Tag Archives: organization

Tidy Up Your Kitchen: The Easy Way to Sort, Store, and Simplify

Is your kitchen feeling cluttered and chaotic? It’s time to whisk away the clutter and start taking control. Organizing doesn’t have to be overwhelming — with a simple sorting system, you can create a space that’s both functional and enjoyable. Let’s get your kitchen working for you!

At Organizing CU, we believe that a clutter-free kitchen starts with simple, intentional sorting—making room for what you use every day and letting go of what no longer serves you.

When organizing the kitchen, I start by pulling everything out and sorting it into three groups: “A” for everyday essentials, “B” for occasional use, and “C” for donate or store away. Trust me, you’ll find plenty to donate that you forgot you even had!

Your “A” group is your go-to stuff: plates, cups, and favorite pots.

Remember, some items in the same category might fall into different groups—fancy China is probably “C,” while your everyday dishes are “A.” Same with cups: regular ones might be “A,” champagne glasses “B.”

Next, assign spaces: “A” items go where they’re easy to reach—like lower upper cabinets.

“B” items fit on higher shelves that require a stretch.

“C” items get tucked away in less-used spots—like the bottom of the pantry or a dining room shelf. (Personally, I stash big appliances and fancy serving dishes there)

Bonus tip for parents: keep kid stuff in a bin at their height (like bowls, plates, sippy cups) so they can grab what they need and help put things away.

Check out my earlier blog post about kitchens, along with episode 21 of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast!

Your kitchen is the heart of your home so let’s transform it into a place that inspires and supports the life you love every day.

I’m Maggie, owner of Organizing CU and a busy mom who gets the chaos. With my motto—Reduce the mess, Arrange the rest, Maintain the calm—I’ll show you that getting organized isn’t a dream; it’s something anyone can do. Let me help you take control of your space and keep your peace!

A Calmer Closet (and Life) Starts with This Quick Reset

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Is your closet causing more headaches than happy outfits? You don’t need hours or a huge overhaul to fix it—just one focused hour can transform your space and simplify your mornings.

At Organizing CU, we’re here to help you hang up the chaos so your closet feels fresh and your mornings flow just right.

If your closet feels overwhelming, you’re not alone.

But here’s the good news: you don’t need to spend all day decluttering to make a big difference. In under an hour, you can create a cleaner, more functional closet that actually works for you.

Step 1, Gather All Items of One Category
Start by taking all the clothes from one category—whether it’s t-shirts, pants, dresses, or sweaters—off the hangers, shelves, and out of drawers. Seeing everything together gives you a clear overview of what you have, making it easier to organize and decide what to keep.

Next, Sort Into Three Piles
Create “Keep,” “Donate,” and “Maybe” piles. Be honest—if you haven’t worn something in the past year or it doesn’t fit well, it’s probably time to let it go. For those “Maybe” items, box them up and revisit in a few months. If you haven’t missed them, donate them.

Lastly, Put Clothes Back Strategically
Return the “Keep” clothes to your closet, organizing them in a way that makes sense to you—by type, color, or season. The key is to keep it simple and easy to maintain.

Bonus Tip: Use this quick declutter as a habit every time you’re swapping winter and summer clothes—regular small efforts keep your closet manageable and stress-free.

Try this method next time your closet feels chaotic. You might be surprised how much lighter and happier your space feels after just a hour!

A calmer, more joyful closet is totally within reach—and it doesn’t require perfection, just progress. Take that one small step, celebrate the win, and enjoy the difference it makes every single morning.

Check out episode 3 of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast for even more closet tips!

Blog Overview

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After being a professional organizer for years, I’ve worked with people on every area of the house, whether it be your closet, kitchen, garage, or paperwork.

I’ve written blog posts and have the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast about all of the common areas that everyone struggles with. Many of these topics, such as paperwork, are covered in depth as a series as it can be addressed to the majority of people with only a few modifications.

Other topics, such as kitchen and closet, are shorter and more generic as each person will need the final result to be personalized in order to maintain it over time.

Take a look and see if anything strikes a chord with you:

Don’t see exactly what you’re looking for? Search the website for any topics you are interested in using the search bar on the menu.

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 a Work Bag can De-stress Your Busy Mornings

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Think about your dream morning that does not involve mimosas. Calmly leaving the house early, kids getting ready on their own, everything going smoothly.

You can’t predict any kid meltdowns, but you can control how prepared you are.

Having a drop zone in your home with an organized work bag will certainly move you in the right direction. A work bag is basically like a big purse, but for your job. It has everything you need for work, such as your laptop, charger, papers. No wallet, no sunglasses, no IDs. Only work items.

As soon as you get home, empty out your work bag. Put away anything that is staying home. When you’re done with the work items at home, they immediately go back into the bag.

No more forgetting work stuff at home.

No more losing stuff at the bottom of your purse.

No more heavy purse with all the work stuff weighing it down when you’re at dinner.

The same concept applies to kid’s book bags. Go through them right away, taking out anything that needs to be done or addressed, returning it right away.

In the morning, it’s one less thing to have to get on them about (please, please, please, just put your shoes on).

When combined with the nighttime sweep, your work bag will make your morning routines run much smoother.

Streamline Your To-Do Lists

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Anyone else ever feel like they’re running around in circles, trying to get everything done? Finding sticky notes of things to do in your purse, your work bag, your kitchen counter, your car…

The very first tip I give for home and life organization is to eliminate all those floating papers.

Gather them all up and put them in a single place. When they’re scattered all over the house, they have a tendency to become permanent clutter, where you learn to ignore them.

Make a master to-do list, either in a small notebook (hello dollar store), your calendar, or into a shared family app that you can sync. Write down every single thing that you need to do.

Then you need to prioritize the list. You will know which are the urgent ones. Keep those at the top, obviously. Then decide which ones are important soon (calling the electrician to fix the front porch light that has been out for a couple of days) and which ones are dreams (washing your baseboards).

Every couple of days or week, depending on how long your list is, go through and update it, adding and removing where necessary. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish when you have everything in one single place.

With a simple master list system, you can organize your life efficiently, focus on what truly matters, and feel more in control of your day-to-day routine.

Label All the Things

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Everything needs a home. I’ve discussed the importance of it before.

When everything has a place to go, your family will know where to put things and where to find things without having to ask you, saving you time.

When your family has all these good habits in place, you will find it’s easier to keep up than to catch up with your home organization.

When you don’t have to think about where you should put the bills that need to be paid (small basket labeled “To Be Paid”) or the receipt for the dress you might return (envelope labeled “Just In Case”), it takes away a bit of that mental load that people tend to carry around.

It becomes second nature to just put it where it belongs right away.

My closet has three hampers in it: darks, whites, and towels. When I first implemented the system, I put labels above each one so everyone in the house knew exactly what went where. (The cat eventually clawed them to pieces after about two months, but the habits were well established by that point). The labels prevented things from ending up in the wrong bin. And saved me a lot of aggravation.

The same applies to your kids and their toys: it makes it easier for them to pick up after themselves when they know exactly what goes where. You can use labels with pictures or words.

Labels are a simple, effective tool to help you organize your home efficiently. With a few thoughtful systems, tidying up becomes second nature, and your household can run more smoothly.

Organized Grocery Shopping

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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!

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

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You know that notification that pops up when your phone is running out of space and it demands that you remove an app or two before letting you save anything more?

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

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I’m a recovering perfectionist.

When I lived alone and didn’t have a kid, I knew I was a perfectionist. But now, I want to spend any precious free time with my family, not worrying about the little things.

I have two pictures in my home (hung by me) that are crooked and I’ve left them that way. I like the reminder that I’m not perfect and that I need to let some things go. All I can do is shrug and smile when I see them.

When my partner folds the towels and they don’t have crisp edges, it’s a reminder that I have a partner who helps out around the house. So I let it go and smile when I see the not-quite-perfect towel stack.

When I look back at my first few blog posts, there are some things I would do differently, but I don’t mind it too much. It’s good to continually grow and change. I’ve talked about not being perfect on my Instagram a couple of times. I post about it often because it’s a reminder I need often.

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!