Organized Grocery Shopping

Being (and staying!) organized doesn’t just apply to your physical house. Over time, it becomes a part of every routine you have in your life, including grocery shopping for busy families. Here are some tips and tricks to keep you organized before and during the shopping trip.

First, I like to keep an ongoing family grocery list at all times – you know from previous posts that I love a list. Make sure everyone in the house knows where it is. I have a terrible memory so I will never remember to get more cat litter when told in passing while brushing my teeth in the morning.

But when I have a list that everyone can get to, it can be added without me wasting brain power.

One of my favorite tips is to print off copies of identical lists of items that we tend to buy every week (milk, orange juice, bananas) so I don’t have to re-write the same things every single time. The list is generally in the same order I go through the store so I can avoid some back and forth and back and forth.

Our family likes to discuss our upcoming week and then start our meal planning. I make sure I check out my (decluttered) kitchen to avoid getting duplicates of items already in my pantry.

Once you get to the store, make sure you grab a grocery store basket in the main part of the cart as you load up produce. After you’re done with the produce department, just slide the basket under the cart so you have room for the heavy stuff.

I have recently been putting a spare laundry basket in the back of my car for all of those heavy items that you can’t carry in a bag, but also don’t want to take 10 trips in and out of the house.

After you start organizing parts of your life, you’ll see that even small routines like grocery shopping can benefit from organization tips for busy moms. Every part of your daily life can become calmer, more efficient, and less overwhelming with simple systems.

For more tips on grocery shopping and meal planning, listen to episode 8 (grocery shopping) & episode 9 (meal planning) of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast!

I’m Maggie, owner of Organizing CU and a busy working mom who understands the struggle of trying to juggle all of it. Using my Reduce, Arrange, Maintain philosophy, I can help you get and stay organized!

How the ‘One Touch Rule’ Saves Me Time

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How often is your family asking you where something is or where it goes? If your house is like mine, it’s pretty often!

Having a home for everything in your home is key to maintaining an organized house for busy families.

Then everyone knows where to find it…and more importantly, where to put it away!

When everything has a home, it’s second nature to put it away. It doesn’t get stuck in a temporary home, becoming permanent clutter. Imagine your kids know exactly where their hockey bag is or where they should put their bake sale reminders for you to see.

The ‘One Touch Rule’ means everything gets put away the FIRST TIME you touch it. No more paperwork piling up on the kitchen counter. No more unfolded clothes sitting on your closet floor.

With the ‘One Touch Rule,’ those “I’ll deal with it later” stacks disappear. Go through the mail as soon as you get in the door (junk mail recycled and magazines onto the bedside table). Put away the laundry as soon as the dryer dings.

I’ve previously talked about how it is easier to keep up than to catch up. The ‘One Touch Rule’ is the perfect compliment. When you only touch it once, there is no chance for anything to pile up. You save so much time when you’re not spending 45 minutes each week going through a week’s worth of junk mail or cleaning up the playroom.

This simple habit creates a calmer, more organized home for your family.

Space Limits – What they are and why you need them

Space limits are the same thing, but in your home.

Using space limits in your home is one of the easiest ways to prevent clutter from taking over and keep your home organized. It helps prevent that clutter creep, which can quickly become permanent clutter.

Space limits are restrictions on how much stuff you can keep in a certain area. In our house, we have space limits on clothing. We have 100 hangers in our closet (I didn’t count). Once we are out of hangers, I will not buy any more hangers – it means it’s time to purge some stuff out of there if I want to bring in any new clothes.

It is so easy for toys and clothing to explode out of control, especially after a holiday or birthday. Setting space limits for toys and kids’ items helps families maintain a clutter-free playroom without feeling overwhelmed.

Space limits make it so you can easily tell when you have too much of something. We have a couple of bins in our playroom for toys. If they’re full, we know it’s time to ship some toys to younger relatives or Goodwill.

You can do the same for your kitchen. Keep only a couple of items on the counter top and banish the rest to cabinets. Only the things that fit in the cabinets are kept. When you get new big items, it’s time to purge some of the older stuff that you don’t use.

Especially those of us that have small homes or children, you really need to keep your incoming items in check. Making a routine of it will make it easier to keep the house organized.

Implementing space limits is a simple but powerful way to maintain a clutter-free home. By setting boundaries for toys, clothing, kitchen items, and more, you prevent accumulation before it becomes overwhelming. Start small, stay consistent, and enjoy a more organized, stress-free home today.

Want to hear more? Check out episode 6 of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast.

When Perfectionism isn’t Perfect

Perfectionism can prevent progress in home organization and life. Small steps toward decluttering, arranging, and maintaining your home are more important than achieving perfection.

Perfectionism can stop you from moving forward. I had minimal website experience when I started this whole process earlier this year, but I purchased the domain and started working on it. I didn’t let my perfectionism stop me from jumping in and starting because a step in any direction is a good step.

It may stop you from getting organized. Maybe you won’t redo your front entryway until you find the perfect piece of furniture. It’s okay to not have a perfect system immediately. Our guest room has gone through a bunch of changes. Much like ourselves, our spaces and homes need to evolve with us. No system is going to be perfect forever. As our kids grow up, our lives will change.

Don’t let perfectionism stop you from organizing, changing, or evolving. Let some stuff go occasionally. You’ll get use to it. I promise.

Now is the time to start where you are — even imperfect steps toward organizing your home create momentum and build confidence. Progress, not perfection, is what matters most.

Want to listen to more about it? Check out episode 14 of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast!

4 Steps for an Organized Closet

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Four steps for an organized closet.

Four simple steps makes it seem like it should be a very easy task, but I know it can feel overwhelming. If you don’t have the time or energy for a full closet purge, try doing just steps 1-3 now and then keeping a donation box in your closet.

Organizing CU. Helping busy moms get organized.

I’ve already shared the simplest way to organize your paperwork in 4 easy steps, but now it’s time to tackle another big project with only 4 simple steps: your closet.

Organizing your closet for a clutter-free home can save time, reduce stress, and make getting dressed easier.

Step 1: Throw out all broken and busted clothing. If there is anything that has a broken zipper, missing button, or rip in it, throw it out. If you haven’t fixed it by now, you are not going to.

Step 2: Get rid of everything that does not fit right now. Don’t save anything for “just in case.”

Step 3: Toss all the uncomfortable shoes. If you can’t imagine wearing them for an entire day, then it’s time to get rid of them.

Step 4: Do you love it? Do you feel good in it? Scale everything from 1-10 (10 being something you can’t live without and would replace asap; 5 is meh). Everything under a 7 goes.

Four simple steps makes it seem like it should be a very easy task, but I know it can feel overwhelming. If you don’t have the time or energy for a full closet purge, try doing just steps 1-3 now and then keeping a donation box in your closet. When you put on a shirt that is less than a 7 (such as you can never seem to match with pants or it just doesn’t fit right any longer), into the box it goes. Once it gets full, it heads over to Goodwill.

You will see how much easier it is to stay organized and get dressed when you’re not constantly looking for something you love that fits you!

Even a partial closet purge creates momentum — small, consistent decluttering habits can transform your wardrobe and simplify your mornings.

Ready to go more in depth on this topic? Check out episode 3 of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast.

Everything You Need for Your Command Center

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Creating a command center can seem particularly daunting if you’re on Pinterest. There are literally thousands of ideas and each one more magically perfect than the one before it. If you have seen any of my Instagram stories, you know that my house is not a Pinterest perfect home.

So obviously, our command center is also anything but.

Our ‘command center’ in our house is basically the little counter space next to the stove when we can toss bags that need to be emptied after work and school before being repacked for tomorrow. I keep a little stacked letter holder for some of those little items that are strictly for short term use. In our junk drawer, we keep phone chargers, along with pen and paper.

(Update: we’ve now added a large 3×4 foot bulletin board to keep some fun and useful things close at hand!)

It can feel overwhelming if you’re trying to figure out what would work best for your family.

Here is my master list of items that you could include in your family command center to keep your home organized. Think about whether you already have a space for some of these things and if you would like to move them to one central location for everyone:

On desk:

Charging station
Small tray for jewelry and/or keys
Notepad and pens

On wall (can be clipboards, cork boards, photo frames, dry erase boards):

Clock
Calendar (week or month)
Key hooks
Menu
Grocery list
Cleaning checklist
Artwork/greeting card holder
To do list

Filing system:

Per person
To file
Bills to pay
School stuff
Invitations
Pending file
Coupons
To read
Shred
Mail
Magazines
Receipts

Personally, I don’t have a full-on command center in our house. Keys have their own hooks near the door, jewelry is in our bedroom, calendar and to-do list is electronic, menu is in our pantry, grocery list is near our table, paperwork is typically addressed immediately.

But that’s me and my house.

What is overwhelming about command centers is also what makes them so fantastic: they are 100% customizable for you and your home.

A customized home command center can save time, reduce stress, and help your family stay on top of daily tasks.

If you find yourself constantly looking for some of the items on this list, it might be time to set up a command center and give these items a home!

Start with a simple setup and add items gradually. Because small, consistent organizational habits will transform your busy household into a calm, orderly home.

Looking for some more guidance? Check out episode 26 of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast!

The Most Important 10 Minutes of Your Day

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I’ve previously talked about the importance of keeping up. I mentioned how a couple of minutes every night doing a quick 10-minute nightly home pick-up routine (before it gets too overwhelming) means saving an hour of cleaning on the weekend.

I spend just a couple of minutes getting everything ready for the next day: getting out anything I can for breakfast, ensuring the dishes are all put away, moving any bags to our landing zone, and putting away any paper or toys left around.

The most important 10 minutes of your day.

A couple of minutes every night doing a quick pick up of the house (before it gets too overwhelming) means saving an hour of cleaning on the weekend.

Organizing CU. Helping busy moms gets organized.

Another one minute task I do before going to sleep is to check out tomorrow’s calendar to make sure I’ve got everything I need for the day. My kid has show-and-tell every Friday, usually with a different theme. We came thisclose to missing it this week, but one final peek at 9:00 pm reminded me that we needed to find something orange.

I like to do the same thing at the end of my work day: take a look at tomorrow’s calendar, put together a quick to-do list, make sure my desk is orderly before leaving. Having everything in its place makes a calmer start to my day, especially on a Monday!

That’s really what this 10 minutes of your day is all about: getting you in a calmer, more peaceful mindset to make your day run smoother and your life more organized.

Try dedicating just 10 minutes each evening to a quick tidy-up and planning session. Small, consistent routines reduce stress, keep your home orderly, and set you up for a calm, productive day — one small step builds lasting home organization habits!

It’s Easier to Keep Up than to Catch Up

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I would love to tell you that you can simply just organize your house once and that it will magically stay that way. But that would be a lie. My organizing motto has 3 steps: reduce, arrange, maintain for busy homes.

First, you need to get rid of some stuff. Second, you need to organize it. Third, and most important, you need methods and tips to help you keep it organized.

It's easier to keep up than to catch up.

Let’s be real: it’s hard work. At the end of a long day, the last thing I want to do is pick up a bunch of toys or wash dishes, but I do it anyways.

Organizing CU. Helping busy moms get organized.

If you haven’t been organized in a while, you will have to do all three steps, which is always going to be daunting and feel crushing.

If you need to tweak an area of your house that was previously organized, you will have to do only the last two, which is definitely achievable.

If you have a system in place already, you will only have to maintain. And that is the easiest of all.

When working with clients, I focus on all three parts and I love to give them little tips and tricks to make it easier to maintain with a quick pick up. That five minutes every night means saving an hour on the weekend. Time I’d rather be spending with my family. Time I’d rather be spending with my friends. Time I’d rather be relaxing on the couch with a glass of wine.

Every time I leave a room, I glance around to see if there is anything that needs to go with me. Every night before bed, I walk around the house and get everything put away from the night and set up for the morning. It can feel never ending. However, I never feel overwhelmed by my house and I can always find exactly what I need when I need it.

Let’s be real: it’s hard work. At the end of a long day, the last thing I want to do is pick up a bunch of toys or wash dishes, but I do it anyways. Because maintaining a home organization system is an ongoing process and it’s always easier to keep up than it is to catch up.

Take a look around your home tonight and implement a 5-minute pick-up routine. Small, consistent actions build lasting habits, reduce clutter, and create a calm, manageable home.

My Simple Organizing Philosophy

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When it comes to my organization style, I have a pretty simple philosophy: reduce, arrange, maintain. The first step is to reduce the amount of stuff you have. Start by taking everything out of the area that you are working on.

Every. Single. Thing.

(I like to take this opportunity to clean off the surface since it’s one of the few occasions that everything is off there!)

Grouping things is a great way to see what you have. If you’re doing a kitchen, group by type of dish. If you’re doing a linen closet, group by use of item (shaving, hair, hand towels, etc) Take a look at each item and determine its fate:

Do I really need or want it?
Do I even like it?
Have I used this in the last year?
Would I buy it today? If it broke, would I immediately replace it?
Is this a quality item?
Would I keep it if it were originally free?
What is the worst thing that could happen if I got rid of it?
Am I only keeping it “in case” I need it someday? (Think about if you can borrow one or buy a new one in 20 minutes for under $20)
Is it a duplicate?
Is this the best place for it?
When will I use it again? And will I remember I have it?

Next, you need to arrange how everything is going to go back into the space. I group everything by putting like with like. In my kitchen, my most often used utensils are grouped together in a drawer. In the playroom, the kid’s favorite books are grouped in the bookcase. In my linen closet, all of our teeth stuff is in one bin.

This makes it easy to see what you have, what you’re low on, and what you don’t use!

The last step is sometimes the hardest one and that is the maintain part. You need to have a system in place in order to keep the organization. Labels are obviously a great way to ensure that everyone in your home knows exactly where things need to go.

When I first bought our three hampers for our ‘new’ laundry system of sorting while putting dirty clothes away, I put 3×5 index cards on each one so everyone knew which was for towels, darks, and whites. It looked silly and completely unprofessional, but guess what?

It worked.

When the cat destroyed two of the cards about a month in, I didn’t even need to replace them because everyone had a routine and habit of knowing which item when into which basket.

This simple organizing method for busy moms works because sometimes you don’t need to do all three of them at the same time.

You can do it piecemeal. If you have recently gone through all of your under-sink items, think about whether you could group them better for easier access. If you just redid your pantry, think about why it constantly falls to chaos and what type of maintenance it might take to keep it looking the way you want.

Look around your home today and identify one space to reduce, arrange, and maintain. Small, consistent steps build lasting organizing habits and bring calm to your home — you’ve got this!

Want to hear more? My very first episode of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast covered this topic.

The Easiest Meal Prep System

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Do you know what you’re doing for dinner? Are you planning to stop at the grocery store today to pick up something for tonight?

Planning your meals will save you time by cutting down on the grocery trips and mental energy as to what you’re having for dinner. Now that we have a little one and I have Organizing CU (which includes nighttime networking, business meetings and organizing sessions) weeknights can get busy in our house.

Every Thursday night, my partner and I go through our upcoming schedules and discuss what is going on over the weekend and following week (such as date nights, guests, tailgating) as we decide how many meals we need to plan.

The easiest meal prep system.

Do you know what you’re doing for dinner? Are you planning to stop at the grocery store today to pick up something for tonight?

Planning your meals will save you time by cutting down on the grocery trips and mental energy as to what you’re having for dinner.

Organizing CU. Helping busy moms get organized.

To make it easier, we have the same basic routine for our meals: brunch on Sunday morning, a bigger Sunday dinner, two simple meals during the week, and leftovers in between. He digs through the recipes and chooses some options. I keep notes in the upper corner of my recipes that let him know if it’s a weekend, weekday, or Crock Pot recipe so he can choose accordingly.

After picking the recipes, I check the pantry and make my grocery lists. My partnerand I divide and conquer: he gets anything from the co-op after work on Fridays while I will hit the regular grocery store for everything else whenever my schedule allows.

Sunday mornings are usually reserved for cooking. In addition to prepping my two Sunday meals, I also take care of my lunches and the breakfasts for my husband and daughter: an 8×10 baked egg dish with a variety of ingredients (broccoli and goat cheese; mozzarella and tomato; green chiles and cheddar). Each weekday morning, they get a hot, home cooked meal that I only have to heat up during the busy morning.

Meal prepping for busy families takes some time and effort when you first get into it. But eventually, you reach the spot where you’re not worrying about dinner at 3 pm and you have something simple ready to go. If your family likes leftovers, maybe you only cook two meals a week, but double it and freeze half for later. Maybe you end up with a themed week: Meatless Monday, Italian Tuesdays, Pizza Fridays. But I’ve found that a basic routine and some family meal planning strategies make your entire menu much easier.

Start small: choose one week to plan your meals and prep ahead. Even tiny steps toward organized meal prep save time, reduce stress, and bring more calm to your family’s week.

Even more meal prep and grocery shopping tips can be found on episode 8 (grocery shopping) & episode 9 (meal planning) of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast!