Working for a professional organizer, the two questions I heard most often were “Where do I start?“, and “How do I get my family to help?“. I totally get it. Having a busy family of 5, I know first hand that getting everyone on board can be overwhelming and frustrating. Looking at piles of clutter is no fun either.
Luckily, there’s a few tricks to getting your home organized and keeping it that way.
My Facebook feed is filled with posts from friends who are ditching things that don’t “spark joy”. Marie Kondo has sparked a joy revolution with her book & Netflix show “Tidy Up“, and I love seeing friends getting into the organizing revolution and reducing the clutter in their lives.
But there are a lot of variables when it comes to organizing. Do you have 1 or 5, or more living in your house? Do you have a treasured collection that you want to keep in tack? Are you downsizing in a move? What if you’re already pretty organized, how do you tackle those pesky problem areas?
Having a professional organizer come in an tell you exactly what to do and help you get it done is definitely a great thing, but hiring someone to tackle it for you isn’t feasible for everyone. So, when you’re left with doing it yourself, where do you start?
Identify Your Biggest Problem Area
You know the spot. We all have one. The spot on the kitchen counter when everyone dumps their keys, trash, pens, etc… The corner in the hallway where shoes, backpacks, and sweatshirts end up piled after school. How about the nightstand next to your bed where your spouse dumps out their pockets after work. Every house has a spot that drives you crazy from clutter. Start with that spot and work from there.
Don’t Fight It, Embrace It
Fighting with kids and spouses to pick up clutter is stressful and exhausting, not to mention counter productive. It’s not fun trying to organize your home when you have a tiny army running around behind you undoing what you just did. Stop drooling over those professionally organized spaces on Pinterest and make solutions that work for you family and home.
For our family, our problem spot is the stairs. In our home, everyone tends to toss shoes, backpacks, clean laundry, toys, books, anything and everything that needs to go upstairs but everyone’s too lazy to carry up get put on the bottom 2 or 3 steps. It’s unsightly and annoying.
I struggled to get my family to stop dumping things on the stairs until one day my other sister, Mary gave me a step basket. She was decluttering and had a unique basket she didn’t use and thought I might like. Boy was she right!
This was the first time I fully understood what it meant to embrace my families clutter routine. I put the basket on the second & third step and voila! Clutter contained. Now, when the basket gets full, I task one of the kids with carrying it upstairs. We dump it out, and sort through it, having each person collect what’s theirs.
Containers, Totes, and Baskets
There are thousands of different styles of containers, totes, and baskets. You can find bins of every shape, size, and color that will fit any organizing or storage need. There is an entire store dedicated to nothing but containers, so how do you pick what’s best for your needs?
It really doesn’t matter where your containers are from. Choose containers that fit your needs. Do you need a step up basket? How about a container with a lid? Are you using it somewhere visible like shelf? Maybe you want a basket that matches your decor instead of a tote for the garage or closet. Pins & Procrastination has some really great examples. Whatever you choose, shop around. Our favorite place to get totes and bins is the dollar store. They always have great small bins for organizing drawers and cabinets, or small totes for inside closets.
Love Currency
I once heard a family relationship counselor on a talk radio show talk about “Love Currency”. At the time I thought it sounded pretty silly, but since having 3 kids I’ve come to fully understand the theory. Basically, the theory says everyone has their own needs for for love. For example, some people need to hear the words “I love you”, some just need your time and attention to feel loved, others may need a home cooked meal. Whatever it is, each person has their own love currency. As parents, we tend to learn quickly what each of our children’s love currency is.
What does love currency have to do with organizing? Well, now is your chance to cash in! Want to get your family on board with your new organizing goals? Hit them with love!
For example, when my youngest son picks up dumped loose items in the family room for me, I say “Wow William! Thank you for picking all that up for me. That save me a ton of time. How about I throw in a batch of fresh baked cookies?” (15 year old boys respond well to food lol). But with my oldest son, me boasting to grandma over the phone about how much he helped me – all while he’s in earshot – is reward enough.
Whatever your family views as their love currency, just remember, keeping it positive will go a long way. Don’t complain about them not helping, instead praise them when they do (even if you have to ask). Very quickly you will see they will follow suit.
As the old saying goes, “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.”