Michaels - Simple Organizing

Your home is your special place to live life. Whether youre living in your dream home or a small apartment, the same rule should apply to getting yourself organized: Make the most of the space you have.

Organization isnt just about setting up a storage system. Its about designing a home that truly reflects your family. By using pieces that are pleasing to your eye, youll actually enjoy maintaining your space. The systems you select become a way to showcase your style and keep your home under control at the same time.

Best of all, as you organize your home, you also organize your life. You dont waste time searching for missing items. Your surfaces are clearer, so your mind feels clearer too. Youre not afraid to entertain friends or neighbors. Your home wont be perfect, but thats okay. Thats not the point. It will be presentable and comfortable and a place youre proud to call your own.

Tip: You can motivate yourself to further cleaning and decluttering by taking before-and-after photographs of your newly cleaned and organized area. Even if it isnt perfect, progress inspires!

As we journey through the spaces of our homes, beginning with the entryway, youll begin to catch a vision of the best organizing plan for you and your loved ones. You may feel most at home with lots of empty space and room to breathe. Or you may be content with a cozy amount of treasures, wanting to be surrounded by a comfortable amount of stuff. No matter your preference, youll learn to look at your home with a practiced eye, determining what you truly use and what you could do without.

After youve cleared the clutter, you can establish some simple habits and routines that keep your homeand your lifewell ordered and organized. Simple organizing is about making the most of the space you have and creating a home that works for your family so you can get on to the most important things in life! The things that arent things at all. Thats the heart behind simple organizing.

MELISSA MICHAELS is the creator and author of the popular home decorating blog The Inspired Room , which inspires women to love the home they have. Since 2007 Melissa has been encouraging hundreds of thousands of readers a month with daily posts and inspiration for all things house and home. The Inspired Room was twice voted as the Better Homes and Gardens magazine Readers Choice decorating blog.

Melissa lives with her husband, Jerry; their son, Luke; and two impossibly adorable Doodle pups, Jack and Lily, whose adventures are well loved and followed on their Facebook page (Facebook.com/jack.goldendoodle). The Michaels daughters, Courtney and Kylee (and Kylees husband, Lance), are an active part of The Inspired Room .

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Entrances

SET THE STAGE FOR A WELCOMING HOME

When you visit homes you love, what do you feel as soon as you step into the entryway? What says welcome? What do you want your guestsas well as those who live in your hometo feel when they step into your entryway?

The entryway sets the tone for the rest of your home. You can ascertain a feeling of calm or chaos right from the start. A tiny entryway can look larger with the right organizing plan, and even a large entryway can appear cluttered when theres too much stuff in the mix.

Entrances also dictate the tone of our coming and going. If coats and backpacks and keys are easy to access, we can head out the door with a positive attitude. But if were scrambling to find important papers and searching for a matching shoe, were not going to start off our day on the right foot. Maybe even literally!

With simple storage solutions and a look at the big picture, the entryway can set the stage for a feeling of order in the rest of the home. No remodels or renovations are necessary to get organized. Use what you havethats a theme throughout this bookand make the most of your space. Thats the best way to create a warm welcome.

Take a look around your home. Do your spaces look tidy, organized, and welcoming? Or do clutter and chaos take center stage? Dont worry if you answered clutter and chaos. Youre not alone.

Every day we make choices that contribute to disorder in our homes. We put things down instead of putting them away. We fail to create designated spaces for our stuff. We put off picking up until the next dayand then we run out of time. And thats okay. We cant expect perfection every single day.

When youre not sure what to do first, set just one goal. When youre feeling wishy-washy or indecisive about what to do next, take one specific step. I recommend starting in your entrywaythe space that visitors (and you and your family!) see when you first walk into your house. Then choose just one thing to improve or organize. It might be a pile of discarded shoes or a stack of mail or all the stuff you need to walk your dog.

Youll be successful in your organizing if you remember to let go of the perfect solution and commit to just a simple one. A foolproof way to do this is by setting goals that are SMART:

S Specific: Get rid of the pile of shoes cluttering up the entry instead of simply lining them up over and over again.

M Measurable: Pare down what is kept in this space, allowing only one pair of shoes per family member to be left in the entry.

A Achievable: Find a storage system so you can keep the shoes in the entry but allow them to stay hidden.

R Realistic: Dont set an unnecessary goal, such as designing an elaborate shoe storage system for multiple pairs of shoes per person. Fewer shoes and less mess in the entry is the goal, not more storage for more stuff.

T Time Limited: Set a timeline for steps and completion, such as 30 minutes in the morning or afternoon.

Start with the entrywayand start SMART. Make a series of small, simple goals to kick out the chaos and get your home simply organized.

First impressions. Curb appeal. Opening statement. If youre accustomed to entering your house through the garage or back door, you might not realize the impact your front porch makes on your entire home. Pop onto your porch and take a critical look. Is the Christmas wreath still upand youre midway through February? Is the main focal point a massive mountain of kids toys? Are empty pots or broken planters cluttering up valuable gathering space?

Prioritize organizing your front porch and giving your family and friends a little more room and reason to linger when the weather is nice. Its pretty incredible what eliminating excess clutter can do for adding a welcoming vibe. Even if your porch looks more like a small stoop, you can add curb appeal and function.