Spring Cleaning - Need Organization Ideas

I use those shoe organizers that you put over the door for holding all kinds of things... You shut the door and you can't see it!

I saw the idea on the Today show once and it really has worked for me. I have one over the pantry door that holds the pens, pencils, staplers, erasers , scissors, batteries etc.etc.... I have one in the coat closet that holds paired up gloves, hats, scarves, etc.

This has really helped me alot as my drawers would always get hopelessly messy. Also, if you can find the shoe organizers that are clear plastic they work alot better.

Sort your mail right near the paper recycle bin. Or put a basket right under the desk for paper recycling.

I have a stand up rack with 3 or 4 vertical dividers for mail-bills-catalogs, etc. Works very nicely.

Get a small bin or basket for the keys (actually, we leave our keys in our vehicles in our garage--ALL the time.

Batteries--we have a battery drawer. I'd never take the time to use a battery organizer case--too cumbersome--so we have a very shallow drawer in O. side table that is all for batteries.

Have you ever used FlyLady? What you're describing is a Hot Spot. You can devote 5 mins per day to the hot spot so it stays the way it should be!

We have a "junk" drawer and a "junk" cupboard to hide this stuff. I have organizing bins in both. Batteries have their own compartment, along with paper clips, pens, and stamps. In my cupboard I have bins up there too. 1 holds all the medicine on the 2nd to top shelf (to keep kids out of and easy to find medicine b/c it is all in 1 bin) and then have my address book up there along with my Thank you notes I keep on hand.

As far as paper you may need to work on throwing it out immediately. When I bring the mail in I immediately throw all junk mail out. This helps with extra paper laying around. I only keep the bills out for when my husband comes home on the weekends.

Good luck!

The mail comes into the kitchen, when I get home I take it to my bedroom night stand and it will get sorted/filed that night or no later than the next day.

That works for me because I want my night stand to be neat and I am forced to clutter bust it almost everday. I have a file sorter in the bedroom labeled Pay now, To file, Upcoming appiontment ect.. I try and clutter bust that once a month if that. Our file cabinet is now in the basement.

That is how I handle the paper work. If you hate seeing the paper as soon as you walk in the door move the desk into another room.

We have a hook on the wall in the kitchen for our keys and I love it.

Godd Luck!

I keep a trash can in the garage next to the door going into the house. As I walk back from the mailbox, I sort through the mail and toss everything that is junk before I even get in the door.

Once inside, I open the actual mail and it either goes into my bill basket to be paid next payday, the trash or into my shred bin which is located next to the kitchen trash can in the cabinet. Once the shred bin is full, I sit and shred. Keeping the shred bin has come in handy when I need to look for an old bill.

we have a key hook to hang our keys on. It's by our garage door. That keeps them out of my purse or off a desk. My father made it for us.

By my front door - I have a table - it has a basket that holds the dogs leash and a flash light. It also has two pictures on it, one at either end.

We put the batteries in a battery rack that we picked up at Costco years ago. It holds, I think, a total of 32 batteries - 9V, AAA, AA, C and D. It also has a tester at the top to verify it's still good.

I have a lined basket on my desk that has scissors, tape, lotion, etc.

If you want it to be a command center - then you need to have a process in mind of how you want it to work for you. Is it where you pay your bills or where you keep your calendar? or both?

Junk mail should never sit around. That's my thing - I can't stand junk mail cluttering up my desk or my life. If I see junk mail - it's tossed into the recycling bin.

Our desk in the den has a desk organizer that I bought at Office Depot. It has 5 vertical slots to hold items and two horizontal slots. The vertical slots holds our Cluster Directory, checkbook, etc. The horizontal slot holds LES's and other miscellaneous papers. (it needs to be cleaned out - thanks for the reminder).

Go to Office Depot with the thought of HOW you want the desk to look and what you want it to keep. You will find a desk organizer there that will help you.

If you do NOT want to spend money? Take an empty cereal box (like the LARGER Cherrios) and cut it to make it look like a magazine holder. Ask the kids to decorate it with construction paper or whatever and put the magazines in that. That's what I did with our Parent's Magazine, etc. when I kept them.

If you have recipes that you want to keep but don't want pieces of paper floating around the house? Scan it in your printer and save it to your computer. Same goes with articles you want to keep but NOT the whole magazine or newspaper. Scan it.

If you chose a desk organizer - make sure that you label each slot as to what should be in there so if someone like your husband is looking for something - he doesn't pull EVERYTHING out looking for one thing.

Does that help?