Help with Organizing

I've learned, after moving more than 30 times in my life, that we tend to collect a lot of STUFF! Most of it we don't even use.

The easiest way to organize? Get rid of a LOT of stuff. Reduce the collection of stuff to GET cluttered!

I guarantee your child doesn't play with at least half of the stuff in there. So either store half of kiddo's toys in totes in the basement (switch them out every two or three months...it's like getting new toys!), or donate the ones kiddo doesn't play with.

Decluttering has been the only thing that I have ever seen work for any great length for anybody :/. I tend to save stuff too...but generally, it just makes for 'organized clutter'. One of the moves we made, we traveled with very very little and realized how little we really needed. As for small toys...I would put all of them in a box or bag and stick them in the attic or something and see if after a few months you really miss them. My daughter had a hard time keeping her room clean when she was younger and I heard somebody say, "If she has a really hard time keeping it clean - she probably has too many things". We picked a few things to leave out and put majority of it 'away'...we started with legos and books...legos went in a bin under the bed, books went on a shelf. It was soooo nice!! :)

Kids don't need or want as much as we *think* they do. So it really isn't so much about organizing as it is about downsizing. They don't need to keep all their happy meal toys! Or every stuffed animal they get! My kids have about 6 stuffed animals. So my advice is to downsize, every room, its easier to keep things organized simply when you don't have so much! Good luck!

Simple - whatever doesn't fit in the toy bins and bookcases, you throw it out (or bag it up and give to someone else).

My husband is extremely organized, and I have learned a lot from him. (I've also learned that I love living in a clean, uncluttered, organized home!) Here are a few principles that I have picked up:

*Get rid of stuff. And not just once; do it every few months (we pack up stuff and give it to a resale shop). Have a designated spot in your house to collect and bag up things to give away. Be as ruthless as you can manage. There is no way to be organized if you don't get rid of things.

*Every thing in the house has to have a place where it goes. EVERY. SINGLE. THING. So that means your clothes and also your out-of-season clothes; your wedding china and also rubber bands and twisty ties; library books, incoming school papers, your purse, things that need repair, things to be returned to the store, greeting cards for all holidays, newspapers you have read and also newspapers that you haven't read yet. All your kids' toys have to have a designated spot, and the kids have to know where those places are.

*Go through the entire house, at least once a day. Make this part of your morning or evening routine. Go into every single room, and you will find things that need to get put away. My husband does this, and often finds things that we don't need anymore.

Good luck!

p.s. I used to have a basket in our kitchen that was designated for party favor toys and Happy Meal toys. The kids loved bringing it out and playing with all the little stuff, and it was easy to put away. And it was so nice to have a place for those little crappy toys. (I did sneak some into the garbage every once in a while!)