inside the garage or a small bowl by the front door works well too. For us, this is just perfect.
5. Create a Communication Center
I have left for last the famous family command center. Oh, I love them so much I have a dedicated Pinterest board for them!
In a family command center, you can have a bulletin board (magnetic/dry erase, chalkboard, or cork board) that can be seen and accessed by all family members. This corkboard is the place where a family can communicate by writing messages, posting schedules, essential notes that need attention, and the like.
You can also add helpful items to a command center, are calendars and mail sorters. Sometimes, when space permits, a desk and a chair convert the command center into a semi-home office where you can pay bills, stamp letters, and work on your computer. It can double as a charging station too!
At home, we have a corkboard that hangs on the front of the mudroom/coat closet door. We display a school calendar, notes of things we need to address (school or home related), the occasional card or thank you note we receive in the mail and any current paper that our son brings home from school, the type of notes that make you proud! 🙂
It sounds like a lot, but we try to keep the paper clutter to the bare minimum, and once something has been addressed or has expired, we take it off the board.
And now you know. The secret to keeping a home tidy resides in one simple principle: zone definition. Once you learn to do that, you will keep clutter at bay.