31 Days to Organize Your Home

While most years I vow to get back on track and start eating healthy, exercising, and losing weight, I want to start this year different. I want to make the healthy eating, exercising and losing weight a way of life, not a resolution. So I’m resolving to organizing my home. And I’ll share with you my journey and the tips along the way.

Below is a list of what each day will tackle. Then as we complete each day I’ll link up to the post that gives helpful tips and solutions to completing the task. I’ll also delve in more to what else you can do in each room and on each day.

31 Days to Organize Your Home

Day 1 – 3: Start with the Kitchen

• Organize the cupboards – throw out what you don’t use!
• Re-arrange the items on the counter to reflect what you use and utilize

• Organize and clean out the pantry – go through everything and throw out any expired foods or anything ripped or torn
• Organize and clean out the fridge – same rules as the pantry.

Day 4: Move to the Dining Room

• Clean up the buffet table (if you have it)
• Organize your linens – table cloths, napkins, place mats. Get rid of any you don’t use or are starting to get old and grimy

Day 5-6: Spruce Up the Living Room

• Go through all of the old magazines and books you might have lying around. Store the items you want to keep and either pass on or throw out the stuff you don’t
• Consider rearranging the furniture to better accommodate your daily lifestyle.
• Go through the drawers, if any, in your end tables and entertainment unit and clean them out

Day 7-8: Time to Tackle the Entry Way and Hallway… and that means the hall closet!

• Clean out the closet and re-organize to make it more useful and appealing to the eye when you open it
• Straighten up the photos on the wall and update a few to show more current pictures of your family
• Consider building an over the door storage rack for gift wrap and more

Day 9-10: Move on to the Office

• Straighten up your work area
• Go through papers and get rid of anything you don’t need/file anything you need to keep

Day 11: Electronics Organization

• With organizing your home comes organizing your computer and other data

Day 12-13 Don’t Forget the Bathrooms

• Go through the medicine cabinets and storage areas in the bathroom to de-clutter and clean up
• Get rid of any old or ratty towels that just don’t make the cut
• Weed out any products you aren’t using in the shower and replace with new ones

Day 14-15: Master Bedroom

• Get rid of the clutter! Consider cleaning off dressers, side tables, etc and only leaving what you use daily. Utilize night stands to hide any un-needed items or to store the book your reading and remotes.
• Go through your dresser drawers and toss any clothing you haven’t worn in a year (or whatever guidelines you set). Bag up what you can donate and take it to the goodwill.
• Still don’t have enough room? Consider utilizing under the bed for storage. Or adding shelves or a wardrobe unit

Day 16: Master Bedroom Closet

• Just like your drawers, your closet needs cleaning out as well. Donate anything you haven’t worn in a year.
• Consider organizational tools like shoe racks, tie racks, and shelving in your closet.

Day 17: Kids Room

• Toys, toys, toys. Whether it’s the kids room or the playroom consider putting a limit to the amount of toys accessible. This will save you both time and patience. Consider shelving and other storage options for the room.
• Consider putting items in three piles: keep, giveaway, and store. While the keep and giveaway piles are self-explanatory, use the store pile to rotate with the keep pile every few months.
• When putting toys in the giveaway pile consider their quality. Sometimes you can sell these toys at children’s resale shops.

Day 18: Kids Closets

• Go through their clothes and weed out anything that doesn’t fit anymore. Also create a pile for clothing that might be too big at the moment and consider storing it until it’s needed to reduce wasted space.
• Consider shelving and storage in the closet to make more room for items you might need in the room.

19-20: Playroom

Day 21-22: Spare Room

• Utilize the space you have in the spare room to store things you need. Towels, linens, etc. Don’t allow this room to be a catch all for the things you can’t fit anywhere else!
• Find furniture to utilize the space in the way you want to use it. Guest bedroom? Consider an ottoman or chest for storing extra linens, etc.

Day 24: Attic

• If you’re using either of these spaces to store things then you want to be doing it efficiently. Consider the storage your using right now. How can you better it?
• Go through boxes and pull out anything you don’t absolutely need to keep. Limit “memory boxes” to one per family member and only keep important information.

Day 25: Basement

• Consider utilizing part of the space for fun or family time if there’s room.

Day 26-28: Garage/Storage Unit

• As my husband says, “A garage is built for cars.” But if you don’t have the necessary storage in your home, a garage can act as a storage unit. Consider racking and shelves on the sides of the garage. Utilize bins and other organizational devices to help store things neatly.
• Keep tools and home improvement items stored away safely. Consider cabinets that lock so kids can’t get into what they shouldn’t.
• Think of how you want to utilize this space. Is it just for parking cars? Do you need a workout area or room for tools and home improvement? Or maybe half of the garage should be a (wo)man cave.

Day 29: Laundry Room

• Whether your washer and dryer have a home in an actual room or a closet space (or in the garage like mine!) a laundry room should be neat and tidy. Consider storage for soaps and cleaners.
• Try and include a place for folding. If there is no room, make sure there’s a designated spot in the house where it will get done (and not stay in a pile all week like ours).

Day 30: Yard Organization

• If you have a garden shed, utilize it! Keep all tools and yard products stored unless needed.
• If you have kids, go through and throw out any broken yard toys and donate anything that’s not being used.
• Also consider creating a “parking area” for any wheeled toys. Your child will come to know that this is where their toys are parked just like the cars

Day 31: Cars

• We’re at the end of our 31 days of organization and that ends at the car. Take everything out that didn’t come with the car and vacuum and clean it out.
• Go through what you had in the car and leave the important information in place.
• Consider over-the-seat and CD storage for odds and ends so they don’t end up on the floor or on the seat.
• Have a trash bag that all trash goes into. This could be a part of the over-the-seat storage you choose.

Now that you’ve gone through these 31 days look at what you’ve accomplished! Pat yourself on the back and give yourself a round of applause! Now the difficult part… keeping up with what you’ve set in place.

Our next series will be on how to clean your home one room at a time. There will be great tips, tricks, and tutorials along the way so stay tuned! While you were organizing you might have cleaned up as you went along but there’s always more that can be done.