Shane Communities Development
Mudroom/Entryway
The point of entry to your home is the first stop on your home organization adventure. This is the last place you see before you leave your home in the morning, and the first part of the home you see when you walk in the door after a long day. The organization of your home largely lies on how effectively you can use the entryway space. If you have a mudroom, you likely already have a great outline for organizing your home! You have coat hooks, closet space, and maybe even some cabinets or cubby holes to store your family’s outerwear and shoes. If you don’t, it is easy to install some simple hooks, a bench and some baskets so that your family can walk in the door and put their belongings in a specific place where they belong. The entryway is the perfect spot for backpacks too! Stick them on an easily accessible hook and keep them out of your living space.
Effective use of the entryway of your home can make or break your fall organization plan. If your belongings are scattered, it will likely take longer to get out the door in the morning. If you don’t have entryway storage for outerwear, footwear and bags, then you will likely find these strewn about the rest of your home. In short, your entryway isn’t just the gateway to your home, it’s the gateway to your fall organizing strategy also.
The Kitchen
The heart of every household, your kitchen is a critical component to total-home organization. It is likely that your kitchen sees more traffic than any other room in your home. Between cooking, dishes, preparing a meal and grabbing a quick snack, it is easy for your kitchen to become a disaster zone. During the school year, the kitchen is where you can find rushed breakfasts, bagged lunches and sometimes, it’ll even become the homework hub of your home. Without a kitchen organization plan, you’re setting yourself up for a long fall.
In the kitchen, the best way to keep everything in order is to organize the room based on your family’s lifestyle. This time of year often calls for easy access, and grab-and-go storage. To keep the kitchen away from chaos, store those quick, tasty after school snacks in an easily accessible place where nobody has to dig through cabinets to find them. To make lunch packing easier, keep everything in your fridge stored in a purposeful place and each child’s lunch in an easy to access place for them to grab before school. If you have to run off to after-school activities, keep nutritious, ready-to-go meals like pre-made sandwiches or leftovers on their own shelf in the fridge. Lastly, make sure your family eats dinner at the table to keep the island or counter tops from getting too crowded.
A systematic, lifestyle-based approach is the key to keeping your kitchen organized and your family sane during this fast paced, busy time of year. But if you’re able to find the lifestyle suiting strategy that’s right for your family, you’ll have a kitchen that’s ready to handle everyone in your family all season long.
The Family Room
Back to school time means your home is likely now cluttered with backpacks, school supplies, books, paper and other belongings that need to be tracked and organized. Often, these possessions make their way to the most comfortable living space: the family room. As the room most often used for relaxing and unwinding, it is natural that the kids come home from school and dump their bags and homework in the family room as they sit to watch their favorite TV show or do some reading. This is how the chaotic, messy family room starts!
This fall, try making your family room a clutter-free zone. Set aside space for normal family room belongings such as books, videos or other things used for unwinding. Keep those bags, school supplies and school work in a study area or the mudroom. The family room should be a space for relaxing and being comfortable; not for being overwhelmed and surrounded by clutter. Devote your family room to being a neutral space, free from the work, school or sports materials used in every other facet of day-to-day activities.
The family room needs to be the space where family can be together, not where work and homework get done. Relax, kick back and share a conversation together. After all, a family room is for family time, right?
Kid’s Rooms
One of the scariest parts of back to school organization, organizing your child’s bedroom and closet is frightening enough to make any parent consider giving up on their organization plan. But don’t give up yet! Not only is this a great opportunity to say goodbye to your youngsters old, grungy clothes, it’s also an opportunity to teach them a great lesson about the benefits of staying organized.
To start this grand undertaking, begin in their closet. Start your organizing by purging all of their old clothes that are no longer worn or no longer fit. This will give you more space to work, and more space for all of their new back to school shopping goodies. Following that, organize their belongings based on activity or function. If they have a school uniform, have a specific spot set for it. Do the same with casual wear, sports uniforms and anything else they may have. Ensure they also have some shelving or baskets for toys or other possessions that you commonly find around your home. If your kids have a spot for these things, it’s less likely they will be found where they don’t belong.
Getting your child and their room organized may be the most challenging part of organizing your home this fall, but don’t look at it as a challenge for you; see it as a learning opportunity for them! The process will go a lot smoother, and it may even be a bit of bonding fun.
A space devoted to study
Not every home has an office. However if you have kids currently going to school, you need to have a space devoted to homework and studying if you want to keep your home in order. Whether it is a full room, or a desk with a bulletin board and cabinets, your child needs their own space to study, do homework, learn and play. Not only does this give them their own space, it also keeps them from getting distracted by TV or any other pastime that might also be available.
Homework, arts and crafts all over the house is a parent’s worst nightmare. Keep their school lives organized with a special study and homework area. It will keep the rest of your home a little bit more organized and you won’t have to spend time looking for your child’s book report before school in the morning!
Laundry room
This bit of fall home organization is for the parents in particular. Possibly the dirtiest room in your home, the laundry room needs its share of organization to help you get through the fall. Have you ever walked into the laundry room to your little soccer star’s dirty jersey lying on the floor? What about soaking wet pants or a sweater after walking home in the rain? Of course you have. Every parent has!
Laundry room organization can go a long way to ensuring you make it through the fall without having to pick laundry up off of your floor. Give each family member an individual hamper to keep their clothes separate. If they have their own place for dirty clothes, they would be more likely to use it. If you have two kids, this is a great way to keep from getting their clothes mixed up and misplaced. You’ll never have to hear “Mom, where did you put my new shirt?” ever again!
Organizing your laundry room provides you with peace of mind, and helps keep stress levels low. Take back your laundry room with a fall organization plan.
Starting small
Organization doesn’t happen overnight. Having the perfect fall home organization strategy comes with patience and time as you and your family develop the habits necessary to maintain your newly organized home. The best way to get used to your fall home organization plan is by starting small. Just like starting a new school year, organization is a process that needs to be eased into. Start small by developing the habit of putting bags and jackets away in the mudroom, or by removing your kids’ old homework and schoolwork to give them a fresh space to start anew in their study space. After that, slowly work your way into those busy, often cluttered rooms such as the kitchen or family room. As the habit develops, the organization process gets easier for the whole family!
Fall is one of the busiest times of the year for most families. Work, school and extracurricular activities have everyone running around non-stop every day. Making sure your home is organized to suit your lifestyle is key to having a home that works for you. From the moment you walk in the door, there are steps you can take to ensure your home is organized. This fall, as the kids go back to school and you begin planning your schedule of events to host and activities to do, organize your home to improve its efficiency.
The point of entry to your home is the first stop on your home organization adventure. This is the last place you see before you leave your home in the morning, and the first part of the home you see when you walk in the door after a long day. The organization of your home largely lies on how effectively you can use the entryway space. If you have a mudroom, you likely already have a great outline for organizing your home! You have coat hooks, closet space, and maybe even some cabinets or cubby holes to store your family’s outerwear and shoes. If you don’t, it is easy to install some simple hooks, a bench and some baskets so that your family can walk in the door and put their belongings in a specific place where they belong. The entryway is the perfect spot for backpacks too! Stick them on an easily accessible hook and keep them out of your living space.
Effective use of the entryway of your home can make or break your fall organization plan. If your belongings are scattered, it will likely take longer to get out the door in the morning. If you don’t have entryway storage for outerwear, footwear and bags, then you will likely find these strewn about the rest of your home. In short, your entryway isn’t just the gateway to your home, it’s the gateway to your fall organizing strategy also.
The Kitchen
The heart of every household, your kitchen is a critical component to total-home organization. It is likely that your kitchen sees more traffic than any other room in your home. Between cooking, dishes, preparing a meal and grabbing a quick snack, it is easy for your kitchen to become a disaster zone. During the school year, the kitchen is where you can find rushed breakfasts, bagged lunches and sometimes, it’ll even become the homework hub of your home. Without a kitchen organization plan, you’re setting yourself up for a long fall.
In the kitchen, the best way to keep everything in order is to organize the room based on your family’s lifestyle. This time of year often calls for easy access, and grab-and-go storage. To keep the kitchen away from chaos, store those quick, tasty after school snacks in an easily accessible place where nobody has to dig through cabinets to find them. To make lunch packing easier, keep everything in your fridge stored in a purposeful place and each child’s lunch in an easy to access place for them to grab before school. If you have to run off to after-school activities, keep nutritious, ready-to-go meals like pre-made sandwiches or leftovers on their own shelf in the fridge. Lastly, make sure your family eats dinner at the table to keep the island or counter tops from getting too crowded.
A systematic, lifestyle-based approach is the key to keeping your kitchen organized and your family sane during this fast paced, busy time of year. But if you’re able to find the lifestyle suiting strategy that’s right for your family, you’ll have a kitchen that’s ready to handle everyone in your family all season long.
The Family Room
Back to school time means your home is likely now cluttered with backpacks, school supplies, books, paper and other belongings that need to be tracked and organized. Often, these possessions make their way to the most comfortable living space: the family room. As the room most often used for relaxing and unwinding, it is natural that the kids come home from school and dump their bags and homework in the family room as they sit to watch their favorite TV show or do some reading. This is how the chaotic, messy family room starts!
This fall, try making your family room a clutter-free zone. Set aside space for normal family room belongings such as books, videos or other things used for unwinding. Keep those bags, school supplies and school work in a study area or the mudroom. The family room should be a space for relaxing and being comfortable; not for being overwhelmed and surrounded by clutter. Devote your family room to being a neutral space, free from the work, school or sports materials used in every other facet of day-to-day activities.
The family room needs to be the space where family can be together, not where work and homework get done. Relax, kick back and share a conversation together. After all, a family room is for family time, right?
Kid’s Rooms
One of the scariest parts of back to school organization, organizing your child’s bedroom and closet is frightening enough to make any parent consider giving up on their organization plan. But don’t give up yet! Not only is this a great opportunity to say goodbye to your youngsters old, grungy clothes, it’s also an opportunity to teach them a great lesson about the benefits of staying organized.
To start this grand undertaking, begin in their closet. Start your organizing by purging all of their old clothes that are no longer worn or no longer fit. This will give you more space to work, and more space for all of their new back to school shopping goodies. Following that, organize their belongings based on activity or function. If they have a school uniform, have a specific spot set for it. Do the same with casual wear, sports uniforms and anything else they may have. Ensure they also have some shelving or baskets for toys or other possessions that you commonly find around your home. If your kids have a spot for these things, it’s less likely they will be found where they don’t belong.
Getting your child and their room organized may be the most challenging part of organizing your home this fall, but don’t look at it as a challenge for you; see it as a learning opportunity for them! The process will go a lot smoother, and it may even be a bit of bonding fun.
A space devoted to study
Not every home has an office. However if you have kids currently going to school, you need to have a space devoted to homework and studying if you want to keep your home in order. Whether it is a full room, or a desk with a bulletin board and cabinets, your child needs their own space to study, do homework, learn and play. Not only does this give them their own space, it also keeps them from getting distracted by TV or any other pastime that might also be available.
Homework, arts and crafts all over the house is a parent’s worst nightmare. Keep their school lives organized with a special study and homework area. It will keep the rest of your home a little bit more organized and you won’t have to spend time looking for your child’s book report before school in the morning!
Laundry room
This bit of fall home organization is for the parents in particular. Possibly the dirtiest room in your home, the laundry room needs its share of organization to help you get through the fall. Have you ever walked into the laundry room to your little soccer star’s dirty jersey lying on the floor? What about soaking wet pants or a sweater after walking home in the rain? Of course you have. Every parent has!
Laundry room organization can go a long way to ensuring you make it through the fall without having to pick laundry up off of your floor. Give each family member an individual hamper to keep their clothes separate. If they have their own place for dirty clothes, they would be more likely to use it. If you have two kids, this is a great way to keep from getting their clothes mixed up and misplaced. You’ll never have to hear “Mom, where did you put my new shirt?” ever again!
Organizing your laundry room provides you with peace of mind, and helps keep stress levels low. Take back your laundry room with a fall organization plan.
Starting small
Organization doesn’t happen overnight. Having the perfect fall home organization strategy comes with patience and time as you and your family develop the habits necessary to maintain your newly organized home. The best way to get used to your fall home organization plan is by starting small. Just like starting a new school year, organization is a process that needs to be eased into. Start small by developing the habit of putting bags and jackets away in the mudroom, or by removing your kids’ old homework and schoolwork to give them a fresh space to start anew in their study space. After that, slowly work your way into those busy, often cluttered rooms such as the kitchen or family room. As the habit develops, the organization process gets easier for the whole family!
Fall is one of the busiest times of the year for most families. Work, school and extracurricular activities have everyone running around non-stop every day. Making sure your home is organized to suit your lifestyle is key to having a home that works for you. From the moment you walk in the door, there are steps you can take to ensure your home is organized. This fall, as the kids go back to school and you begin planning your schedule of events to host and activities to do, organize your home to improve its efficiency.
