Organizing Your Home 101

This is one of my favorite topics!!!  I was so excited to discuss home organization at today's Stewardship Group.  The key to organization is being prepared with enough time, the correct supplies and plenty of patience and endurance to complete the task.  Over the years, I have read a lot of books on the subject of time management and home organization.  The common thread is to declutter your belongings enough that they will fit into the alloted space.  This is not always an easy task when you are working in small spaces.  We talked about the Fly Lady last week when we discussed cleaning, and I must say that through the years, she has assisted me in paring down my belongings.

One of my favorite books on the topic of decluttering and organization is One Year to an Organized Life by Regina Leeds.  This book breaks the task of home organization down by looking at a different area or project for each month of the year, and it is very specific on the steps and time that will be needed each month.  If you are a beginner to home organization, I highly recommend this book.  I also love all of the books by Julie Morgenstern on organization and the companion topic of time management.  My favorite is Organizing from the Inside Out.

We shared tips for each area of your home this morning during our discussion.  Here are some of my favorite organizational tips that I have picked up over the years and a few other wonderful ideas that were shared this morning:

*  Plastic rectangular ice buckets are a wonderful way to store plasticware lids.  Turn the bucket on it's side, and you have easy visual access to the contents.

*   Use plastic storage units to store everything from laundry supplies in your utility room cabinets to spare toiletry items under your bathroom sink.  Group like items in each tub.  You'll never have to pull out 1000 items to get to your dryer sheets again!

*  Use adhesive hooks to hang and organize your necklaces in your bathroom or closet and plastic ice trays to sort earrings.

* Buy a large CD storage notebook to store DVDs and CDs.  Discard the cases unless they are collectible.

*  Carbiner clips work perfectly to store your ponytail holders and hairbands.

*  Jennifer has assigned a different color towel for each of her children.  After their bath is over, they hang the toweland matching washcloth on a double hook in their bathroom.  If there is a towel on the floor, she knows exactly which child it belongs to and this simple system ensures that the children participate in keeping the bathroom clean.  The color assignment translates to other areas of her home, like the kitchen, where the kids have cups in their assigned color to prevent drink mix-ups.

*  Charity saves empty round CD/DVD containers for marker and crayon storage for her young children.

There were many other wonderful ideas shared this morning along with lots of coupons.  I will be adding the remaining coupons to our coupon exchange box in the church narthex.  On the topic of coupons, we have GREAT news!  The Bryan Eagle newspaper has agreed to donate their extra Sunday newspapers each week to provide coupons for the troops.  This will be approximately 1000 copies of coupon inserts each week.  The Blinn College Student Government Association will be sorting and clipping the coupons, and we will be sending them on to an organization which provides coupons to our troops and their families overseas to be used in the military commissaries.  The commissaries accept coupons up to six months after their expiration date and families overseas have very limited access to coupons.  This is a wonderful way to be good stewards of our extra coupons and LOTS of others courtesy of The Bryan Eagle!  Thanks to Charity of taking ownership of this project!!!

Next week, we will be discussing Date Night ideas!  Bring your best successes, ideas/suggestions and even some of your failures (we need to learn from each other).  See you next week!!!