Share Your Best Organizing Tips That You Use!

I throw out everything I don't use. I find that far easier than little what nots to hold this or that in case I ever need it.

I know this doesn't work for everyone I am just that person that doesn't need ____ just in case. I am amazed, and I am not referring to people here, how many people will buy all kinds of stuff to organize say their closet without actually looking at what is in the closet. Like that sweater you haven't worn in five years.

I'm with Jo G, I am obsessive about de-cluttering. I do a major overhaul of the entire house, room by room, every 6 months, and in between times I toss anything broken, torn, or otherwise unusable to keep clutter from building up.

With that done, there's not a whole lot of organizing that really needs to be done. I put off-season clothes for DH and me in clear plastic bins, labeled accordingly. For the kids, stuff that has been outgrown and will be passed down, I put in a bin labeled with the size and season (for example, just put away the older child's size 10 winter clothes in a bin labeled with the younger child's name and "Size 10 winter" on the outside). The younger child's outgrown winter clothes went to a smaller cousin labeled with the cousin's name and "Size 5 winter." Off-season storage bins go in the garage on a shelf DH built for this purpose, so it's not cluttering up my house!

Because our smaller bedrooms are super small, I removed the closet doors in the kids' rooms (they had the sliding doors) and put in tension rods (like for a shower curtain), and fabric shower curtains to cover the closet opening. This way, my kids can see their whole closet at once. Then, I put in 2, 5-section sweater hangers and 1 shoe hanger, and put all their folding clothes on the sweater hangers (1 section for socks, 1 for underwear, 1 for dark shirts, 1 for light shirts, 1 for shorts, 1 for pants, etc) and all their shoes are in the shoe hanger. Then I was able to remove the dressers from their rooms, which gave them more playing space, less stuff to clean, fewer drawers for things to lurk in... and of course, all the sections in the sweater hangers in the closet are labeled.

My biggest challenge is mail. I swear it multiplies inside the mailbox. Before I even set it on the counter, I sort through it, immediately toss the junk mail, and then it either goes into the "bills" basket or the "needs to be addressed" basket (such as invitations or DH's work stuff, or things that I need to file in the filing cabinet). Then once a week I pay the bills and file the stuff that needs to be filed, respond to invitations, etc. I keep a book of stamps in the "bills" basket, plus the checkbook and a pen, so it's all in one place and makes the chore less annoying.

But yeah, the biggest thing is decluttering. If I haven't used it in the past 6 months, then I absolutely don't need it cluttering my drawers/cabinets/closets! I actually have 2 closets and several cabinets that sit completely empty (and my house doesn't have a ton of storage to begin with).

I'm with Jo G. on this O.. If you have less stuff, you don't need as much stuff to organize the STUFF! LOL
I pitch stuff out every chance I get. I don't keep anything that I don't use, doesn't fit, I don't like or I can live without. This is the reason I hate attics and basements.
Supposedly there is a book called something like "You Only Need 100 Things" and I'd love to see the list then pitch some more!
I do keep a bin for each school year's stuff--on a shelf--in the basement.

I am with Jo G. I am a simpleton, and I love it. The less "stuff" there is, the less dusting, cleaning, organizing, sorting, moving, and packing I have to do!!

We label EVERYTHING. I did it at first on just paper labels with pen, and then my MIL got me a P-Touch labeler for Christmas - geeky, I know, but I LOVE it!! We have toy bins labeled, tubs of future clothes that have been donated for my kids from friends, shoes, health and beauty stuff, etc. We also started using empty/free wipes boxes that came with baby wipes for things like batteries, crayons, matchbox cars, Little People, my daughters hair stuff, etc. My hubby was always irritated that I was keeping them, but now he sees their value for the small stuff!

I know this isn't exactly what you were asking, but as my kids got older it was hard to keep everything straight for the whole family.
I'm a paper calendar girl and I want to see the whole month at once.
Birthdays and special days were written in red.
My son's activities/appointments in blue.
Daughter in purple.
Mine in green and general activities in black.

I'm all over organizing as much as possible!

I'm trying to remember all my flylady stuff so this super no clutter in my home minalist people won't get me down. I would love if all of that came nautrally to me.

My best organizing tip isn't exactly about stuff, but to cut down craziness in the mornings i always get everything ready for the day -- the night before.

I saw a cool idea today for organizing plugs. You know how you generally have a mess of plugs coming from the X-box and the cable box and the tv and the modem and and and... all plugged into a power strip, and it is impossible to figure out what cord goes to what... anyway, what you do is write "tv", "modem", "xbox" etc on those plastic bread bad tags and clip them on the cord. I can't wait to try this out.

Clear plastic totes have been my lifesaver.

For my make-up:
I have a 3-tier, wheel-y cart, that I put everything into.
And I can roll it around, anywhere.

Those plastic carts with wheels, that places like Walmart has.
It has drawers on it.

I use these for my kids toys too.
And for office supplies.
And for my desk stuff.
And for clothing/scarves/hair accessories too.
Its REAL useful.

I guess my biggest organizing tool is that each of our kids have a "cubby" and this is where they keep their backpack, umbrella, school & library books, gloves, hats, mittens, etc. It can be anything you need often and I know each one of my children's cubby's have different items too...one also has her girl scout vest. We also keep our shoes all in one place and hang our coat in one place. In the winter I keep out an extra bin with all the hats and gloves so they can grab and go.

Another thing we use is a dry erase board for events and chores, etc. And I'm a firm believer in calendars like the one mom mentioned. I keep a paper calendar and one on my phone so I'm alerted with the day's events.

I don't hang onto pictures until I can do something with them but instead I put them all on the computer and make digital photo albums online through WalMart. You can make them simple or spend a lot of time on them...so it's not always a lot of work.

We have hooks in the garage to hang up our bikes on the wall (have to help the kids with this though), and a spot for balls, 5gal bucket for bats, those boards with holes & hooks in it for mommy's and daddy's yard items.

One spot for Dvd's, one for books, diff containers for toys (I used to separate out by barbie, blocks, etc but don't anymore because 4 kids just mix it all up and its worthless to me to keep on them about it especially little ones that wouldn't understand). But I do use those large plastic containers and when a child grows out of clothing I throw it in the bin and donate when it's full. I have one for each child because I know people that will use my 8 year old daughter's, and someone that'll use my son's and someone for the baby's.

I have a jewelry armouire for my jewelry, a vanity in the bathroom for my makeup, a caddy with handles for items on my bathroom sink, one in kids' bathroom for hair accessories. I also keep 2 of those under the kitchen sink. ...I could prob go on and on...I'm a big organizer. Thank you for posting because it was good to hear what other mommies had to say :-)

I get lunch money together at the beginning of the school year in those plastic pouches (like that buttons come in) - the correct amount of money for each day of the year (there are 180 school days here, so you have to have $400 at one time to devote) and then I go to the bank and get $1s and quarters (lunch is $2.25). I have it in a plastic bin in my closet, so all I have to do is grab one for lunch.

I got sick of never remembering to have $1s available, and they won't give change or let you pay in advance or on a 'credit card' system.

I know most of you make your lunches, but the lunches at my daughters school are organic and really yummy so most all the kids buy lunches.

I buy those closet space hangers at Walgreens. I use the plastic bins.

Rubbermaid totes.. pink for DD, blue for dh and green for me. Stacks stuff, awesome. My bathroom is just like yours, a cabinet full of drawers all organised with makeup, hair stuff, and every other thing possible. Funny thing is, I use maybe 5-7 pieces of all that!!! and yet theres 5 drawers... lol
I have baskets everywhere, if something sits on a counter, or the tub or anywhere, its in a basket, easy to pick it all up to dust & clean.
I have shelves up all over the place, kitchen for baby dishes, bathroom for baskets of more "stuff".
Mail is a huge annoyance, I have a divider (kind of like a napkin holder) attatched to the wall above the fridge :)

color coding my files worked wonders for me:
green for financials, savings, investments, employment records (color of money!)
red for credit cards, loans, tax records, other debt
blue for medical, health records, personal insurance
yellow for school records, report cards, religious education, et al
silver for automobile records, auto club memberships, travel literature, and frequent traveler records (silver=metal=modes of transportation)
orange for house, utilities, house services, homeowner's insurance

there are certain categories that could easily be filed in more than one color such as continuing education needed for employment. just decide which and stick to it.

Also, having moved several times, I recognize the immense burden of books. Novels: read 'em and leave 'em. Reference: How many dictionaries do you really need? Textbooks: outdated within a few years. My mother set aside one room in her house for her books. Now I have to figure out what to do with them...