Excited for the clean home you’re about to get but don’t know where to start? Together with Rain City Maids, we have given you the best organizing tips that you will need for your house! Say goodbye to those piles and stacks of clutter!

Follow these steps and bring back order to your home:

Declutter #1: Storage Areas

• Drawers
• Closets
• Basement/attic
• Garage

When we say storage areas or spaces, we mean your junk drawers and other storage items. It’s best if you start with the smaller parts of your home before you handle the big guns. Also, since you’re decluttering, 80% of the things you’ll be organizing will be the smaller items that you have.

You should also know by now that your stash places are where you find A LOT of stuff you may have forgotten about. So when you find “lost” clothes, books, utensils, or appliances, you’ll then place them together with the other similar items. It’s just like unloading your groceries. You’ll have to make space for them before you put them away with everything in your fridge or shelves.

So start with the spaces you can complete with ease. You can begin with your drawers, then to your closets, next to your basement/attic, and finally, your garage. Of course, if it is wintertime, you may want to wait on the garage cleanup till the weather is a little warmer. Take one corner to another, or one box before another. You should also consider labeling your boxes or plastic storage bins so that you’ll know where everything is the next time you think about reorganizing.

Declutter #2: Shared Areas

• Entryway
• Living Room
• Kitchen
• Dining Room
• Bathrooms

You’ll notice that these are the areas you share with other people. Although, not necessarily at the same time. If you're expecting visitors soon, these are the places they’re most likely to go to, so it’ll be wise to organize them next. You wouldn’t want them to see a living room you can barely “live” in because of the clutter, right?

If you have children, ask them “give you a hand” by letting them pick a space where they’ll store their toys, whether it’s in the living room, or another room, and go with their decision. If you ask for their opinion on the “redecorating” and stick with it, they’ll have a sense of ownership over the task. Plus they may have ideas for organizing their toys, books, and games. Having them work with you is better than them, working against you.

Declutter #3: Private Areas

• Closet
• Bedroom
• Workplace/home office/“man cave”

Now that you’re done with the more public areas in your house, next comes those private spaces. These areas should be next to the last things you’ll do because you’ll need a little more time to assess the things you have here,  stuff like sock hunting or looking at papers and deciding which things need to be thrown out or kept.

It’s also no secret that these areas can get quite chaotic, especially if they haven’t been organized in a while. Unlike in your kitchen where you can easily organize utensils, these areas will have more items that need to be carefully sorted out.

Since these areas will be time-consuming, we would suggest that you organize them on the weekend. Make sure you organize your closet first before your bedroom because closets like cabinets can be chaotic.  

Declutter #4: You’re almost done!

Whatever’s left after the above declutter tips will obviously be your final areas to accomplish. Those could be your laundry room, guest rooms, stock/utility rooms, or other small spaces in your home. You can also find a professional organizer for some tips.

If you have extra closet space, you could also consider having an extra linen closet for either all the bathroom stuff or all the linens needed in the bedrooms.  If you just have one closet to use for a linen closet, then you will need to organize it for your towels, toiletries, extra bedding, Organizing it is not easy but here are some more tips. Moreover, if you’ll be having guests soon, having a linen closet will help them know where to look for everything they might need.

A little more organizing tips for you.

Now that you know how to begin to  organize your home, here are some organizing tips that may come in handy:

1. Take one step at a time - clear one shelf after another, one drawer after the other. You don’t have to do everything at once.
2. Take your time - Don’t rush!   You can’t organize your home in one day. Clutter accumulates over time, so you must also tackle that problem gradually.
3. Have a schedule - Having a declutter schedule will help you get your home decluttered and organized.
4. Team-work! - Let your family join-in on the cleaning. You don’t have to be a one-man or one-woman team. If you live alone, you could ask a friend or one of the neighborhood kids to help you out. After all that hard work, you can grab a pizza and watch TV.

Organizing doesn’t have to be a chore if you know where to start. Your home is a reflection of you, so if you have a messy house, then it’s time for some change!  Plus once, your home is organized, you will feel so much better about inviting others over for visits or parties. We at Rain City Maids want you to have a well-organized home, and we wish you a very  Happy New Year!