One of the most complicated things for stay-at-home moms is trying to figure out how to get their homes organized. How do you get a handle on organizing your home with the kids running around, jobs to do, people to feed, places to go, and people to see? Let alone the holidays, birthdays, events, and all the school activities? How can you be more productive in a space that overwhelms you?
A lot is going on, and sometimes our homes become the space where everything just piles up. They become a catch-all for all the stuff. At the end of a busy day, at the beginning of a busy day, in the middle of a busy day, things are just placed in random spots over and over again. You’re then wasting time all day long, backtracking over all of the steps that you already made to try and find the thing that you thought was here but then it’s not there. You’re trying to help the kids find the thing that they need because they have no idea where they put it down and you’re becoming overwhelmed. In the end, all you can say is, “We have too much stuff!”
Well, this post is going to tell you exactly what to focus on to conquer the overwhelm. I’m giving you the top three areas, right now, to start organizing. Get these done! Get them under your belt and they will drastically change your ability to not only have more time but to become a more productive mom.
Listen below for the entire episode on The Systemize Your Life Podcast
I have come to find that with these three spaces being organized in my home I truly can produce more. If you are having trouble keeping things organized there are two parts to that problem. The first is, keeping things organized has a lot to do with knowing the process of organizing. We go over that in detail in the Systemize Your Life Academy. I use the ESCAPE method as a one-stop shop for organizing your entire home. This method allows you to keep things organized.
The second part of keeping a space organized is your habits. It’s really important to realize when you organize something you are going to have to keep a habit of putting things back in the place you have designated them to go.
Today, I want you to just get started with organizing these things. Don’t be afraid of “I’m probably not going to keep it organized, I tried it before and it didn’t work so I’m not going to do it again.” It’s a process where you are going to have different evolutions and iterations of the same space being organized multiple times until you find a way that works for you. That’s ok but that just means you need to get started right NOW!
So, let’s get into the first one. If you only do one of the three, this is absolutely the number one.
Organize Your Fridge
To save more time and become more productive, you have to have an organized fridge. Hands down. You are in and out of the fridge as a stay-at-home or work-from-home mom, a minimum of five times a day. If you are a working mom, it’s even more important. You are in the fridge less but you have less time.
It’s vital to get this one space super organized for a lot of reasons. Not only can you get in and out quickly, get done quickly, get people the healthy food that you want to feed them, you can also begin to outsource.
I love being able to say to my husband “It’s on the second shelf down all the way in the back.” Otherwise, he will stand in front of the fridge for twelve hours saying “We have nothing to eat,” or “We don’t have any, I can’t find it.” I can do this because I know where we keep all the dairy, all the meat, and all the snacks. I know exactly where we keep the greens. I literally know where we keep everything.
That is precisely how you are going to go about doing that. I’m not going to dive super deep into how to exactly organize your fridge. There is another podcast episode that goes into that. Or, if you are ready to jump in and have me hand you the exact system, you can join our Systemize Your Life Academy and get all this and more in a place with a community of friends around you. You can jump in at any moment, at any point, on any day. We would love to have you there. But you can totally get started on your own.
Get in there and clean it out, pull it all out, and organize it. Have categories for everything. Only put back in what you are going to use. Like how many condiments do you even have? Do you really need all of them? Are two brand new and somebody opened one because they couldn’t find it and they pulled one out of the pantry?
I’m guessing you are starting to see why having your fridge organized can save you time, sanity, and probably even some money. So onto the next thing.
Simplify Your Kids’ Clothes
This one may come as a surprise to you. But, it is such a game-changer for us in the mornings. I don’t have to go upstairs and help my kids get dressed. My oldest is also able to put her clothes away. Her dresser drawers are labeled as Pants, Bottoms, Pajamas, Undergarments. I cut them out on my Cricut but you can use masking tape. I used masking tape for a long time and wrote with a sharpie. It was really easy to change that way. Chalkboard labels are really cool for that too. You can also use pictures if you’d like.
The other really cool part about having your kids’ clothes organized is that it makes it super simple to outsource. I loathe putting clothes away. I love washing them. It’s really simple, but putting them away is my kryptonite. So I can have Blaine, my husband, help me. It’s very easy for me and it’s very easy for him. He loves the labels.
Simplifying is also part of organizing. You have to be getting rid of the things that no longer fit and that don’t match the rest of the wardrobe. You want to make it simple for your kids to get dressed. That means you have to go in there and make sure they have some type of capsule wardrobe where nearly every top matches every bottom. That doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to numbers, you don’t have to make it complicated. Just pull everything out of the drawers, lay it down on the ground. Lay all the tops and bottoms down and see what you’re working with. Do you have twenty-five tops and four bottoms? Four bottoms might work if you have girls that don’t get dirty. Look at what you have and what you need. Maybe you need a drawer that says ‘Play Clothes’ and ‘School Clothes’. What does your family need for your kids’ clothes to be organized?
Go through there and get it all cleaned up and it will truly start saving you time so you can be more productive. It makes putting laundry away easier, your kids can start dressing themselves, and you can outsource. The whole thing becomes seamless and that is the kind of relief you are seeking.
Bonus System
Another huge part of my kid’s clothes organization is that I have an empty tote with the lid off inside my oldest Franki’s closet. Whenever my oldest, Franki, outgrows clothes, instead of putting them back in her drawers she now knows that it goes in the bin. That helps me hand down her clothes in a very, very easy fashion. In Baylie’s room, we have a cute decorative basket so every time I’m putting away laundry and a 2T pops up in the middle of 4T clothes I pull it out and throw it in the basket.
Just take the first step and get in there to see what you’re working with. Moving onto the third system.
Have a Command Center
The command center is your main hub for communicating. To really dive into the how and what of the command center listen to this podcast. I’m going to explain to you why you need an organized command center.
Everyone needs a focal place for where the day-to-day use items get stored. This looks like your kids’ backpacks and your keys all the things that you’re searching for to get out the door on time. If your command center is not organized you’re searching for shoes, you’re searching for backpacks, you’re searching for homework, you’re searching for keys, you’re looking for all of the little items that you need to take with you because they don’t have one space to stay.
This has been able to free up a solid 20 minutes every morning for us. It also makes our after-school routine so much easier which then frees up more time for me in the evening. I’m not spending my time picking up all of the things the kids are shedding from the moment they get picked up from school. They know exactly what to do and where their backpack, lunch box, and shoes go when they step into the door.
It takes training with your kids to be able to keep the command center organized. This honestly has been the longest training session of any system. I think it’s because it’s just an evolution of me learning how to keep the space organized and how to utilize it well.
Command centers are an ever-evolving space. For your command center to help you become more productive you’re going to have to stick with it, you’re going to have to continue to let it evolve until you find a good groove with it.
Get started with these three.
I’d love to hear which one of them you’re going to start first. If you want some support and encouragement, drop it inside of the Facebook group and give yourself an accountability moment. Say “Hey, I’m going to have my fridge organized this weekend.” We are there to cheer you on and support you. But if you’re not active in there, we can’t support you. Raise your hand and say “I’m doing this!” So that we can be there for you and we can be excited.
You need to know that time is falling apart because of a lack of organization which is the lack of a system in your house.
Final Tip
When you go and you look at these three places and if they’re already organized and you’re still having a heck of a time, look where the one space is in your house that is sucking away your time. Maybe it’s a moment in the day. For you, it might be the mornings or afternoons or one point in your homeschool day. You might not be able to define it to a single place just yet. But you need to know that time is falling apart because of a lack of organization which is the lack of a system in your house. Just look at that space and figure out what you need to do to make things organized. It might not be your kids’ clothes but these are 3 amazing places to start organizing:
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Fridge
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Kids Clothes
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Command Center
You have the ability and the knowledge to know your family better than I do. Go in there and look at what needs to be done. Stand in the place and find what’s tripping you up. You got this!
If you’re looking to dive in more and organize more places in your home and want to know exactly how to do it, check out the Systemize Your Life Academy for more details. But really, just get started today!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I make time to organize my house?
Just start now where you are at! My 5 block, time blocking system will help you get your life in order so you start making time for what’s important and start getting things done!
