Give your home a makeover with these home organisation ideas

Whether you live in a seven bedroom maisonette in Banana Island or a one bedroom apartment in Ajah, home organisation is key to your productivity, health, wellbeing and psychological satisfaction.

The secret to an organised house is doing the seemingly small things regularly to ensure cleanliness and organisation are maintained. Below are home organisation ideas for various rooms in your house to ensure that your house is always spick and span.

1. Have a Designated Launch Pad

A launch pad in the house is the area where people entering the house will transition from the outside coming in. This is where they will take off their shoes, coats, hats and leave bags, keys, and other paraphernalia. Your launch pad should take into consideration all items that family members and guests might have and have a specific way of storing these items in an orderly manner. For instance, you can instal a couple of hooks for coats, scarves and bags; a small shoe rack for the shoes; and a small box or tray for keys and other small items.

2. Coloured Separation

Assign every family member with a different colour then buy items within these colour codes. This especially works for items that may get mixed up and helps family members, especially children, find and organise their items. Items that you can colour code include cereal and salad bowls, towels, face towels, toothbrushes, laundry baskets, backpacks, lunch boxes, travelling bags, among others.

3. Labels Save Lives!

Labelling doesn’t end with stationery in office settings. Label areas and things around the house to help maintain order. Family members will know where to find what without rummaging through other storage areas.  Label drawers in the kitchen, boxes in the bedrooms, cabinets in the bathroom and also shelves in other rooms.

4. Set Up Calendars and Reminders

If you are a super busy parent juggling between career, household management, kids, and your own personal life, you might find out that some important tasks fall through the gaps and get forgotten. Until they are needed. Setting up calendars and reminders takes care of this. The calendar can be online or a physical one with colour codes for each family member. Calendars can have important events like birthdays, meetings in your children’s school, and social events.

5. Identify the Clutter-Attraction Areas

Each room has a clutter focal point where somehow, no matter how clean you try to keep the room, that particular area seems to attract and accumulate clutter. Keep such areas clutter free always.

Tips for the bedroom

6. Create space in unlikely places

All your storage space has already been taken up? Not to worry, you can always create more space. You just need to look around your bedroom for potential cloud space.

Such space can be created in the following areas;

• Shelves along the perimeter walls of your room

• Buy a bed with storage in the headboard or on the sides

 

 

• Backdoor shelf

7. Nifty storage

Find storage for all items including the little and irregular items that often end up as clutter. This can be done by use of some of the most unlikely items you never thought of using before.

• The handy hanger for belts and accessories  

Magnetic strips for the metallic odds

• Shower curtain rings to the rescue

• Cork wall for your jewellery

      

8. Organised storage

Whether it is clothes, beddings, shoes or bags in the bedroom, you have to find a way of organising your storage in such a way that you or anyone else will find whatever they are looking for without upsetting the order.

 

Tips for the bathroom

Here are tips to make your bathroom look like a modern spa with everything you need within your arm’s reach.

9. Medicine cabinet organisers

10. Yummy to soapy – Cakestand to soap and beauty products holder

11. Towels, Towels, Towels

• Towels racks behind the door

• Old wine racks to cute towel holders

• Remodel wooden hangers to towel hooks and holders

12. Use the space under the sink for storage

• Expandable organisers

13. Open shower curtain to ensure ventilation and a cleaner bathroom

14. Store bath items on the side of your tub

 

Tips for the kitchen

The kitchen is where you prepare food for you family, and maybe indulge guests into your home meals. The kitchen is usually a high traffic area and mostly busy. Making use of space wisely and keeping it clean should, therefore, be top priority.

15. Keep your fridge organised always

16. Drawer inserts to keep all items in drawers organised

17. Use binder clips to keep your sponge dry and free from mildew

19. Easy clean for the blender

You do not need to take your blender apart to clean it. Pour warm water and a little soap in the blender then switch it on. The soapy warm water will run through every nook and crevice removing food remnants and particles.

19. Have a clog-free drain!

To keep your kitchen drains clear of clogs, periodically pour hot water down the drain. It gets rid of solidified fat and other food particles that would otherwise clog your drain. Baking soda also helps unclog drains with an additional fresh smell.

20. Curve out your own spice spot

 

Benefits of having your home organised

Keeping your home clean and organised grants you the peace of mind when going about your daily activities, and also when you have guests over. Below are a few other benefits of a clean and organised home;

You become more productive

Keeping your home organised helps you stay more productive at work. A study by the Center for Facilities Research (CFaR) at APPA co-sponsored by ISSA revealed that an untidy environment poses a huge distraction while a clean space engenders good learning and working environments. People who live and work in clean environments have a stronger tendency to be much more productive.

It promotes mental health

A tidy living space that is organised is mentally healthier and helps keep the mind become more focused. Psychological satisfaction comes with the assurance that everything is in the right order as affirmed in a study on how cleaning the house enhances your mental health.

It is safer for children

Things like children’s toys, books, cables and items lying around the house not only clutter the home but are like accidents waiting to happen.

Having a designated area or a playroom for the kids helps keep things in order. Keep a controlled number of toys and resist the urge to keep buying more. In fact, make arrangements with your children to regularly give away old toys.

It stimulates creativity

Organised surroundings will most likely have a calming effect on your moods and emotions. For a creative, this is usually the optimal environment to keep the creative juices flowing.

Helps you relax and enjoy the moment

Imagine getting back home from work and then suddenly realising that you have to clean and organise the house. When the house is clean, you get an opportunity to relax.

Deal with your paperwork in a timely manner

With a regular cleaning and organising schedule, you don’t have to worry about the mess a home office can cause. It is usually one of the demerits of having an office in your house. From piled up newspapers, magazines and probably mail.

There are two ways to deal with this – One, you can contact your bank and request for the discontinuation of physical bank statements in the mail. Instead, request for such statements to be sent to you via email. You can also consider getting a shredder at home to dispose of paper that clutters your home.

The house looks, smells and feels much better

Few things look and feel as inviting as a home that has been cleaned and organised.

From your living room to your bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and every other part of the house, not an item out of place.

Our final word…

Your home is where you rest your head at the end of every day. It is your personal space; where you host guests, where you get ready for work/school/other businesses of the day on a daily basis where you live with your family if you have one or where you intend to raise a family if you’re planning to have one. It is, therefore, important to ensure that it is clean, organised and leaves guests with a good first impression about you.

Do you consider your home organised or do you believe it needs more work?