Organizing Bins

To any of you who have been reading this blog for very long, you may remember that I am striving to be more organized. You see, I'm a person who LOVES things to be neat and tidy, but don't quite possess the ability to do it that way. I love for things to be in their place, but rarely make that happen. I like to see a room free of clutter, but tend to unconsciously accumulate clutter faster than I can get it put away. It is a desire of my heart to be a woman of organization. More specifically, to keep a well organized home.

Most days, I fail quite miserably. In case your home tends to look like mine does and could use some help in the way of organization, here's something that I've found works. It's easy to implement and doesn't cost much. It's also a good way to help get your kids involved in keeping things picked up and put away.

I went to Target and bought four identical storage baskets. I lined each one with paper and then labeled with each member of our family's name. I also put a picture of each person on their basket so that Karsyn has NO excuse for not knowing which basket belongs to each of us.

Here is a picture of the baskets:

And here's an up-close shot of K's basket:

As we go through the day and I find items that need to be put away, I place it in the basket of the person that it belongs to. Before our bedtime routine, I have Karsyn help me go through the house and find items that we need to put into the baskets. Then, we take her basket to her room, and put away each of her items. This is what the baskets look like by mid-afternoon:

We don't always get everything put away each night, and sometimes there are more items that we can fit into the baskets. At that point, I just make a pile on the dining room table until we can get it all put away.

It seems so simple, but it really does help.

What about you? What system do you use to keep the clutter away?