Start Your 10-Step Home Organization Challenge

If you’re like most people at this time of year, the clutter from summer is building up, and the battle has turned against you. Fall is a great time to take back control of your home, get organized, and simplify your life.

In just ten steps, you can have a clean, organized, clutter-free home by tackling one area at a time. Do one step per day, one per week, or whatever works best for you. The order you tackle things is not important. Just make sure you finish any step you start, so that it doesn’t become another burden. Pick the step based on the amount of time you can devote to it.

Step 1:

Paperwork Gather all those loose papers around your home in one place. Sort it. Stack it. File it. Scan it. Recycle it. This is often the hardest step in the home organization process. Knock this out first and you’ll feel confident about succeeding with the rest of your house.

Step 2:

Kitchen Nothing here is off limits. Clear out the fridge, the freezer, all the drawers and cabinets, the counter, and any display cases or mobile carts. Consider if any old dishes that need to go, and if there’s a better way to arrange your stuff. Then pack it all back in.

Step 3:

Laundry and Mud Room Consolidate open containers that have the same product. Assess any items or half-finished projects you’ve tossed in these areas to ‘deal with later.’ This is the day you will deal with them. Place products you use the most in easyto-reach areas. Storage baskets can be quite helpful to prevent the room from devolving into chaos again.

Step 4:

Bathrooms Look critically in the cabinets under the sink, drawers, and shelves, and make a plan to use these spaces more effectively. Look for unnecessary duplicates. Again, storage baskets, bins, and drawer dividers can be very helpful. Some items may go better in the laundry room.

Step 5:

Closets Sometimes it’s just easier to toss things into a nearby closet, just to get it out of sight. Whether it’s a linen closet, hall closet, coat closet, storage closet or whatever closet - pull everything out and sort all the items. Some can be given, donated, tossed, or placed in a better location. If it goes back into your closet – make sure there’s a good reason for it to be there, and not just another round of getting it out of sight.

Step 6:

Primary Bedroom What’s on top of your dresser? Is your closet a horror show or a pleasant, functional room where everything has a place? Can you actually see your nightstand, or are you operating on the theory that it’s probably still there somewhere? This is a process of deciding what you need, what you don’t, and where everything needs to go. There are fewer thrills better than retiring to a clean, organized bedroom, truly!

Step 7:

Other Bedrooms Depending on your kids’ ages, this can be a touchy subject. With younger kids you can still have a good deal of say. But as they get older (teenagers – I’m looking at you!) this can be very tricky. There are volumes written about how to handle teenagers and their room. All I can say is: do your best, and good luck!

Step 8:

Family Room/Rec Room You may need to get some shelving for this room if you don’t have any now. Games, books, toys, musical instruments – all sorts of things could be in this room. Assess how this room gets used, and figure out what needs to go where so everyone can enjoy it.

Step 9:

Other Spaces Figure out which room needs to be tackled first. Is it your home office? Media room? Project room? Storage room? Garage? By now you know the drill – pull everything out, assess what you can give away, donate, toss, recycle, etc. Use shelves, boxes, carts, and other organizers to make sure that things will stay in order.

Step 10:

And…That Other Thing Even after going through all the rooms, there’s probably some other item you weren’t able to deal with. Sorting old photos, boxes from your last move, stuff your parents or friends gave you to store at your house or ‘thought you might need.’ It could be anything – but if there’s an item or challenge that didn’t get covered by this point, make that your final step. Good luck and let us know how your project worked out!

Always Looking for New Ways to Help Kids

No one has figured everything out when it comes to helping kids who have been abused, neglected, or born into challenging situations. That’s why Childhaven is always trying out new ideas and methods from research and the experiences of other organizations.

One recent effort came from the Frontiers of Innovation, a research grant that allowed Childhaven to partner with Harvard, Berkeley, and UW. The research explored how to help kids get more out of educational games. Most games require skills like taking turns, solving problems, waiting, and listening. These skills are harder to learn when a child isn’t emotionally stable, or struggles to focus.

Childhaven used this research partnership opportunity to introduce mindfulness exercises that should help kids get more out of the learning games they were already using. For example, they had kids lift and lower a parachute, and talked about how breathing is like what you see the parachute doing as it rises and falls.

These sorts of activities help kids become more aware of how their bodies and minds work, and make it a little easier for them to focus on solving problems, staying calm, and following directions.

The difference Childhaven makes in the lives of so many kids is simply amazing, and we are happy to donate a portion of the profits from every home we sell to their organization. Their annual Gala takes place Saturday, October 14th. I already sponsored two tables and would love to have you as my guest. If you can join us, please let me know ASAP. And if you can’t come, consider making a donation to this amazing organization, thanks!