How to Organize

Let's get back to the basics for this post. If organizing does not come naturally for you, just learning how to organize can seem like an impossible task. Here are a few tips that can help you figure it out.

Learn to Categorize
Organizing anything in your life requires the ability to put things into categories. In your home, it may mean learning how to categorize items in your kitchen or clothes in your closet. Sit down and think about what logical groups the items fit into. If you need help, look at categories in stores. In the clothes section of a store, the casual clothes are usually separate from the dress clothing. Do the same thing in your closet, separate the two out. Do the same thing in your office. Natural categories in your work are projects, events, or departments.

Create Steps
When you want to organize something, there is a process that you need to go through to get it done. List out each step that needs to take place. This can help keep you focused and know what to do next. For example, if you want to organize your closet, your list of steps might look like this:

1. Take clothes out of closet
2. Sort clothes into ones to keep, donate, or throw away
3. Sort the clothes I am keeping into categories. For example, work clothes, casual clothes
4. Put donation clothes in bags to donate and throw away clothes into trash bags and toss
5. Decide where in the closet each category should go 
6. Decide if I need to purchase organizing items to make it easier to find items in my closet
1. If yes: measure closet where the organizing items will go and purchase correct sizes
7. Put clothes back into closet in appropriate category areas

Having a list can help get you back on track if you get interrupted or lose focus.

Kitchen Organizing Tools

There are a few essential kitchen organizing tools that make it easier to find and store items in your kitchen. Before you buy, make sure to measure the drawer or cabinet where you plan to put the organizer and take your measurements to the store with you.

Drawer Organizers
Organizers for your drawers are helpful for silverware, cooking utensils, and junk drawers. Have an idea of how you want to organize your cooking utensils and junk drawer before you go looking for an organizing solution. This will help you to get the right tool for the job.

Cabinet Organizers
There are a variety of cabinet organizers from ones you can mount onto the cabinet door to slide out shelving units. We all have limited space in our cabinets so adding some kind of organizer for some of your cabinets will help you make the most of your space. Things like cookie sheets, cutting boards, and lids to pots take up a lot of space if you lay them down in a cabinet. These are items that benefit most from some kind of cabinet organizer. There are simple organizer racks you can get to set in your cabinet that you can use to easily setup cookie sheets and cutting boards. You won’t even have to screw these into the cabinet. There are also ones you can screw into the cabinet door or sliding shelving units that you can screw into the cabinet. These can range in price from about $15 to over $50 so decide how much this organization solution is worth to you.

Home Office Solutions for a Tight Budget

Finding the right home office solutions on a tight budget can be difficult. But with some time, patience, and dedication to looking in the right places, you can furnish your entire home office inexpensively.

Check the Thrift Stores
You can find good deals at thrift stores if you are willing to look. Things you can use in your home office will be in the household goods section and things may or may not be organized by type. You can find expandable file folders, desktop filers, and filing trays at thrift stores. You may need to do some digging to find what you want. You may also need to come back to the store more than once to find what you are looking for. Sometimes it is better to ask yourself how you can use what you have found rather than looking for a specific item. Check what you are planning to buy before you buy it for any damage.

Used Office Furniture Stores
If you are looking to buy furniture for your home office, you can get good deals at used office furniture stores. Most of these stores will have a website that you can browse to see if they have the furniture you want before you go. If you have a specific item in mind, it also doesn’t hurt to call them before you go to see if they have it. These stores also sometimes sell other used office accessories like trash cans and lamps cheaply. The furniture you get from these types of stores will often be of higher quality too.

Quick and Simple Garage Tool Storage

Organization is often at the top of people’s list of things to do in the new year. The garage is often a problem area and can be difficult to tackle during the cold winter months. Here are a couple of simple and quick garage tool storage ideas that you can do without having to overhaul your entire garage.

Toolbox for Frequent Use Tools
We all have those tools in our garage that we use on a pretty regular basis. Things like screwdrivers and hammers are ones we all need access to for chores like putting up a picture or screwing off the cover of something to put new batteries in it. Tools like this should be the most easily accessible. A small toolbox that is easy to access in the garage may be the perfect solution for you. It should be something lightweight and easy to grab. Just be sure that everyone who needs access to it knows where it is. You may also want to keep items like screws and nails that you use frequently in it for easy access.

Labeled Bins
If you have groups of tool items to store, having labeled bins is a good garage tool storage technique. If you have tools that you use specifically and only for your car, create a tool bin labeled “Car Tools.” If you have tools that you use specifically for the garden, create a “Garden Tools” bin. You could also store all of your screwdrivers in one bin or all of your hammers. Consider how you use your tools and what makes the most sense for you. We all look for things differently so find a method that works for you.