9 Systems that Will Make your home Organised and Clutter-free

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Are you walking through your front door and the first thing you see is shoes on the floor, bags, coats, hats, and everything that the household members come in with, dumped on the floor?

How do you feel walking into your home?

Is it a feeling of relaxing and relief?

Or is it dread, stress and overwhelm?

This was me not that long ago, and I’m going to share with you the 9 systems we created in our house that literally changed the whole game.

And I promise they are really simple things that you can do today.

9 Systems That Will Make Your Home Clutter-Free and Organised

Also, I’m going to share with you at the end of this article my biggest tip. It’s the one that made the biggest difference out of everything that I’m going to share with you today.

Feel free to watch the video or keep reading below:

Number 1: Drop off area for keys and letters

There’s going to be an area close to your house entrance to drop off keys and letters.

These are the things you usually hold in your hands as you come into the house.

We’ve got a little letter holder at our entrance where we keep all the letters, mail, invitations, and anything that I need to address soon.

I try to go through the letters and any sort of mail quite quickly.

For example, for birthday invites, it doesn’t take longer than 5 minutes to do this. I take a picture of it to save in an album on my phone, RSVP, add the event to our calendar and then put the paper in recycling.

I will not let this area get too crowded because when papers pile on, it’s overwhelming.

And then every time I pass that hallway (which is multiple times a day), I will just feel stressed seeing how much stuff I need to tackle and go through.

You will also need a little drop-off area for your keys, your purse, bags, your sunglasses, and whatever you come in with and need to put somewhere.

Having such an inbox also makes it super easy when you leave the house and you’re trying to find your keys, find your sunglasses, or find your pet’s items.

Statistically, we would spend a lot of time looking for stuff around the house, especially when our houses are overrun with clutter.

This will save you so much time and stress.

Number 2: Easy shoe storage close to the entrance door

We used to have a big shoe shelf in the under-the-stairs cupboard, but it wasn’t close enough to the door. As a result, many shoes would just get piled on the floor.

Now we have a very slim Ikea shoe storage unit.

It doesn’t take up too much space in our hallway. It has four compartments, and each member of the family has one so we can put our shoes straight in it.

That’s where all of our daily shoes live.

For things like wellies that we don’t use regularly, we have a separate little storage area that’s not too big either.

We used to have many shoes, but we reduced them a lot.

Number 3: accessible pegs for kids to put their coats on

I used Command hooks for this. They are brilliant.

I had them in our previous house, which was a rental, and they work really well, even when you stick them on a door or a wall. They won’t leave a mark when you take them off, and they won’t ruin your walls, I’ve tried and tested this.

We now own our home, and we still like to use Command hooks because I don’t want to be painting walls and covering up holes if I want to move things around.

We have two Command hooks on the inside of a door, placed at a lower level where the kids can reach.

We used to have a lot of hangers for our adult coats, and I used to put the kids’ ones there as well.

But then I realised that they couldn’t put their coats back where they belonged even if they wanted to, because they couldn’t reach the hangers.

If it’s a peg that’s at their eye level, they can reach it. And then they’re much more likely to go and put their coat there by themselves.

My son has been quite good at doing this as well. I’m not saying he always does it, but most of the time he does, and it’s a massive help.

Number 4: Command hooks for bags and backpacks

When bags and backpacks are lying on the floor, it looks messy, so it’s not ideal.

You’re going to stumble upon them when you go round your house or when you want to hoover, and this can be really annoying.

For us, I placed Command hooks in our under-the-stairs cupboard (again). This is where we store coats, backpacks, bags, and all things like that.

Also, for kids, having a hook for them to put their backpacks on is handy. It’s also helpful when they go to school in the morning.

They know where to grab their backpack from and get it ready for the day.

Number 5: Command centre board for the whole household

This has been life-changing for us, and it’s really simple.

I bought two small whiteboards, which were inexpensive, and they are really handy. We keep them under the stairs as well, because I find it to be a really good space for that.

On one of them, I put my son’s morning checklist so he knows what he needs to do in the morning: make the bed, brush his teeth, get dressed, and so on.

All the things he normally does before school or just before we start our day are written there.

Below his whiteboard, I put another one where we keep any school things that we need to remember.

We get so many school emails!

If you’re a parent too, you might relate: I feel like I need a personal assistant just to keep up with the school emails.

This is why I find this whiteboard to be very helpful in knowing which day is PE (physical education) day, library book day for school, when they need to take their homework in, and everything like that.

When all the school information is there, if I need to remember, in the morning, ‘What does he have today?’ – I can quickly go there and have a look.

That’s super helpful, and my son can check it too, so he knows what’s coming up that day.

Number 6: Easy storage for hats and scarves

This system just means having a place to throw in scarves, hats, gloves, and all of those little things that we wear and then get thrown around when we arrive home.

If they have a spot to go, then it’s going to make it so much easier to tidy up.

I do find that if you give everything a home, a space where it belongs, that is going to make it so much easier.

You just know where it’s going to go at the end of the day.

As for us, we have a big basket that we keep under the TV, and that’s where we throw in all of our hats, scarves, and accessories.

Number 7: Basket storage for school papers

Next to the basket for hats and scarves, we have another basket that is used for school papers.

Parents will relate to this: you know when children come home from school and they bring a big bunch of papers, and you don’t know what to do with them?

My son also brings in things like homework, his notebook, and any drawing that he’s done.

And they used to get thrown around on different surfaces.

Now?

All of those go in the basket under our TV, and I find it a really good system to keep a bit more order in the house.

Because when you have a spot for them to go, then that ‘scattering’ of papers everywhere is not going to happen.

Later, when you get a moment, you know where they all are, and you can quickly go through them if you need to.

Number 8: a charging station

Another system I created recently, which is honestly probably one of the most satisfying things I’ve done, is a charging station.

*Ehm* – Probably the highest level of adulting I’ve ever done.

There was a drawer in our TV unit that was a mess of cables. It was the place where I would put my laptop to charge, the iPad, the camera I’m using to film my YouTube videos, and so on.

But it was all a mumble jumble.

And then I had a few charging cables around the house in random spots.

What I did was to take them all out, and to get a few items to organise things in this drawer.

One of them is a wooden letter rack.

I use that to put my laptop, iPad, and every digital device vertically.

I find this system to make things much easier than having them lying on top of everything else in the drawer.

Another thing I got is a little cable organiser that I stuck on the side of the drawer. That’s quite nice to hold all the cables, as now they’re easy to find when I’m looking for them.

For all the cables that are lying on the bottom of the drawer, I used velcro cable ties to tie them up individually, so that they’re not all over the place and getting tangled up.

This drawer that used to be a mess proved to be the perfect area to have as a charging station.

When I need to charge my phone, the iPad, laptop, whatever it might be, they all go in there.

Plus everybody else in the household can do that as well because they know where the cables and charges belong: in the charging station.

Number 9: a nappy station

I also created a nappy changing station. If you don’t have a baby, you might not need nappies, but you might need sun cream or other things you use in your daily routine.

To set our nappy station up, I got a little felt caddy from Amazon. In it, I’ve got nappies, wipes, bum cream, bibs, and everything that I need and use daily.

This nappy station is a handy area to have on hand, plus it’s also very easy to tidy up and pop back in the drawer.

So no nappies and wipes lying around the place all the time.

BONUS: My biggest tip

It’s time to share with you my tip that, as I said, is probably the biggest game-changer.

For any of these systems that I just shared with you to work, you would have to do this one thing first.

Declutter first.

If you don’t get rid of clutter, and you’re trying to organise a whole bunch of clutter, it’s just going to be a mess.

Trust me, I know this from personal experience.

I tried to do that in the past too.

I felt like if I just got the right storage system, then I could get really organised, and everything would be perfect.

But every time I tried this, it would quickly just fall back into a messy area all over again.

The truth is, when you have too much stuff that you’re trying to organise, it’s just never going to work. It’s always going to get jumbled up again in 5 minutes.

Things are not going to have a proper place to go, because there’s only so much space you have in your house.

And if we fill it all up, it’s going to be overwhelming. We’re not going to be able to stay on top of it, as we’ll simply have too much to manage.

I already have so much on my plate, and I’m sure you do as well.

The less stuff we have to manage, the easier it will be. The less time we spend cleaning and organising, the more time we’ll have to do the things that matter to us.

So before trying any of these systems, declutter first.

Get rid of anything that you’re not really using or don’t need right now. If it’s something that you think you will use in the next year or so, then maybe put it in storage (loft, garage, shed, under bed etc), but out of reach and out of sight.

In your daily space, keep the things that you’re using right now.

I promise you that decluttering first and then using these 9 systems will make a huge difference, not only in how your house looks, but in how it feels and to your mental state.

It’s going to change the way you feel when you walk through your front door.

Instead of seeing this big mess, you’re going to feel more of a relief: you’re in your calm space. It’s not that big of a mess.

And even if there are a few things on the floor, it’s easy to tidy up because you know where they all go.

I hope this has been helpful, and do let me know in the comments below how you’re getting on.