Getting organized is possible, but staying that way is easier another story. When done with your habits in mind, organizing keeps things from becoming disorganized in the future. You need to have a place for everything, with categories, and you have a maintenance plan for the area. Use these ideas to organize in a way that helps you to keep things orderly now and in the future.

Make a place for everything that’s convenient, big enough to accommodate new things coming in, and that is memorable. It’s impossible to keep rubber bands in their place if their place is one of 50 tiny drawers in an organizer upstairs in the craft room. Categorizing and choosing a place near where you use each item can help.

To get things categorized, it is best to pull everything out where you can see it while you clean. Put things into categories as you pull them out. Cut down on clutter by creating trash, donate, and maybe piles. Get rid of what you can while you’re in there. Then, start to evaluate your categories.

Some categories may be too big to be easily organized. Break it down so that you can specify a storage space for each sub-category of stuff. For example, if you have “crafts” all together, you may realize that you would need an entire room dedicated to them to keep them in the same category. However, if you divided them into sewing, yarn crafts, art, photography, scrapbooking, and cake decorating, you might be able to split them up.

Make your everyday items that you use the most really easy to access. People tend to slack off on organizing if they don’t feel like going all the way across the house to use the rack that you set up for shoes. Make sure that the organization of something is very near to where you use it and you’ll notice a big difference.

If it’s difficult to reach, retrieve, fill, reseal, and replace the storage containers that you chose, then you’re not likely to use them. Go for simple solutions, like specialty clothes hangers, that allow you to save space, making room for shelves with easy-to-access baskets. You should be able to throw laundry into each basket with one hand so that it’s easy to go from room to room putting clothes away. Using the right hangers makes closets big enough to stay organized in this way.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

The kitchen countertops and entryway areas of the home are a problem for a lot of people. This is especially true if you do not have a a good organization system in place. If you’re sacrificing counter space and entry areas to the clutter that seems to be out of control, read on.

To tackle these areas, you’ll need to go through your clutter and determine why it is there. Understanding why you don’t put things where they go is half the battle. Creating an area to catch the things that you toss down when you come in the house can be great if you make the area convenient and practical. Having a lot of drawers to shuffle around with when you’re on your way into or out of the house is a waste of time and you’ll end up going back to your old ways.

When you get the space cleared of unnecessary items, you can begin to come up with a plan for the things that you know you’re going to be tempted to toss on the kitchen counter or table in the living room. Have a place for ingoing and outgoing mail, keys, chargers, back packs, laptops, or whatever you need each day. Putting a shredder and/ or trash can in this area will help you to keep it clean.

The bedroom is another area of trouble for most people because it is a catch-all for everything in the house that doesn’t have a place. How many times have you had to quickly clean before company came over by hiding things in your bedroom? Did the things that normally clutter your home end up setting up a permanent residence in your bedroom? If this has happened to you, it’s time to take charge before the clutter monster grows any larger!

First, make room for your laundry, the number one enemy of the bedroom. Organize closets and dressers, making plenty of space for laundry coming into and out of the room. You can make a lot of extra space in your closet with slim, velvet clothes hangers that fit flat together. When there’s room for the things that go in your closet, you can clean what belongs in your room and see what you have left.

If there is still junk left in the room, then it needs to have a place. The places that you choose for this type of miscellaneous clutter should be easy to access and keep clutter out of sight.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

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Clean up clutter hotspots: The workstation