Tips for Organizing Your Home: And What To Do When It All Goes To Pot

I was recently asked for tips about how to organize a woman's home.  My first reaction was to get to work thinking of clever tips and tricks to miraculously solve her organizational problems.  And I suppose I have a few, but it just didn't seem right to start there, spewing off my alleged expertise about home organization.

After all, we all know clever tricks and amazing tips are only amazing for a little while.  Just as soon as we get a room organized, styled, and clean something or someone inevitably happens to undo all of our hard work. Murphy's law as they call it.


Your dishwasher goes out, the washing machine stops working in the middle of a cycle, your dog chews up the couch cushions, sickness hits your family, a baby is born, your child goes berserk, your toddler has another accident on the rug, pressures mount at work leaving you zero time for anything else.  Life happens.  Before you know it your organized closet is as disheveled looking as it was before and your "junk" drawer in the kitchen once again reflects its name.

This is real life.  It is most definitely not what you see on Pinterest or in your latest issue of Real Simple.  And believe you me, I love my fill of both.  But they don't represent real life.

I wish life was real simple.  I wish there was always a simple answer to give to my kids, a simple solution to my problems, and for heaven's sake a simple dinner to fix on busy nights.  Somehow the pictures I see online and in magazines don't capture all of the real stuff.  The recipe looks mouthwatering and the article tells me it is easy, but I had better count on at least doubling the prep time.  Why?  Because their studio prep time is staged--it doesn't account for interruptions!

When I gaze long enough at the picture, I can begin to believe the lie that life should be like a picture. Controlled.  Predictable.  Static. 

Photographs can't possibly represent real life because they are static.  

Static - (adj.) showing little if any change; not in physical motion

I was at a play group this week with a few women who were talking about this very thing.  One sarcastically confessed: I'd be doing pretty good except for my children--they keep getting older! The older they get, the more independent and opinionated they keep becoming!  We all had a good laugh. Underneath the laughter was sympathetic understanding because each of us could relate to her candor.  

Just as soon as I feel like I actually have a grip on life, something changes that catapults me "back to the drawing board" as they say.  I may go several days feeling relatively peaceful and self-controlled and then wham!--just like that along comes a day that just about does me in.  I'm frazzled, spent, uncertain, and irritable from sunup to sundown.  To anyone looking on they would hardly be able to tell me apart from my children for all my lack of self-control and patience. 

Life has a way of keeping me humble like that.  And I think it's supposed to be that way.  This big world we live in is God's footstool after all.  Hello.  That makes us a piece of lint on the upholstery, if that! 

And yet God loves us and has made us full of intrinsic value because we are made in His image.  We would be wise not to kick and scream and fight against our humbling circumstances with all our airs of pride and self-sufficiency.

If there is one person who knows what it's like to trade in pride for humility it is Paul.  In the Bible, in the book of second Corinthians, the apostle Paul talks about this very thing.  Before becoming a Christian Paul was a legalistic and prideful religious leader who put Christians to death.  During his initial run-in with the Lord, he was struck blind for three days.  Three whole days.  Life as he knew it came to a screeching halt.

Through a series of events orchestrated by God, Paul was led to a man's house named Ananias. Ananias would not have ordinarily been one to so willingly show hospitality to a murderer, except that he too had personally received a vision from the Lord.  In Ananias' home, Paul received back his sight and was filled with the Holy Spirit. From that moment on, Paul's purpose in life was to tell others what he had seen and experienced--namely the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.  

After his conversion, Paul was catapulted from a place of prestige, power, and wealth to a place of humility, esteemed not by the powers that be.  He says the following in a letter to the early church of Corinth:  

"But I won't [boast], because I don't want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God."

2 Corinthians 12:6 

Paul was the real deal.  His walk matched his talk.  In Paul's day there was no such thing as a perfectly staged and outfitted head shot to give him credibility.  No media spinning or personal PR consultant to help him out.  The only thing he had to win the trust of his newfound fellow believers--the ones who he had previously sought to kill--was what they could see in real life.  And what they saw wasn't a static, edited image, but a changed life.

In our day and age it is increasingly essential that we remember to value real life, not just static pictures of an ideal life.

I decorate and help organize peoples' homes.  It's what I do and I love it.  But what I love more is you. Cheesy, I know, but it's true.  As often as I want, I will tell you that.  You are important.  You are highly valued.  God has a plan for your life.  And none of that changes if your closets aren't organized or your walls are bare.

For believers in Christ, we, like Paul, have access to the same Lord and the same promises. The Lord promises,

"My grace is sufficient for you.  For My power is made perfect in your weaknesses."  

2 Corinthians 12:9

In fact, that was God's answer to Paul when he prayed for God to remove a painful circumstance in his life.  And that was the same answer God gave Jesus on the cross.  Jesus asked for the cup to be removed from Him.  But God's answer was "no".  It was "no" for Paul and "no" for Jesus.  God's grace.  It was sufficient for them and it is sufficient for us.

When I discard the Lord in my thoughts, forgetting His grace towards me, I am the one who suffers needlessly.  Just like that, I am trying to stand on my own merit.  I completely forget that I am the piece of lint on the footstool not the one holding the world together!

For all our grasping at perfection, be it in our appearance or the appearance of our homes, we miss the opportunity to know the power of the Lord in our weaknesses.  

I need not hide my weaknesses, but boast in them.  And why wouldn't I?  It is then that Christ's power rests on me.  By all means, organize and decorate your home.  But as you do, may you and I be ever cognizant of the fact that we are all a hot mess when standing before the Lord.  As we stay mindful of that fact, it makes it easier to worship the only One worthy of our praise in the first place--the Lord Jesus Christ.  He has done it all.  And He did it all for you and for me.

In this new little job of mine, there is the staged version and the real version of the rooms I design on my website.  You should know that it takes a lot of work to get them looking like they do.  And most likely they don't still look like that today.  Yes, improvement is made.  But it will require continued work to keep them looking like the pictures you see.  

Just out of reach of my lens are usually piles of papers and random stacks of items we have removed for the purpose of getting a crisp and polished image.  In the process of achieving the ideal (if even for a brief moment) it forces people to make decisions about the items that are removed.  Can I live without this?  Do I really need that?  People begin to feel just how nice it is to have their living space so clean and simplified.

In a few days, when everything explodes again and you see your perfect room slipping away into oblivion, it might, in fact, be the perfect moment for you to experience Christ's power on display in your weakness.  It's what He does best.

And now, onto some tips to help you organize your home, if even for a little while...

Get A Cork Board:  Don't say good-bye to "old-school" too quickly.  Grab a cute cork board and pin snail mail invitations, announcements, save-the-dates, and reminders in a visible location.

A cork board and horizontal paper trays find lots of use in our home.

Use Horizontal Paper Trays on Your Bookshelves:  You know those plastic paper trays?  I love them!  I can't stand a disheveled, messy looking bookshelf--especially when it is in my main living space, which ours are.  The horizontal paper trays are great for my kids' school books and workbooks. It is so much easier than trying to stand flimsy books up straight.  Now, if my kids would only remember, "Spine out!"

Add A Shelf To Deep Cabinets:  Some cabinets are so big and deep they end up creating wasted space.  Add a shelf in the middle and double your surface area for storing items.

A cabinet in the basement we use for toy storage now does double duty with an additional shelf.

Keep Old Dressers:  We have a dresser I purchased from Goodwill that used to be in my daughter's room.  One day I walked in to her room and it had fallen forward and was resting diagonally on her bed. Thankfully, there were no injuries. Thank you, Jesus.  I was about to put the dresser on the side of the road when my mom said, "Why don't you stick it in a closet for extra storage?"  It is now in a closet at the foot of the stairs in the basement and houses my crafting and gift-wrap supplies.  Thanks, Mom!  (She is the queen of organization by the way.  You should meet her.)

My daughter's old dresser in our closet in the basement.  We plan to turn it around but we need to cut down the shelves and remount the brackets.  Needless to say, that hasn't happened yet;)  We also store my daugher's dress-up clothes in the clear drawers you see that were passed to us for free.  I don't mind it because I can close the closet doors!  

Easily Access Items You Need Where You Need Them:  My husband and I have four small children ages seven and under.  Let's just say the messes are myriad.  Whoever coined the phrase, "No use crying over spilt milk" had to be much older and long past the season of spills and messes. Just sayin'.  It is hard...for me anyway.

When we moved into our current house I bought a beautiful cabinet at a thrift store purely because I loved it and the price was right.  I had no idea what to put in it.  It ended up going in our kitchen and has become the mother hub for old towels we use to clean up messes.  When we were in the bib stage, bibs went in there as well.  Anytime a kid spills something I yell, "Go to the hutch!"  For some reason they love to grab my pretty, clean kitchen towels.  This convenient storage piece that contains an item we use frequently has been a small way in which life is a little bit easier.

The cabinet we run to often when spills happen.

On that note, we also use a drawer in a cabinet on the first floor for diapers and wipes so we don't have to traipse upstairs every time a baby poops.  (Unless of course the drawer is empty...ahhhh!)

Create Landing Zones:  In theory, this one should be awesome and you should never have to see shoes and coats scattered on the floor like fall leaves again.  In theory.  But here it is anyhow.

Think about the space surrounding the entry point of your home.  Front door?  Back door?  Side door? Garage door?  For us, it is the garage door.  As close as possible to that place try to set up a landing zone for items such as shoes, keys, and coats.

In a slide-out kitchen shelf I placed a bucket that has forever been coined "the shoe bucket".  It even has a song.  When our kids walk in the door, they "put their shoes in the bucket, shoes, shoes, in the bucket."  As we had more kids we outgrew the bucket.  Now the younger two kids use the bucket and the big kids use a storage bench in the dining room/school room immediately to our right when we walk through the door.  Above the storage bench are hooks for kid coats.  This works for us because our coat closet (the only closet on the first floor) is at the front of the house.  We don't enter there and it is already too full with other items to house everyone's coats.

We mounted key hooks on the side of our kitchen cabinet for our keys and a basket sits on top of the toaster oven for our wallets and other miscellaneous items that need to land in a safe place when we walk through the door.

Our garage door entry point.  Yes, my husband is a boss and does pull-ups every day.  In the kitchen is the only place this would actually happen. 

I bought this key hook organizer and mounted it to the cabinets when we first moved in.  I would be lost without it!

A closer look at our "shoe bucket" and our filing system on the counter.  Keep reading for details:)

Put A Filing System In The Kitchen:  This is probably my favorite thing I have done lately.  I grabbed a plastic filing box and labeled folders for each of my kids as well as a folder for the activities we are involved in.  When papers come home with important dates and info to remember, into their specified file folder they go.  When one of my children makes something I want to remember forever I stick it in their file.  This includes art, handmade holiday cards, sorry notes, school papers etc, anything noteworthy and adorable.

Note:  Don't get all caught up in it looking cute.  The most important part is how it functions, not how it looks.  Mine is super old, snagged from my mom's basement of old teacher supplies.  I was out of labels so I literally colored over old labels with red marker and then wrote my categories in black ink. It ain't pretty, but it works for now.  

Store Kid Dishes In A Low Cabinet Within Their Reach:  I'm pretty sure I read this on a blog years ago.  If I remembered where, I would give them credit.  This has been so great for our family because it gives kids some independence and me a little extra time...every second counts, right? Even our two year old can bring me plates for dinner and get his own water because he can reach the dishes and now the water dispenser on the fridge (on his tip toes).  We keep them in a cabinet on a low shelf right next to the fridge.  This is good because it keeps them away from the stove and sink where I usually am preparing food.  If you can, choose a low cabinet a little out of the way for your kids safety and your sake, so they aren't always in your way, asking you to move while you are chopping, stirring, whatever.  The kids can also empty the dishwasher and put their dishes away.  Yay!

Use Plastic Mini-Drawers:  I suppose you could use these for anything under the sun.  We use them for my kids' completed schoolwork.  The drawers just sit right on top of a cabinet in the schoolroom. It is so wonderful for containing the massive amount of papers that fly through our house on a daily basis.  Each quarter I go through the drawer and keep what is important to file for school records and pitch the rest.  (For tests, I immediately file them in each child's file folder in the kitchen.  At the end of each school year I permanently file them in their respective file cabinet in the basement.  Keep reading for details.) 

Plastic mini drawers and another example of horizontal paper trays in our school room.

Get Your Hands On Filing Cabinets:  This one is especially important for you home schooling moms out there.  A year or so ago an elderly neighbor died in our neighborhood and his kids came to clean out his house.  There was a lot to go.  We happened to see two tall filing cabinets, each with four drawers vertically, sitting at the end of his driveway while on a walk.  We approached the people and struck up a conversation.  Long story short, they were so grateful to get the file cabinets off their hands and see something of their dad's go to good use.  Cheap is good, but free is always better!

Don't feel bad about situations like this.  It's all part of the cycle of life. After all, we don't take our things with us when we die, they just become another person's problem.  We stuck the file cabinets in the basement on the storage side and each child has a drawer where we will store the culmination of their school work for as long as we continue to home school.

Utilize Old Changing Tables:  We are finally in a season where we decided to remove the changing table from my toddler's room.  I was long ready to say goodbye to it being housed on the second floor and eager for additional square footage.  Out it went.  That was in November.  Six months and several flops at potty training said toddler later, we may have done this a little early--but we're making it work!  It is such a nice piece of furniture that I didn't want to just sell it or give it away.  I decided to use it in our basement to create a quasi-laundry room and craft workbench.  It is awesome! So glad I held onto it. I'll post pictures some day.  Maybe sooner than later.  We'll see. After having strep this week I've been too afraid to even walk into the laundry room, much less photograph it;)

Seriously Consider Saying "YES" To Free Items:  If you can afford it spatially, that is.  My sister in law was cleaning out her college son's room and we said yes to free hand-me-down wall-mount shelves and an old bookshelf.  We mounted the shelves in the closet at the foot of the stairs (see picture above) and put the bookshelf in my son's closet for his toys.  I love both of these items because they are placed in closets where I can close the door and close out the mess!

My son now has toy storage in his closet allowing for more space to play in his room.

Get A Pretty Box For Storing Cards You Receive:  I have a pretty box from Tuesday Morning that I use to store memorable birthday cards I receive from the kids, family, grandparents, friends, and Scotty.  I store it under my bed in our bedroom.  The older I get, the more aware I become of how short my time and the time I have with others is here on earth.  Who knows when it will be the last card I receive from _____________.  I know I will be glad that I kept it.

I hope these truths and tips will help you dwell inspired.  God Bless!

*You can read the biblical account of Paul's conversion story here.