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Around the House Organizing – 5 Areas to Tackle

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I’m one of those who tends to thrive in organized spaces. When spaces are chaotic it’s hard to find and accomplish anything in them. I find myself walking around in circles not knowing what task to tackle first. As an example, if I get behind on the dishes, even making breakfast seems like trying to get over some great hurdle of pots and pans and dirty dishes. Then there is the question of should I wash all the dishes or throw them in the dishwasher or clear the counters first? Or should I try to find something clean, make breakfast, and create an even bigger mess?! If the kitchen is clean and organized there is no wasting time trying to figure out what to do first. Especially if we are in a hurry, breakfast it is! (old photo of the kitchen).

new home tour appliances

Chaos does not help anyone accomplish anything beneficial. I have a few areas at home that often remind me of chaos; basically, some rooms that could be better organized. On a general scale, I like to keep our home organized but how to go about organizing the areas in this house is my biggest struggle for a few reasons: 1. we are renting so no rooms can be customized. 2. I don’t want to put too many holes in the walls. 3. I don’t want to use a bunch of baskets for organizing just for the sake of using them. I love using baskets for organizing and have a ton of them already. Too much though can make a space look cluttered. Albeit, that will probably be the solution for most of these spaces. In fact, I have started on some of these projects already. Here is a look at some areas I am working on. 

Around the House Organizing – 5 Areas to Tackle

Front Entryway – Our entryway is just a regular designed entryway split with a front room on the other side. Our shoes need to be better organized for sure. Too many times we find ourselves digging through a pile to find our shoes. I have added baskets at the top shelf and will need to label them because they are so high up and we cannot really see what is in them. Even I forget, most times, which basket has what. I’ve already found a solution for the kids jackets. In the past they put them down on something low such as a storage ottoman (shown here) or a chair or where ever I told them to put it until a parent hung them up. But I found something that they are using and it is so much better. 

Disorg entryway

Laundry room/Mudroom: The laundry room is tiny and there is a measure of storage cabinets and even some storage at the bottom of the machines. But it needs to be organized. My hubby likes to use this entrance from the garage whenever he comes home especially if he parks inside the garage. The kids and I prefer the front entrance but we use this mudroom when we go out and about with my husband.

Disorg Laundry RoomKitchen: On a general scale, the kitchen is pretty much put together except for the pantry, a few top cupboards that hold food items, and some storage drawers. I’m not a huge fan of pantries with shelving like these. The food never stay well on them. Here is a shot from a time when we had just bought groceries. Since there is no real system of organization other than the shelves, everything was thrown in there until I found a temporary solution. Two minutes later and things went back to being chaotic. 

Disorganized pantry These are the cupboards that need organizing. I have already started on them and they look much better (not shown here).

Disorganized Cupboards

Disorganized Cupboard

This is the other side of the kitchen where we have a tiny office/command center. Hmmm….. see the situation for yourself. I do clean the top of the counter frequently but it seems to be the place to collect all. 

Disorganized drawers and desk

Don’t even ask about the drawers. Gasp! Talk about all paper work, mail, art, chords, shattered ipad, you name it all in one hot mess!! This does not sit too well with me and has been driving me absolutely crazy!! Well I guess I sort of created it. I just need a spot to dump everything (and not find what I need right) until I figure out a better system. Sigh.

Disorg desk drawer

Disorganized drawers

Garage: This is one tiny spot of the garage where I have some spray paints, nails, screws, glue, etc…. It could use some help. The rest of the garage is not that terrible but it could look better. Way too cold to tackle garage organization during the winter.

Disorg Garage

So as you can see, we’re not all put together as we’d like to be. There are a couple other areas that are not terrible but could be better and other areas that need to be prioritized such as the entryway. We’ve made some overall progress though and that is always good. 

Around the House Organizing - 5 Areas to Tackle

How are you with home organization? Do you have it all figured out or are you still trying to find ways to make it work?

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8 thoughts on “Around the House Organizing – 5 Areas to Tackle

  1. I’ve been working on my mudroom/laundry room. It’s small and I recently purchased a hall tree to help keep up with all the backpacks, etc. when the grandkids come over. My husband has been organizing our kitchen drawers. He loves doing stuff like that and I love letting him have at it. The only requirement is that he has to check with me before tossing something. ๐Ÿ™‚ Maybe by spring, my house will be organized. ๐Ÿ™‚ Great tips!!

  2. Not of us are as put together as we’d like to be ๐Ÿ™‚ I enjoyed seeing some more of your home!! The counter catch all spots drive me crazy — I feel like I clean them daily.

  3. We just purged and cleaned and swept and organized our basement. Isn’t it amazing how quickly everything piles up? On the positive, nothing can beat the feeling you have after you go through everything and get it all nicely organized!
    Best,
    Kelly

  4. Zan, I thought you were describing my own feelings and my home in the beginning. Right now, our home looks like it has self imploded. Time is the issue for me. I’m just like you when the dishes get behind, I ask myself should I cook first or clean first!
    We are currently working on an 11 week plan to get our home well organized so we can put it on the market this summer. This is week 3 and we have only completed the first week, LOL! We did begin the room for the second week but got hung up in there because we set our goals too high, trying to move furniture out of the house.
    The struggle is real, isn’t it. You should see the mess behind my most recent blog post photos!

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