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Does your home life feel disorganized? Check out this step-by-step guide for how to get organized at home. Learn how to run your household like a pro!
Missed soccer practice. Kids are late to school… again. No freaking clue what to make for dinner. House is a mess. No time to clean.
STOP.
If this is you, it’s time to figure out how to get organized at home. Let me show you how to manage your household effectively, so you can enjoy your life.
How to Get Organized at Home
The biggest problem with running a household is that there are so many moving parts to keep track of. Cleaning, cooking, school events, bills, household maintenance – it’s a lot to track. Without a system, you’ll become overwhelmed and defeated.
When you work full-time, that throws a big, rusty wrench into the whole system. As a working woman, it can be a huge strain to get all the things done at home while succeeding at work. You might get so frustrated that you feel like giving up, and letting your house go to the wolves.
Let’s keep that from happening. Let’s make this the year you get organized at home! Here’s how to get organized at home, step by step.
Gather Important Information
The first step in how to get organized at home is to gather important information. It’s great to have all those contacts in your phone, but what if you can’t find your phone? What if there’s an emergency and you’re not able to make those important calls?
Having important information in a central location is a big part of getting organized at home. It ensures that you, your family, friends, and others will be able to contact family, doctors, school administrators, and others, when needed.
Here are some examples of the kinds of information to write down. You could do this on notebook paper, or type it up and print it out.
- Babysitter information
- Emergency contact information
- Family doctor, preferred hospital
- School contact information
- Sports and other activity information
- Names and phone numbers of friends (and friends’ parents, for children)
- Health information for family members, such as insurance carriers, allergies, medical conditions, medications
Create a Family Calendar
The next step in how to get organized at home is to create a family calendar.
Don’t you hate those surprises that leave you saying, “Wait, that’s TONIGHT?!” Maintaining a family calendar will keep you aware of each family member’s commitments throughout the week. As a result, there will be fewer of those last-minute surprises. It will also make it easier to plan things to do as a family.
You can use a digital calendar, like Cozi, or a paper calendar. Either way, it’s great to have both a year-at-a-glance calendar and monthly calendars.
Year-at-a-glance calendars make it easy to plan for vacations, camps, and out-of-town visitors. Monthly calendars allow you to quickly see what each week and month looks like for your family.
Set Family Goals
You might be surprised to see this one on my list of how to get organized at home. But since we’re talking calendars, it’s a great time to think about creating yearly and monthly goals for your family.
Do you want to spend 1 night a week eating dinner at the table (Instead of the TV)? Maybe you want to commit to volunteering 4 times per year as a family. Or maybe you want to take a weekly walk together.
Nurturing family relationships is a secret ingredient to how to get organized at home. That’s because the more you develop positive relationships with your family, the more likely they are to be on board with some of the OTHER things on the list… like cleaning (More about that one later!).
Do Some Basic Meal Planning
Meal planning might sound complicated and difficult. It’s not that bad! You decide in advance which meals to cook, buy the supplies you need, and that’s it. It’s one of the easiest ways to get organized at home! No more scrambling to pull a full meal out of the odds and ends in the pantry.
Here’s a super simple way to meal plan.
First, create a Pinterest board called “meal planning” or something similar – as long as you’ll remember it. Next, save only recipes you’ve tried and liked to the board. Once per week, choose which meals to prepare in the week ahead (you can do this on a piece of paper or framed dry erase board). Do a quick check of your pantry for what you already have, and make a list of what you need. Finally, do your shopping for the week.
Inventory Food and Supplies
They say that knowing is half the battle. Knowing what food you have is half the battle toward meal planning! Creating a simple inventory of your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry will make shopping less hectic.
You don’t have to take a detailed inventory of every single thing in your kitchen. A running list of the foods and products you use most often would work fine. You could also have a simple “what we’re out of” list, to make shopping easier.
Create a System for Incoming Paper
Getting rid of that pile of papers on the kitchen counter is another big part of how to get organized at home. You don’t need a complicated filing matrix or elaborate storage containers. A simple 3-part system is all you need to get started. Divide all incoming papers into these 3 categorizes.
Shred – Junk mail such as credit card offers, bank offers, free trial offers, etc. Check out my #1 tip for keeping up with shredding!
Recycle – Junk mail that doesn’t contain sensitive information – catalogs, flyers, etc.
Take Action – Items that need your attention. Permission slips, bills to be paid, sports schedules, etc.
Set a goal to deal with incoming paper daily. Take action on items that need your attention as soon as possible, then shred, recycle, or file them. You might want to keep schedule-related items, such as invitations or game schedules, near your family calendar.
Manage Bills
Keeping up with bills can be stressful. I used to do it all in my head, but eventually I had so many different bills that I couldn’t keep up! Create a bill management and tracking system to get all those due dates out of your head and onto paper.
First, write down all of the bills that you have. Figure out when each bill is due, and write it next to the bill, along with the amount. Then, check the list at the beginning of each week, to see which bills you need to pay. Here’s the exact bill payment system I use in our household.
Create a Cleaning Schedule
When thinking about how to get organized at home, cleaning definitely comes to mind! Having a set cleaning schedule can reduce overwhelm, because you know exactly which tasks you need to accomplish each day. As a result, you won’t waste time and energy trying to figure out where to start.
A cleaning schedule might sound intimidating, but you can keep your home clean in about 30 minutes per day with this schedule.
Keep Track of Organizing Projects
Another big part of how to get organized at home is… organizing! You might have tons of little pockets of clutter and disorganization around your home. Tracking and prioritizing them will help ensure you actually get them done!
Create a list of all the areas you’d like to organize in your house. Next, rank them in terms of importance. Finally, schedule a few organizing projects on your calendar each month. As a result, you’ll work your way toward an organized and decluttered home!
If you want more info on organizing, check out my post on how to start organizing your home.
Monitor Home Maintenance, Repair, and Improvement Needs
Showing your home some love will go a long way toward how to get organized at home. In the rush of everyday life, it’s easy to forget to do important things. Checking batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, changing HVAC filters, and cleaning out gutters are all important home maintenance tasks. Having a list of these tasks, and reviewing it monthly, will help you stay on top of them.
You should also keep track of any repairs your home needs. We often forget that the faucet is leaking, or that there’s a crack in the foundation. However, letting those sorts of things go could mean bad news for your home. By keeping a running list of needed repairs, you’ll keep them top of mind until you are ready to get them fixed.
While you’re at it, why not keep a list of improvements you’d like to make to your home? Hardwood floors, new paint, or new kitchen counter tops are a few ideas that might be floating around in your head. By getting them down on paper, you’ll be able to remember which upgrades you wanted to make when you have the money in your budget.
How to Get Organized at Home: Conclusion
Managing your household can be stressful if you don’t have a plan. Taking time to clarify the key areas of household management will help you figure out how to get organized at home. Here’s a summary of the most important areas to plan for:
- Gather important information
- Create a family calendar
- Set family goals
- Create a basic meal plan
- Inventory food and supplies
- Manage bills
- Create a cleaning schedule
- Keep track of organizing projects
- Monitor home maintenance, repair, and improvement needs
Want even more helpful household management tips for working women? Join the ShowMe Suburban community and learn simple habits and routines to keep your home clean and organized, so you can relax away from work without feeling the stress of a messy home. Sign up below!