January 27, 2017

20 Organizing Products You’ll Actually Use

Organizing is different for everyone. You might be a contain and label everything person, you might be a contain and label somethings person, and maybe you just prefer to use the shelves and drawers in your home and stack and stash accordingly.

I’m somewhere in between BUT I’ve found that there are a handful of organizing products that actually make our lives a little easier. Stuff stays where it’s supposed, things get put back and put away, and chaos doesn’t ensue.

I have oodles of organizing quick tips and tricks in my new book SIMPLY CLEAN that I know you’ll love – pre-order it if you haven’t!

Today I’m going to share a handful of organizing products that ARE worth the expense, have stood the test of time, and the ultimate test, a busy family. Just the good stuff folks – I strive to share just the good stuff with you all the time, but these products are just so great that I had to round them up for you! If I have a related blog post where I talked about a system or tool, I’ve also added that link so you can go there for more information. I’ve linked up almost every product at the bottom of the post – if you’re looking for something, check there first!

Bathrooms

I love using a tray for placing makeup and tools on in the bathroom – when I go to wipe down the counter I simply put the tray on the floor and spray and wipe the counter off. Bonus points, I keep makeup in that little basket and brushes and tools in the cups.

If you struggle to keep products contained under the bathroom sink, get a divided lazy Susan – you can compartmentalize your products and it keeps them organized in a smaller space. I keep lotions and deodorant in a basket on a little shelf. This keeps any extras out of the way but still accessible.

One of my favorite organizing projects of all time was when I put all of our master bedroom closet ‘stuff’ in bins and labeled them. So simple, but still well over a year later, it still looks like this. Go here for the how-to.

I use these clear acrylic divided drawer organizers in every bathroom drawer – measure your drawers and find ones that work – they are amazing tools!

I love this hack – I keep a stash of cheap (linked below) washcloths in a wire basket on the side of my sink for washing my face at night. It’s a little luxury that I enjoy.

I can’t talk about bathrooms without talking about a bathroom cleaning caddy – the BEST tool for keeping bathrooms clean most of the time. Put together your favorite bathroom cleaning supplies and keep it handy for quick clean-ups and weekly cleaning. You can find all of these products in my Clean Mama Home shop (except for the scrubber which may be coming soon 😉

Closets

Everyone’s closet has a donate basket – if something no longer fits or has seen better days, it goes in the basket and once the basket is filled up it goes to our favorite donation place or relative. This is the basket in a corner of our master closet – this is a great system!

A couple years ago we re-did our master bedroom closet and had built-ins installed – I added these laundry baskets for my husband’s socks – one basket is for white socks and the other is for dress socks. No folding, just throw them in the basket while doing laundry. (He has a lot of socks!)

If you don’t use a hamper system for doing laundry, you might find it really helpful for cutting down on your laundry time. This was a must for our closet (I love it!) but you can easily just use a laundry hamper with the same results. My husband’s hamper is on the left, towels are in the middle, and my laundry is on the right. When it’s time to wash the clothes I just separate them out by whites and darks and that’s it! I do wash our clothes separately about once a week and towels get washed on their own.

Kitchen

This fall we had shelves installed in our pantry and it was a game changer for organization – I love them! My favorite organizing systems in this space are the clear acrylic bins for storage – easy access for the kids and the mason jars for dry goods. I also keep shopping bags in the basket below the bottom shelf.

I use glass jars all over the house for storage and decoration but my favorite use is to store bar mop cloths in them on the counter. This helps cut down on paper towel usage and it looks cute too! I also keep a vintage Ball jar on the counter with dishwasher pods.

I love keeping dish soap, hand soap, and granite cleaning spray (get my recipe here) in a small casserole dish. So cute and all I have to do to wipe down the counters is move the dish. Easy peasy.

Paperwork and Office

I love this little caddy for keeping paperwork and daily things organized – go to the post all about 3 things every command center needs here.

I have a HUGE filing cabinet – in the top I keep our personal and business files and in the bottom I have it divided into 3 for the kids stuff. We put memorabilia, school stuff, and other things we want to keep in the filing cabinet. Keeping files cute, labeled, and organized makes it slightly more enjoyable. Here’s an oldie but goodie post all about paper clutter if you’re interested!

Kids and Toys

Milk crates – they’re the perfect size for kids toys – I like using open baskets so there’s no guessing about what’s inside.

We use felt hangers for everyone’s clothes – I get them on sale at Homegoods – they keep clothing in one place (no slipping), and I love that they take up less space and give a closet a more put together look. This is my daughter’s closet – you can see she has milk crates above her clothes for storage.

Enough with the milk crates, but if you have young kids and struggle with the constant cleaning up all.the.time, try using an on your way up basket and putting those loose items in the basket. When the kids go upstairs, they take the basket and put away the stuff. Everyone wins!

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