Blog Post

Are you ready to get your house in order? With the holiday decor packed away and more winter months ahead, now is a great time to reorganize your indoor spaces. Kettler Forlines Homes has some home organizing tips you need right now!

Make a plan with a zone offense.

Organizing can seem like a herculean effort. It’s easy to get off track when you have a lot of areas that need help. Before you empty a single cabinet, make a plan. Decide where you need to focus and then prioritize. Attack one area at a time, like a bedroom closet, basement storage, or playroom.

Next, make a specific list of what you’d like to accomplish in each area. For example, you want easier access to the accessories in your closet or you want to improve the traffic flow through your main living space. Being clear on the purpose will help you make organizing decisions based on the objective.

Adjust your attitude.

It’s time to get tough. Park your sentimental feelings at the door. If you allow yourself to reminisce over every item you pick up, this chore will take far longer than it should.

Clutter is the result of hanging on to too many things. It’s time to let go. As you evaluate what stays and what goes, ask yourself these 2 questions:

“How much value does this bring to my life?” As organizing expert Marie Kondo says, “Does it bring joy?” Be honest with yourself and you’ll find that you can live happily with a lot less. 

“Is there a better place to keep it?” Just because you’ve always kept that thing in that place, is it where it should be? This is particularly helpful when reorganizing the kitchen.

Start with a clean slate.

The best way to begin your organizing activities is to empty out the space you’re trying to clean up. Take everything out of the drawers, cabinets, closets, and pantry. Otherwise, you’ll end up shuffling things around and might overlook items. Put the contents in a place where you can sort through them. This is a good time to consider the furniture layout, too. You might also want to remove it so you can see and think without that visual distraction.

As you look at how nice your spaces look without all the clutter, you’ll be more likely to want to keep it tidy. 

Set up an assortment of storage containers and a trash can. Mark a container for “Keep”, another for “Donate”, and a third one for “Store”. Your “Keepers” will go back in the place you took them from. Donations will go to a thrift store or appropriate charity. “Store” means the items will be moved elsewhere or packed away. 

Once the sorting is done, think about the best way to arrange your Keepers. You don’t need to simply replace them in the cabinet or on the shelf where they were before. Instead, consider when and how you use them to determine what will work best for maximum efficiency.

Create useful drop zones.

They’re unsightly, but we all have them. A junk drawer in the kitchen. The table or countertop where the incoming mail is dumped. A space by the door where everyone does a dump-and-run of their outerwear and backpacks. 

Incorporate sensible organization into each drop zone. Empty it out, sort through the contents, and then decide how the space should be organized to avoid regrowing the mess.

In your junk drawer, use an organizer to separate sections for your various items. A silverware tray is a great tool because it’s already sized for a drawer and has compartments of various sizes. Separate pens and pencils from glue sticks and sticky notes. Put paper clips and push pins in small containers to prevent spilling. Use a label-maker to mark the individual sections so everyone can follow your organizing system.

For keeping your mail in order, a wall-mounted organizer could be the solution. Assign a compartment to each family member, or separate the mail according to bills, things that need a response, and outgoing mail. Keep a supply of envelopes and stamps in this mail organizer, too. Sort the junk mail as it comes in so you don’t allow it to clutter up your dop zone. 

The drop zone where your family enters and exits the home should have a hall bench and/or cubbies. Each space should be marked for particular items, like hats and gloves, or assign a cubby to each family member. It’s also a good idea to have a multi-use bulletin board with dry erase and a corkboard for reminders, permission slips, schedules, and other things that come and go in pockets and backpacks.

Or start from scratch.

Maybe you need everything you have but your home isn’t designed or sized to fit your needs. Once people began sheltering at home in 2020, certain design flaws became more prominent—and annoying, Kettler Forlines Homes designs and builds luxury homes in the DC Metro area. Our Poolesville, MD, community, The Reserve at Brightwell Crossing, is just 30 miles from Washington, DC. And we also design, build and renovate homes throughout the region. Contact George Neill at Kettler Forlines Homes to finally have the home that gives you everything you need!