Have you become organized/tidy and stayed that way?

[KrisM]

I feel like I never will be organized. I make a plan, work on areas, improve things, but other spots go downhill. I have a few areas that seem to stay pretty well organized or are at least quick to get back into shape. But other spots go downhill as soon as I finished working on them. Is there hope? Will I ever actually feel like my house is put together? Has anyone here gone from unorganized to organized and kept it there?

[pastrygirl]

I've been able to change in some areas, but not others. One that I'm happiest about is making my bed and always having my bedroom nice and tidy. I started in 2013, I think. I bought new bedding with all the extra decorative pillows and started making my bed every day, grudgingly, for 21 days. Supposedly that is how long it takes to form a habit. It quickly turned into washing my sheets weekly (I don't even want to say how long I used to go...) That turned into keeping my bedroom neat 100% of the time.

At some point, I will commit to doing that in other parts of the house, but I'm not there yet. I really need to get a handle on things that come into the house, especially from school. I'm still drowning in the end-of-school stuff that arrived in June.

[daisysmom]

No... But I am an example of someone who was organized and tidy pretty much my while life until I got married at almost 35. My mother is very tidy snd raised her kids to be too, and I kept to that thru college and lawschool even with messy roommates (all dear friends). Then I got married and my dear husband is not tidy at all, and he is cluttered. Once we married, I unfortunately took on his habits. And once I had a child and balance working, I am far gone.

I am organized at work -- very-- but my organization is much looser at home. And I am far from tidy. I sometimes miss my former self but honestly, there just isn't time. Rather, I want to spend my free time doing other things!

[rlu]

I'm ready to be, but I'm a one-woman effort in my house. DS helps with the dishes, laundry and dog, but he doesn't see the need to keep his room/stuff organized and until he buys into the idea, it's a battle I don't always choose.

DH isn't there yet either. The things in my control are neater/organized and getting more so as I go about daily so right now all I can do is present my results and hope for epiphanies.

eta: DH does alot around the house and yard, I don't want to discount that, but I think some of it would be quicker/easier if differently set-up. And not everything needs to be done the way I would do it, but when I have to redo or can't find something, it is frustrating and seems wasteful.

[Indianamom2]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm about to give up hope here! I just can't keep up...ever.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I do better the less stuff I have. Work in progress

[essnce629]

I would say my house is pretty organized as long as every single thing has a home! If something doesn't have a home, like random papers from school, camp, etc then it piles up on my couch, dining room table, tv stand, etc. Like my mom gave me a bag of a few things from my childhood (awards, books I wrote for projects in school, etc) several MONTHS ago and it's still on the floor in my living room because I don't have a place for it!!! Also, I have a long gray haired wig from Halloween hanging with all my robes in my closet and a pair of werewolf ears on my kitchen counter because I don't have a bin for Halloween costumes so that stuff never got put away LOL! Halloween was 10 months ago!!! Every day I see it and think "geez I really need to get a container for Halloween costumes!" All the toys and books that the boys have all have homes so their rooms are always neat. We were just at Ikea yesterday and DH and I both got file cabinets with extra drawers to help with the paper problem and little random things that didn't have homes like my boxes of envelopes, stamps, etc. Things are already looking better. Also, DH and I both have a set of hanging clear shoe organizers in our closet up on the wall for all the random little things that need a home like extra shoelaces, shoe inserts, charging cords, cards I want to save, etc. That gives us each 24 little pockets to put random stuff in and it's easy to see everything since it's clear. I also have one on the back of my laundry room door.

http://www.amazon.com/Over-Door-Clea...2FStorage+Rack

[123LuckyMom]

I completely agree that it's all about everything having a home. Also, I'm a great believer in bins for the kids. Every night as part of their bedtime routine, my kids tidy their rooms. Every morning, all beds get "made." That just entails pulling sheets and blankets up and fluffing the pillows. Even the three year old can do it. That means in the morning both kid bedrooms are tidy. In the playroom, every type of toy has a bin or drawer, so that's easy clean-up, too. My problem areas are the public spaces. When things get left in them, it can take a while for them to get put away. I've started to keep a basket in each room, and when toys invade, I pile them into the basket and take them to the playroom. That's more like a weekly task, though, not a daily one. What I can say is that I CAN be very tidy and organized when I pare down my things and have places for everything to go. I tend toward being disorderly, so for me it is a discipline. As with every discipline, sometimes I'm better at committing to it than at other times!


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[KrisM]

I agree that less stuff is easier. At least half my problem is keeping up on outgrown stuff... Pieces all there before selling it donating a toy, etc

Essnce and luckymom, how long does it take to go from disorganized to organized? Were you very disorganized still when you had kids out did you get organized before kids and have managed to keep it up.

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[mikala]

Argh, this is my continual challenge. I feel like my efforts at an organized house are like playing one of those whack-a-mole games. I can only seem to keep a certain number of spots organized at any given time and I struggle through the seasonal changes in clothing, etc. I'm dreading the fall rotation of clothing and trying to make sure everything fits the kids, hand-me-downs are organized and stored appropriately, etc. Less stuff definitely seems to be key but I struggle with that personally and my kids think every toy/art project/birthday bag o' crap they've ever seen is a "treasure" that must be stored somewhere.

I'm working my way through the KonMarie book and have had luck thinking about what sparks joy with my own clothing but need to work more on getting through the rest of the house. I struggle a lot with the "blank COULD be useful in xyz situation" when in reality xyz situation isn't likely to happen or something else would work just as well.