A List of Some of My Organizing Favorites

1. Shoebox. We have a big chest for shoes right by the door. Our shoes don't always make it into the chest, but the POTENTIAL is there and there is always a place to put them when we do clean up.

2. Clear containers. I'm still in the phase of keeping clothes from older kids to save for younger ones. I have big clear containers for this and I love them. I label each container Boy or Girl and add the age. I limit myself to one container per year - that helps me get rid of the grungy stuff. As my kids grow out of clothes, I put the too small clothes in the previous years container and pull out new clothes from the next one.

3. Stuffed animal container. I don't like stuffed animals very much. But every once in awhile, we need stuffed animals, so I can't just get rid of them. From my previous post, you read that I have them hidden in a closet. I also have them hidden inside the closet. I bought a hanging storage container at IKEA for a few dollars. I love it because it is dump proof. To get any of those animals out, you have to reach in a pull them out - one at a time.

4. Camping checklist. A few years ago on a drive home from a camping trip, we decided to make a list of everything we were glad we took and everything we wished we had taken. I typed it up when we got home and now everytime we go camping, I print it out and we pack. It's eliminated tons of planning time. We also update it based on new camping experiences. A checklist could easily be made for anything you do repeatedly, but not often enough to remember what you really need.

5. File folders. If someone needed to find something for you, could they find it? Could they find it if you told them were to look? Could they find it if they couldn't tell you? You need a system that makes sense to you and makes sense to others.

6. Rotaskof. This is my mom's name for a kitchen junk drawer. I'm ok with having a kitchen junk drawer, but make it junk that you use. I use it as a place for the stuff I use all the time, but usually piles on the counter - keys, phone, camera, etc.

7. Library bookshelf. We use the library often and usually come home with more than 50 books. We have cupboard shelf (with doors) close to where we read that is dedicated to library books. If we don't have any library books, the shelf is empty. It saves lots of time we could spend looking for those books!

8. Bulletin boards. Each of my kids have a bulletin board in their room so they can hang their important stuff. I love them.

9. Basket for papers you don't know what to do with yet. I have a basket for papers I don't know what to do with. I might be waiting for something, deciding what to do about it, or just haven't decided where to put it yet. My family loves it too because when we're cleaning up, they put any papers they don't know what to do with, in my basket!

10. Shoeboxes. I love shoeboxes for things that you want to keep, but never use - specifically birds nests, rock collections, fossils, feather, snakeskins, whatever. I put it in a shoebox, label it and put it on a high shelf in the garage. It's there if we ever need it again, but we don't have to see it until then.