The House is Organized, but How Do I Keep it This Way?

Often times keeping your home organized once you get it organized is the most challenging part. Get your family on board and it will be a less painful process. You can’t expect your family to jump right on board because changes take some time to get used to. Don’t become a nag but gentle reminders will help everyone get into the swing of things.

The easiest way to get things in order and running smoothly is a daily routine. Routines are the best and easiest way to keep things running smoothly. Maintenance is key to making a system work for you and your family. Let’s look at some ways to get the family involved.

Charts may seem boring and bothersome to create but they are pretty simple and the easiest way to let everyone know their responsibilities. Create the chart showing all rooms in the house and all the family members. Assign a specific room/area to each family member and let them know they are responsible for picking that area up on a daily basis. This will help keep areas de-cluttered. Provide a box (or a basket) for reach room and items that don’t belong there can be placed in the box. Make a designated meeting area and once everyone is done picking up meet in the area designated and now go through everything and have everyone place items in the proper rooms.

For those of you that have a home with more than one floor you know how tiresome it can get running up and down stairs all down putting things away. To help solve this problem, keep a box at the top and bottom of the stairs (make sure you put them in a safe place that is out of the way of the stairs) where items can be placed if they belong in another area of the home. Once the box is full or at the end of the day you can now take the box and return items to their correct places.

Don’t think that because your kids are little that they can’t help. Even the youngest family members can be brought on board to help. Label things, even if only in the beginning, and this will help remind everyone where things go. If your children are too young to read use pictures and tape them to drawers, etc to teach the children where things belong.

Clothes pile up at a rapid pace so it’s imperative that you keep up on this and teach your family to stay on top of this as well. It’s actually pretty simple. Designate a place for dirty laundry and either label the baskets or use colored baskets. You’ll need one for whites, one for darks and one for colors. As soon as a basket is filled up, it’s time to do the wash.

Once you’ve decided on a system that will work for your family it’s important that you remain consistent. It’s going to be something that requires a daily effort from every family member. Everyone needs to make sure they keep up on their designated area each day so that things are being put away and returned to their proper homes.