The day you moved into your home apparently you had plenty of free space. As years went by, you might discover yourself becoming a pack rat. What should you do with all the things you have accumulated? Maybe now is the right time to free your home of unnecessary items and start organizing it.

Home organization is a gradual procedure. It might take more than a day or even a week to free yourself of clutter, but once you do being organized would be much easier. If you have a family, solicit their help. They can pitch in and become skilled on a thing or two about being clutter free.

1. Home Organization - High Traffic Spots

Begin with the high traffic spots. The family room and kitchen are commonly the two most used rooms in a house. Many things get dropped on a counter or the sofa in these two areas. The best is to free these spots of any of this unwanted stuff. Focus on getting everything arranged the way that you want it before going to the next room.

2. Home Organization - Storage Containers

Use storage containers. These containers can help you free your home from so much mess. Besides, throughout the years, the style of storage containers has advanced to be nice-looking as well as practical. Buy those ones that go with your décor in every room. So instead of storing these containers in heaps in the garage, incorporate them in your room so that no one would even think they were being used for storage.

3. Home Organization - Categories

Separate items into categories. You can make use of heavy duty trash bags for this part. Everything that you find can go into a pile: KEEP, THROW AWAY, GIVE AWAY, and RELOCATE. Items that will stay in that room are to keep. Free yourself of things that aren’t needed or are broken by throwing them away. Clothes or furniture which can still be used can be given away for free to any Veteran’s association or Goodwill. Anything that certainly belongs in another room can be marked for relocation when you get to that room.

4. Home Organization - Drawers and Cabinets

Take out everything from drawers and cabinets. Although this is a time-consuming process, but it is much easier to start with free space and fill it rather than simply pushing things around. If you line things up on the counter, someone else can help by putting the stuff in some type of order.

5. Home Organization - Free Space

Use all your free space. In the kitchen, for example, appliances or extra containers can be piled on top of the cabinets provided they don’t extend all the way to the ceiling. Also use the top of the refrigerator for cereal boxes and breakfast food like boxes of instant oatmeal or grits. In the bedroom, shoes and winter clothes can be stored in flat storage bins that slide easily under your bed or the dresser.

6. Home Organization - Containers

Put a label on your containers. Use tape and a permanent marker to mark the contents of your storage containers. Never write on the container itself in case you need to free it of its content for reuse. Labelling also makes for easy recognition should you desire to free yourself of anything by deciding to sell it or give it away. You won’t have to check the content of each container to locate them.

Arranging your entire house may take some time. But Home Organization is important, once it is done; putting back everything you use to its proper place will keep that same level of organization.