Make organizing a HABIT:
Holding areas
Active items in natural location
Boxes and containers
Items with like items
Try to limit storage mix
Good organization has a lot to do with cultivating good habits. When you are working on getting all of your "stuff" corralled, an easy way to think of it is to remember the word "HABIT".
Holding Areas: Create areas for items that tend to build up and create clutter. Many of these items simply belong somewhere else. If you leave a basket at the top and bottom of the stairs, you can rest things in it until the next time you go up or down. Creating an "inbox" near your entry can help to keep the paperwork that comes in until you have a chance to sort through it.
Active items in natural location: Watch how your family works for a while before you undertake an organizing project. If you try to move things too far from where everyone naturally puts them, you are doomed to fail. Use a container to keep everything orderly, but make sure you put it as close as you can to where items seem to always end up.
Boxes and Containers: Use containers on shelves and deep cabinets to keep items from taking over the space and to increase useable storage space. Make sure the containers have deep sides and try to put items in vertically so that you can see at a glance what is in there. Label your containers so that everyone knows what goes where. Transferring things from their original containers can make it easier to see when you are running low on something.
Items with like items: Sorting is one of the more important aspects of good organization. Mixing different types of things in a cabinet or container makes it hard to figure out where things are supposed to go. Keep your containers just small enough to hold similar items together but not so large that you are tempted to toss other types of things in. Keeping all of your office supplies together is great, but adding cleaning solutions to that container is not.
Try to limit storage mix: Determine the function of each room or storage area, but limit the number of different purposes an area serves. Whenever possible, store items close to where you use them.
