February 2019
Fall In Love With Your Organized Home
Ah, it's the month when love is in the air. Does your home need a shot of Cupid's organizing arrow?
Love the Home You're In
Canopied front door of home
Remember when you purchased your first house or moved into a new apartment? It was so exciting. Working with a clean slate, the possibilities of decor and design seemed endless. Every room would be picture perfect and everything was going to be neat and organized.

Fast forward. Still picture perfect? If not, you're not alone. Life happens, after all. Work, school, kids, and you name what else, are all major contributors to life's ever-evolving changes.

One common reason people site as to why they don't love their home is that there's just not enough space to put things. Based on the volume of belongings in the average American home (over 300,000), that might be true. Are all those belongings necessary? My guess is no. Contrast that with the fact that nearly 553,000 people were homeless in 2018, and you might start seeing and loving your home in a new light.
A Love-ly Organized Home
Organizing is the quickest and most efficient way to make a powerful and lasting impact on your home and your life. If you want to fall in love with your home, organizing can help get you there. Start with a few basics.

  • Declutter. That's a tall order, but necessary. Be the curator of your own belongings and surround yourself with those things that you love or need. It's been proven that clutter is a cause of stress, and it has no place in the organized home you love.

  • Assign a home for all your belongings. No doubt, you've heard the saying, a place for everything, and everything in it's place. Now that you've decluttered, it's easier to see how much you have that needs a home within your home. Decide where every item belongs. Make sure every family member knows not only where to find a particular item, but where to put it when they're done using it. Labels will help make your organizing systems stick.

  • Create a drop zone. This is the area where you first enter your home and literally drop everything, and it's probably causing a good deal of frustration. This area sees it all: shoes, backpacks, purses, keys, phone and mail. A basket system, one for each member of the family, easily corrals the incoming stuff. A boot or shoe tray can be used year round to receive kicked-off shoes. A few simple hooks collect coats and capture keys that will no longer be lost. A basket for mail (to be processed), and a recycling bin help ensure unwanted paper keeps out.

  • Your home is not a storage facility, so don't treat it like one. Think twice when shopping about what additional items will be brought into your home and why. Being intentional will support your efforts to maintain an organized home.
Following through with all organizing systems on a regular basis takes practice, but is so worth doing. It releases frustration and resolves much more than a clutter probelm. Best of all it gives you a home that you will love.

Happy ORGANiZiNG!

Nancy Patsios
everyday ORGANiZiNG
everyday ORGANiZiNG | 978-494-2311 | nancy@everydayorganizing.net | www.everydayorganizing.net