Meet Ginger!
Ginger is Paul’s wife and our dear friend. She is also a master organizer!
She set us up for success by organizing our office, and wow, does it make our day-to-day easier. As the weather warms up and you feel more and more like getting active and tackling your spring cleaning, we asked her to share her wisdom to help you get started.
Ginger’s Top 7 Tips for an Organized Home
1. KNOW YOUR LIMITS
“Decide how many minutes a day you want to spend on organization. This can be a different number every day. One day you may only have 10 minutes and are able to organize the junk drawer. On another day, you may be able to tackle an entire room, but make plans to do it and then follow through.”
2. DECLUTTER BEFORE ORGANIZING
“Whether you’re organizing a small drawer or a walk-in closet, everything needs to come out! You need to touch every item. Once it’s all out, vacuum, clean, dust, scour, whatever you need to do to make it a clean spot to return the items you want to keep. This is the perfect time to declutter! As you pull out each item, decide if it is useful and get rid of things! Now that everything is clean and decluttered, put it back starting with the big things first. Put things back mindfully, placing items you use the most easily accessible.”
3. STORE THINGS WHERE YOU USE THEM
“Storing things where you use them is always a good idea and you’re more likely to put them away. Make it easy to grab. Don’t have multiple places for like items. For example, if you take your vitamins/supplements in the morning at breakfast, store all your vitamins in the pantry in a basket or acrylic bin. Don’t have some in the bathroom, some in your nightstand, a few in the kitchen. Put them all together in one bin. Group like things together and place them in one place. Besides scissors-you should have a pair in every room.”
4. ORGANIZATION IS ONGOING
“Be sure to put things back where they’re supposed to go. That’s why it’s great to have things stored where they’re used. As you bring new items into your home make sure they have a place.”
5. LABEL THINGS
“You don’t need a fancy new box or bin. You can use what you have, but if you can’t see what’s in that box or bin, be sure to label it. This makes it easier for everyone in the family to know where everything goes as well.”
6. FIND A HOME FOR EVERYTHING
“Take some time to look around your home at the things that are always left out. Then, try to find a dedicated place to keep them.”
7. KEEP A BOX ON HAND FOR DONATIONS AND FILL IT UP
“I have a box for donations and a box for items that need to go to another place in my garage. When the donation box is full, I take it to Goodwill. When I have items that need to go to others or even store returns I place them in the labeled “to go” garage box. It’s nice to walk by these boxes and decide if I can take them with me when I head out.”
The Key to an Organized Home
“Organization takes time and your home isn’t going to magically become organized overnight. Don’t get overwhelmed with Pinterest ideas. Take it one space at a time and you can find a system that works with you and your family.”
We hope this inspires you as you get started freshening up your space this season. It may seem like a daunting task, but if you chip away at it, it’ll definitely be worth it and make going about the rest of your year 10 times more enjoyable.
