Spring is here, and for many people this means the season of deep cleaning has begun.   And although your home may be “clean”, do you know where everything is?  Is it neat and tidy?  You may answer a resounding no to these questions, but organizing your life is much more attainable than you may think.  Organization isn’t just for anal retentive Type A people, perfectionists, or for those with the perfect homes in magazines or on TV.  YOU can make your house work FOR you, instead of AGAINST you.

Recently, a friend asked me for organizing advice, and well, I can be quite messy.  I thought I may not be the best person to ask, but the more I thought about it, I realized organizing actually has a lot in common with interior design.  Both use problem solving as means to make spaces look and function better.   I’ll let you in on a little secret: although it requires thought and determination at first, once you create a functional home, it’s super easy to maintain.

I’ve scoured the internet, Pinterest, magazine articles, and even a couple of books, searching high and low for the best tips and products out there in the organizing world.  I wouldn’t be a good blogger friend if I didn’t pass that on to you, now would I?

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EASY TIPS + TRICKS

Organizing pretty much boils down to a set of principles.  Follow them and you’ll be on the road to success:

• Define your storage needs.  You can’t solve the problem until you define it.  Where are the problem areas?  What is missing or causing the clutter?  What tools do you need to make it better?  Most of the time, clutter is caused from items that do not have a home.  Make sure each thing you own has a proper place to be stored.

• Make sure you have designated space to accommodate your stuff.  In the design of many homes, storage is often an after thought.  A lot of homes do not have the proper amount of built-ins and closet space necessary to function clutter-free.  If this is a description of your home, do not let this stop you!  Seek out the proper equipment you need, such as shelving, cabinets, and baskets.  Another idea: Don’t make purchases you don’t have room to store, unless you are willing to part with something you do not use anymore!

• Group like items together.  Categorizing similar items is logical, making things extremely easy to find.

• Label!  Labeling will help not only you, but also others identify where things go.   (Bonus:  your lazy family member(s) will not be able to use the “I didn’t know where to put it” excuse, because *TA DA* it’s clearly labeled)

• Decide what to conceal.  Use baskets, bins, and totes to hide things that appear messy.  It will make a world of difference.

• Avoid the temptation to just stuff all your miscellaneous crap under the bed or in the closet.  This is counter productive as these spaces should be functional too.

• Think outside the box.  Come up with creative ways to display and store items.

• Look for double function furniture pieces.  Use a trunk as a coffee table to store all your games and movies, or a kitchen cart that can hold your pots and pans while serving as a food prep surface.

• Be disciplined.  Take 20 minutes each night to put things away that you have used throughout the day.

BEST BLOGS OUT THERE FOR ORGANIZING (in my humble opinion):

•  I Heart Organizing
• I’m an Organizing Junkie
• A Bowl Full of Lemons
• Simplified Bee

STORAGE MUST HAVES

1. Rugby Stripe Bins, Container Store
2. BYHOLMA Basket, IKEA
3. Milano Graphic Storage Boxes, Container Store
4. PS Cabinet in White, IKEA
5. Latte Parker Desktop File, Container Store
6. Closetmaid 31″ Horizontal Organizer, Target
7. Glass Jar (various sizes), Container Store
8. Seville UltraZinc Shelving on Casters, Amazon
9. Threshold Stoneware Chalkboard Canisters, Target

For the links to these above items and many more inspiration, visit Vim & Vintage’s Pinterest page!

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(all of the above images link back to their source)