Organize Your House (Room by Room) Even When It Seems Impossible

Keeping your house clean and organized without kids is one thing but when you have tiny humans in your space it’s a WHOLE different story.

I’ll be the first to admit that cleaning and organizing is not my strong suit. It often overwhelms me to the point where I’d rather just throw everything away and start over. Anyone else like that?

I’ve even said “If someone just stole all my stuff it would be easier than sorting it.”

Instead of deep cleaning and organizing everything down to kids socks, I do what I can to get by.

If our sink is empty and our dishwasher runs, it’s a win.

When the kids laundry goes into the washer, that’s a win.

Did my kids lunch get wiped off the table (and floor… and chairs)? That’s a win!

What about you?

Are you the type of person who just desperately tries to keep sticky fingers wiped up and bathroom items from taking over? Is a “win” for you a day where you can see the carpet in the kids room so you can actually vacuum it?

Like I said, I’m not an organized person but I want to be more that way. Not perfect but I would love to make progress.

Maybe you’re also one of these people who strives to get better and have more control over their home.

The first thing to do is SIMPLIFY our lives. And for us, we started with simplifying the cleaning products we use. When we moved into our home we dumped or donated EVERY CLEANING PRODUCT we had for two reasons.

1) We were expecting our first child and didn’t want harsh chemicals around.

2) It was overwhelming to have 10 different things that you store to use once a month or less.

If you are in a similar situation, here it what I suggest you do – get simple and replace your window cleaner, multi-surface cleaner, and shower cleaner with this. We use this product on everything basically….minus in the toilet bowl.

Fact is, we still use the hardcore stuff (this to be exact) for the toilet because well…toilets are nasty. Sometimes, when it’s not sick season, we use this, and I do love it.

When it comes to organizing, I’ve fallen in love with containers.

Everything seems to have a place when there is a bin for it. (Even if inside the bin is a cluster.)

These ones from Target are my go-to. We have probably a dozen in different shapes, sizes, and colors from other the years. We’ve even used them in our refrigerator for storing produce.

What different ways can you use baskets like these?

Laundry and toy “collect all” bucket for pick up time are two ways we use them regularly.

TIP: Halfway through the day we put everything left on the floor (with the kids help) in a bin and then we put it away together.

There is something easier about sorting toys when they are confined into a bin to put away. It’s less overwhelming AND everything is together and can be carried throughout the home.

Where is the best place to start if you want to clean your house room by room and succeed? You’ve GOT to declutter.

So often we focus on “cleaning” and truthfully that’s not the source of many of our issues and stress. We can clean counters, put toys back, do laundry, but when there is something deeper going on that you haven’t addressed, you will never get ahead.

We want to avoid the constant repeat of surface level cleaning and organizing, right?!

In our house the kids toy bins are one of these areas that overwhelm me. They don’t have a crazy amount of toys but those “junk drawer” toy bins drive me BONKERS. They are filled with 1500 tiny pieces of different games, toys, building sets, accessories, etc. Nobody ever plays with them but sorting them stressed me out.

Sounds familiar?

I know I’m not alone on this one.

I’m telling ya, if you have 7 hairbrushes, that’s probably too many. If your kids have 97 stuffed animals, they might have a few they don’t play with. Obviously the needs and wants are different for everyone so figuring out what works for YOU and your family is #1.

If you aren’t sure where to start and are legit overwhelmed by the idea of it all, check out The Organized Home Course by Hilary from Pulling Curls. Her course gives easy to follow tips and steps for busy mama’s, just like us.

What I love about her course is how she breaks down every room of your house into bite-sized pieces of information. And even more, she breaks down each PART of the room. It’s seriously brilliant.

This course is perfect for you and your cleaning, organizing, decluttering needs if:

You have junk drawers, closets, and boxes in every room.
You are constantly losing things like important papers (bills, school work, etc) or simply don’t have a place for these things.
You don’t know where to start to gain control over your house and all the stuff in it!

And moms – she goes into the nitty gritty of purging toys, storing toys, ROTATING toys. Basically all the tips and tricks we need to keep mama sane and kids from going crazy.

When we did our first declutter we followed Marie Kondo and it works great but truthfully I had SO many questions along the way. Hilary’s program answers the questions that we all have when decluttering and organizing our homes.

So you’ve probably been wanting my tip three tips for keeping the chaos in my home controlled. Check it out!

Top 3 tips for organizing your home even when it seems impossible

Here are my top 3 suggestions for managing your home:

Simplify the products you use to make it easier on YOU and your family.
Use containers to sort and organize what you have.
Start with just one thing and tackle that project FIRST. This could be as simple as a stack of papers on the desk. Don’t move on until that stack has a home. (And once you do, celebrate that win, mama!)

It’s important to remember when cleaning your home that your home doesn’t have to BE like anyone else’s. You don’t have to organize exactly like me or Marie or Hilary. But I encourage you to see what other people do and find a method that works for YOU. Something that will ease your mind, bring peace into you home, and allow you to feel like you are in control of your things, not the other way around.