Bedrooms

Make your bed every day.  It doesn’t take that long and the rewards are worth the effort.  It’s such a small thing to do and it creates a sense of calm and order to the room.

• Clean out your sock/underwear drawer and throw out anything old, torn, or mismatched.  If you really want order, purchase some drawer dividers to keep everything neat and tidy. 
• A feng shui tip:  Anything stored under the bed will affect you while you sleep.  If you have to store something, clean linens or soft blankets are comfortable to sleep above, otherwise, keep the area under the bed clear.
• Don’t let the top of your dresser become the catch-all for all your stuff.  Take a good look at what accumulates there and find ways to contain it.  Does your jewelry always pile up there? Purchase a pocket jewelry organizer that hangs in your closet or a jewelry box to set on top.  How about all the stuff from your pockets – coins, scraps of paper, paper clips, etc.?  Put a small basket on top of the dresser to empty your pockets into.   

Kitchens

• Keep your kitchen sink clear of dirty dishes.  When your kitchen sink is clean and shiny, it transforms the whole room and just makes you feel good!  A clean sink is also less frustrating when you need to prepare a meal.
• Clean out the fridge!  Throw out all the foods that have expired.  Wipe it down and then group everything together – all the salad dressings together, all the condiments, etc. 
• Keep your countertops clear of appliances or things you don’t use on a daily basis – if you don’t use it daily, store it.
• Create zones in your kitchen.  Where do you make coffee?  Put your coffee, measuring cup, filters, sweetener, and creamer all in the same area next to your coffee pot. Create a zone where you prepare the food, another for food storage, and any other zone that you use your kitchen for. 
• Pull out all of your food storage containers and match them up with their lids.  You won’t be fumbling around anymore to find exactly what you need. 
• When organizing your pantry, store like with like.  All the canned veggies should be together, the soups, breakfast items, baking goods, packaged meals, and rice, etc.  It makes it easier to see exactly what you have.
• Find a basket or bin to hold all the sauce and seasoning packets.

Closets

Sort and purge through all your clothes.  Throw out any that are stained or torn, out of style, no longer fit, don’t make you feel good, or haven’t worn in two years.  Donate the clothes that are still wearable to your favorite charity. 

• Do the same with your shoes.  Determine what kind of shoe storage you need by the number of pairs of shoes you have and the space you have to store them.  There are many choices for shoe storage – some hang over the door, on the wall, or from your clothes rod.  Or if you have the floor space, there are racks or shoes bins that stack. 
• Group clothes according to style and then color.  Pants, long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shirts, skirts, dresses, etc. should be grouped together and then grouped by color. If you don’t want to group in style, then at least group in business/office clothes and casual clothes.
• Hang all your clothes in the same direction.  This makes it easier to scan and see what you have.
• Try to use all the same kind of hanger.  Everyone has their own preference.  I like to have a hanger where the actual hook rotates so that I don’t have to turn the clothing item around, I just turn the hook.  And the new Huggable Hangers are great for utilizing small closet space. 
• Keep the seasons separate.  If it’s winter, store your summer clothes away or near the back of the closet.  When summer weather arrives, make a quick switch. 
• If you have any empty wall space, use hooks or peg boards to hang jewelry, scarves, belts, or hats. 
• Use the “new one in, old one out” rule.  When you purchase a new piece of clothing, take an old one out and throw it in a bin or basket that you have for just this purpose.  When the basket is full, bag it up and donate the clothes to your favorite charity.

Garages

Sort and purge through your garage first, before buying any products.  After purging, look at what you have and then decide on the best solution to contain it.

• Use a pegboard and design your storage just the way you need it.  There are all sorts of hooks, hangers, and racks that hold garden tools, hoses, screwdrivers, hammers and all of the various and sundry items that accumulate on top of your work bench.
• Shelving – lots of sturdy shelving to store things like paint, cleaning supplies, coolers, grilling supplies, lawn and garden sprays, bug spray, etc.  Store like with like in labeled bins, if needed, so you can easily find what you need.
• Make room for some recycle bins and reduce, reuse and recycle whenever you can.  If you make a place for it, you’ll start recycling automatically.
• Install a ceiling rack for those items that are too heavy or bulky to fit on a shelf.  A platform lifts your items off the floor to the ceiling and out of the way.  Great for utilizing all the wasted space near the ceiling.
• Create zones so you’ll know just where to go for what you need.  All of your tools should be in one general area, all of the sports equipment, the painting supplies, camping equipment, and holiday décor, etc.