Organizing Tips, Ideas & Inspiration

Get organizing tips, ideas, and inspiration for getting your paperwork, rooms, and crafts in order using traditional, and some nontraditional, ways.

The weeks after Christmas is a prime time for organizing – and it’s not just because that’s what all the media outlets are telling us. I’ve always felt that need to purge, clean, and set things straight after the abundance of the fall and winter holidays – do you, too? It seems like needing to put away the Christmas decorations is the push that’s needed to clear the decks of stuff that’s gathered through the last months.

Most of the time after Christmas I want to get a few areas organized that typically grow, ahem, through the year: my recipes-to-try pile and my craft-fabric closet. I don’t think I’m alone in this perpetual cycle, am I? For some it might be clothes, for others it’s papers, but whatever it is, I think the start of a new year is a good time to do a yearly purge-and-file.

So in the spirit of the New Year’s organizing fever I’ve rounded up all the organizing articles I’ve written into one spot so that they are easier to find and are, well, for lack of a better word: organized. Here you’ll find traditional organizing ideas as well as a few unusual ones (check out the vintage suitcase idea) in four areas, general, papers, clothes and seasonal, and rooms.

Organizing Tips & Ideas at AOC:

General Organizing:

• Simple Organizing Tips
• Organizing with Trays
• Organizing with Baskets
• Using Vintage Suitcases
• Keep Track of Frozen Foods with a Chalkboard Freezer Door

Papers:

• A Unique Idea for Organizing Card-Making & Craft Supplies
• File System for Family Paperwork
• Organizing Recipes (plus a funny video from Brian: Hard-Hitting Recipe Organization Interview)
• Gardening: How to Plan and Organize Paperwork/Records

Clothes & Seasonal:

• Burlap Jewelry Organizer
• Edit & Simplify Your Wardrobe
• Adopt a Simple Laundry System
• Easy Gift-Wrap System

Rooms:

• 13 Ways to Organize a Work/Craft/Office Space with Vintage Items
• Laundry Spruce Up
• Organize Kitchen Spices
• Beautifying a Closet
• Fabric Closet Organizing

Okay, the amount of posts kinda surprised me. I’ve always joked that I love to get organized, but staying organized is another matter…

I’d love to know- do you have any organizing tips to share?