easier ways to get your house organized

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Special K for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Cleaning and organizing the house. It’s a constant struggle.

As a blogger, I often see posts about organizing the house and charts “to make it easier” and most of them assume that you have a spare 10-20 hours to get things done.

As a regular human, I don’t really have 20 hours to clean my house this week, and I’m guessing you don’t either. Today I’m sharing a “how to get your house organized” guide for the rest of us. The people running on almost zero sleep and who may be known to have forgotten a meal in the middle of an extra busy day.

The two bag method

When clutter gets out of control, start with two huge trash bags, the tall kind that goes in a kitchen trashcan.  Take about 10 minutes and march through the entire house putting clutter into the bags. One bag is for trash the other for donations. I’m always amazed by the fact that I can usually fill up at least one (if not both) of these bags pretty quickly each time I try it. My kids are absolute hoarders by nature so we constantly have papers that have barely been drawn on, and a variety of broken toys just begging to be thrown out lying around our house. The two bag method clears the clutter and gets things OUT of the way for future cleaning efforts.

Literally just wipe it down

I have found this magical cleaning loophole where my children think it’s a special reward to use a fancy sponge and wipe things down. I think it probably has to do with the fact that they like being allowed to get things wet inside the home, but I’ll take it. Hand the kids a wet sponge each and have them wipe down the walls and all surface areas in the bathrooms. They will think it’s awesome and you can have walls with a bit less kid-grime on them. It’s literally a win win.

Organize outside the box

When we were still living in our tiny apartment I got stuck in an organizing rut because there really wasn’t enough room to go around. This was when I realized that thinking outside the box when it comes to organizing is essential. Don’t be picky about WHERE you can make extra room for yourself. Just find the places that are easiest to clear out and start there. Once you’ve cleared out a random space (like the bottom of your pantry or the back corner under the bathroom sink), pick a category of stuff to store there. This could be anything from Christmas decorations, to coats and scarfs that you only need once a year. This is the kind of thing that takes up prime space in other closets that could easily be tucked away in hard-to-reach corners of your house. And yes, this is how our Christmas decorations started living on the top shelf of the kitchen pantry (who uses their top shelf?!?).

Literally stop buying stuff

If you don’t have a deep and dire need for it, and/or don’t know exactly where you would store it in your home, resist the urge to make the purchase. This goes right along with the need for getting things OUT of your house that we mentioned above. Get things out…but then don’t replace them with more things that you’ll have to clear out later.

Stop doing the same thing

We all have organizational pain-points in our house. Here’s how to solve them… look for the tasks that you keep repeating every single day. Picking up the kids backpacks, or tripping over shoes that were left in the front hallways might be a few examples. Find solutions that will help you avoid the everyday struggles of backpacks, shoes or anything else you find yourself tidying over and over again. This might mean buying a new organizational cabinet or screwing some hooks into a wall, but it will be worth it in the time and mental energy you save by not cleaning up the same few items literally every day.

Energize yourself.

Lastly, make sure you start off your journey to a more organized house on the right foot. Don’t cut any corners when it comes to fueling your body. This will help you maintain your energy throughout the day so that you can keep tidying as you go through everyday life. Grab a box of the tasty Nourish cereal from Special K to start your day right! It’s a great source of fiber, tastes great and you can be confident that what you are eating will help you prepare for a day of getting stuff done in and around your house! Do you have any special, out of the box organizing tips? I would looooove to hear them! I am always looking for the next awesome idea to help keep our house looking better and better!