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Organize Your Home in a Month In Less Than an Hour a Day

Ed Cyrek, 2019 President, Lorain County Association of REALTORS®

Ed Cyrek 2019 LoCAR President
Did you ever notice that your self-improvement pacts with yourself are action oriented? Walk 10,000 steps a day or fix that leaky faucet.But “get organized”? It’s a goal so broad that just trying to figure out what action to take makes you wonder what you were thinking in the first place. It’s like you need an organizing plan for your organizing.


HouseLogic, the National Association of REALTORS® consumer website offers these steps, spending less than an hour day (sometimes just a few moments), to a better organized home:

Do That Project
What about your space is making you feel uncomfortable or overwhelmed? Is it the paperwork disaster in your office? The pile of clothes teetering on your dresser? Or that mess that surrounds your doorway? Start with what’s annoying you. One hour on that task will get your organizing engine revving.

Create a "Go Away" Box
Put anything you’re planning to donate in it (or give to a friend, or take to recycle). And keep it by the door so you can easily grab it when you’re leaving.

Deal With the Decorations
Now that the holidays are over and you’re putting away your décor, donate anything you didn’t bring out last season, and separate decorations by holiday.

Create a System for Your Entryway
Set up a “command center” so your front door doesn’t become a lawless accessories arena, especially during winter months. Add hooks for coats, bins for shoes, and a mail sorter if you need it.

Wrangle Your Pet Supplies
Minimize the time spent scrambling when your pup is desperate for a walk or eager for a meal. Hang hooks and cubbies near the door and keep leashes, kibble, bowls, and toys in one convenient spot.

Organize Your Spices
Arrange your herbs and spices alphabetically, by cuisine, or by brand — whatever makes them easier to find when you’re in the middle of your noodle stir fry.

Pare Down Your Utensils
You’ve accumulated several dozen kitchen utensils in your culinary career: can openers, microplanes, several wine openers. Pare down the collection and use drawer dividers to keep the remainders in order.

Reconfigure Your Pots and Pans
Stop digging around in your shelves for the oversized, cast-iron skillet. Donate the pots and pans you hardly use, and install cupboard organizers to help manage the rest.

Throw Away Expired Foods
Go through your refrigerator and pantry and ditch anything past its prime.

Stack Your Pantry Staples
Make better use of your pantry by sorting through your staple dry goods — think flour, sugar, pasta, oatmeal, dry beans — and putting them in airtight, stackable containers. You’ll free up a ton of space, too.

Say No to Coffee Mug Over-Saturation
Every time you lose a sock, a new coffee mug appears. Keep one or two mugs for every coffee or tea drinker and donate the rest.

Sort Your Food Storage Containers
No singles allowed. Toss any tops or bottoms that have no mates.

Reassess Your Display Shelves
Shelves crammed with knickknacks, books you’ll never read, and stuff you somehow accumulated are just a waste of space. Donate books to the library, discard the junk, and arrange what’s left in a way that pleases you.

Deal With Your Cables
With a Roku, PlayStation, DVD player, and a cable box, it’s no surprise your entertainment center is a mess. Create ID tags for each plug from bread tags or cable ties, and bundle the clutter together with Velcro strips.

Put Clothes on New Hangers
Switch your clothes over to the slimmer, grabbier hangers. They use less space and keep your clothes from sliding down to your closet floor. As you do this, discard the clothes you never wear.

Corral Your Accessories
Belts, scarves, purses, hats — all the accessories that don’t have a drawer or spot in the closet can end up everywhere. Buy an accessories hanger or install a simple series of hooks to give your wardrobe’s smallest members a home.

Purge Under the Bed
Under-bed storage is ideal for out-of-season clothing. But when out-of-season becomes out-of-sight and out-of-mind, clear out those clothes you’ll never wear again from this precious storage space.

Shred Old Paperwork
Not every form, statement, and tax record needs to stay in your filing cabinet forever. Check out this list to make sure you’re not wasting space. Shred the rest to ward off identity thieves.

Get Rid of Mystery Electronics
Do you have a drawer where black mystery cords, chargers, and oddball electronic bits go to die? Free that drawer up for better uses, or at least get rid of the ones you know for sure are “dead.”

Pare Down Your Personal Care Stuff
Your intentions were honorable when you bought that curl-enhancing shampoo — but it expired two years ago, and you haven’t used it since. Throw away any expired potions, salves, hair products, and medicines.

Tackle Under-the-Sink Storage
Clean everything out. You’ll be amazed at what you find (like those Magic Erasers you could never find). Then put back everything you’re keeping in bins you can easily pull out so nothing gets lost again.

Reduce Your Towels and Linens
There are the towels you use — and the stack of towels you never use. Donate them to the animal shelter. Those torn pillowcases? Convert to rags or toss. Same for napkins, dishtowels, pot holders, etc.

Hang a Shoe Organizer
Hanging shoe organizers can solve a ton of storage problems beyond the obvious. They can store scarves, mittens, cleaning supplies, craft supplies. You can even cut them to custom-fit inside a cabinet door.

Organize Your Junk Drawer for Good
There’s no shame in a junk drawer — but why not organize it? Dump the whole thing on one surface and sort everything into piles. Use drawer dividers to keep each pile in its own space.

Tool Storage
Finding the right Phillips-head screwdriver to put together that cute IKEA bookshelf shouldn’t be so hard. Track down your hammers and screwdrivers, and arrange them in one easy-to-access spot, such as a pegboard.

Take a look around your newly organized home, making note of any spaces you missed. Then dream a bit about your next home project. Maybe paint that dining room, finally?

Today buyers and sellers have a lot of choices when it comes to REALTOR® representation, whether full-service or limited service. Make sure that expectations regarding level of service, communication and representation are agreed upon before selecting a REALTOR®, a member of the Lorain County Association of REALTORS®. Members of the Lorain County Association of REALTORS® care about the community in which they live, work and support.

The Lorain County Association of REALTORS® is one of more than 1,200 local boards and associations of REALTORS® nationwide that comprise the National Association of REALTORS®. The National Association of REALTORS®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing more than one million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

The Lorain County Association of REALTORS® offers a website that provides a complete listing of REALTOR® real estate brokerages in Lorain County, contact information for REALTOR® members, and industry associates. If you are a first-time homebuyer or a repeat buyer consider www.MyNewCommunity.net or www.LoCAR.org as a good source for Lorain County REALTOR® information.

REALTOR® is a registered collective membership mark which may be used only by real estate professionals who are members of the National Association of REALTORS® and subscribe to its strict Code of Ethics. Not all real estate sales agents are REALTORS®. All REALTORS® are members of NAR along with their State and Local Associations.

Lorain County
Association of REALTORS®

5321 Meadow Lane Ct. #6
Sheffield Village, OH 44035
Telephone: (440) 328-4210
E-mail: [email protected]
Fair Housing Hotline:
1-800-662-FAIR
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