How do I organize my home?

Rhonda Hines
by Rhonda Hines

I have a 1400 sq foot home with 2 teenage boys a 4 yr old granddaughter, a husband and a lot of my grandmothers belongings that I can’t seem to pet with as she was my world. We have very little storage space and our home always seems cluttered. ☹️😪

  6 answers
  • Tinyshoes Tinyshoes on Mar 18, 2019

    Rhonda...Put risers on bed legs for plastic tote storage...this is one of the easiest and fastest that will help the most, or has for me.

  • Debi53 Debi53 on Mar 18, 2019

    First of all, how blessed was your grandmother to have such a loving granddaughter. Ask yourself if your grandmother would want you to live a lesser life because keeping all of her things is impacting you and your family in a way that makes your life difficult. I don't believe that would make her very happy. I strongly urge you to read Marie Kondo's 'The Magic of Tidying up'. She gives a lovely way of looking at mementos. She also will completely change how you look at everything-papers, clothes, everything and how you store and organize them. I won't try to explain it here, but you can get her book online or at any bookstore or at your library. Honor your grandmother by giving your family the best life they can have.

  • Oliva Oliva on Mar 18, 2019

    You will need to consider renting a storage unit, donating items to those less fortunate than yourself, or selling items (which could help pay for a storage unit for things you wish to keep). 1400 square feet is quite small for 5 people, your possessions, plus your grandmother's belongings.

  • Hi Rhonda - This is one of my favorite articles on cleaning, organizing and decluttering. It really breaks down the steps of the process, and even includes an interview with TV show Hoarders star Matt Paxton. Hope this helps! Hugs, Holly

    https://pinkfortitude.com/hoarder/

  • Nancy Turner Nancy Turner on Mar 19, 2019

    I Agree with Tiny Shoes, riders on the beds will allow you to stack a couple of underbed boxes on each other I did this and you can hold so much more. Our closets are small, so everything that only absolutely has to hang up is in our closets. Strategically places chest of drawers will hold a lot of things that you may have laying around. It is really good for holding things like the granddaughters toys and coloring books, crayons, artwork, games, etc. Have a drawer for the families hats, scarves, gloves, mittens, etc. for convenience and to keep them from getting misplaced, you could even have a drawer to put your mail in for bills, etc. that need to stay together. Put extra shelves in your closets if you still have room above the existing shelves for the things that aren't used much. The bags that you vacuum down really help for anything fabric and keep them clean and dry and storable anywhere you want to put them, even the garage. I cleaned out my mom's place a few months ago when she went to memory care, I have almost all her things. She had beautiful furniture and we are incorporating that into our house. So far we have managed about half of it, but we have a spare bedroom in the basement and a room almost as long as the house that we are trying to clean up and set up as TV/computer room and the other as its intended purpose as a spare bedroom instead of computer/ sewing room. It takes time to incorporate loved ones things, but it is doable. Perhaps some of her things can replace some of the existing things you have in your home now that is more worse for the wear like we are. I hope this helps you some, Rhonda! Challenging, but doable and it will eventually fall in place for you. We live in a smallish house with our middle son (his house), have our 6 year old granddaughter during the week and her mom sometimes, and our oldest when he is in town (he is a heavy hall truck driver). Add into the mix four dogs, two cats, birds and fish tanks and it gets cramped quick!

  • Hi Rhonda, I also have a 1340 sq ft, 2 bed, 2 bath condo, with myself, two teen sons, one adult disabled son, and my adult disabled brother. My condo also has a 2 car garage and a small back patio. How I've done it - first of all, I had to make EVERY space a living space. This included redoing my patio cushions, starting a little container garden, and hanging a hammock on the patio, and cleaning the garage, putting in a dart Board and all my gym equipment, and getting some lawn chairs for the garage. Quarters are so tight that I found my biggest problem was that everyone needed a "corner" to go to, so making the garage and patio "chill" spaces helped a lot, especially for my teens who want to have friends over on top of the full house. My teen sons share a room. We have a murphy-type bed from ikea that lifts for underbed storage, and a futon in there. The futon folds out at night, but gives sitting space for friends and is positioned so they can play video games. My livingroom is somewhat "L" shaped, with a small nook that is actually supposed to be a small dining area. I bought two, small-scale armoires with 3' closet rod and 2 large drawers each. These sit across from each other at the bend of the "L", and I also bought folding decorative wall screens from wayfair. These fold up during the day and sit next to the armoires, but fold out at night to provide division between the two sides of the "L". My brother has a twin sofabed in the smaller side of the "L" that folds into a chair-and-a-half sized loveseat during the day. A tall nightstand serves as his end table, and his ottoman has storage. My son has a full sized sofa sleeper on the larger side of the "L", again, nightstand with drawers as end tables, storage in the ottoman. Each uses one of the two armoirs as their closet, and a big basket is near the front door to catch their umbrellas and shoes. The rule for myself and the teens is since we have rooms, we keep all of our stuff in them. Closets in both rooms have been remodeled with built in drawers, shelving, etc, to maximize storage. We even have a piano in the livingroom and it still fits! (My oldest child plays). The four of my "guys" share the hallway bathroom, which is a full bath with shower/tub. It gets chaotic in there. We've had to work out morning bathroom use schedule, and talk about a task to clean!!! It gets pretty disgusting in there! But each person has a vanity drawer. An over-the door towel holder holds all their bath towels. For Christmas this year one of their gifts was to buy them each a unique beach towel so that everyone knew whose was whose and I didn't end up with tons of towels in the laundry. My bedroom has a storage bench at the end of the bed, and my teen's bedroom also has a storage ottoman at the futon that serves as a coffee table when friends are over, but holds the futon's blankets and pillows during the day. It's tight, but it works, and I was able to do it beautifully.