If you are stopping by after watching Channel 8 News  this morning – thank you so much for watching and taking the time to check out my blog for more information about the tips and products I featured on TV. While you are here please be sure to head over to my About Emily to learn more about me, my family, and my blog!

Did you know that getting organized is one of the top New Year resolutions that people make, but like many resolutions many people quit after becoming overwhelmed. I have to be honest. I’m not the most organized person, but I’m getting better. For me making a plan, and including it in my monthly goal setting makes a big difference. Since I’m no professional, I reached out several of my fellow mom friends for their best tips to make complete home organization less intimidating and included a few tips of my own. Here is what we came up with!  We tried to focus on the areas that people tend to struggle with the most and together we complied over THIRTY tips and tricks for COMPLETE home organization!

Make a Plan!

• There are several blogs like Fly Lady and I Heart Organizing or vloggers like Clean My Space that can give you tips daily. If you are more of an app person check out Motivated Moms that I JUST discovered. It is a chore planning system that helps to remind me on little things I can do every day to keep my home clean.
• Schedule it in just like everything else that is important to your day.  I personally find it very satisfying to cross something off my planner – so I try to write it down whenever possible. I love this daily planner because I can set goals weekly, monthly, and daily!

Everyday Organization

• 15 minutes a day – Set the timer, grab a basket (I like the collapsible clever crates because they can then be stored away when they aren’t in use), and take 15 minutes every morning or before bed to pick up clutter that has accumulated in the main rooms in your home. Return the items to their proper places. (Also a great way for kids to learn how to organize.)

• Do a quick scan rooms as you are leaving them to see if  you can grab anything that doesn’t belong.
• At the end of the night pick up any toys and put them in a basket for kids to put away when they wake up.

De- Clutter

One of the best ways to start organizing your home is to de-clutter. There are a few ways to do this.

• 1 hour a day – Same concept as 15 minutes in everyday organization, but for use on days when you have more time. I personally find setting the timer a very important step as it helps to keep me from getting sidetracked.
• Katie from thewisewife.org suggests using the 3 “D’s” (Dump, Divide, and Donate). As you work your way through have baskets or bags set up for trash, goodwill, and other items that belong in different rooms.
• 40 bags in 40 days – Pick one spot every day and work until you’ve filled a bag full of stuff to donate. Do this for 40 days. Check out White House Black Shutters for more details.

Holidays

Seeing as the holidays end at the same time as many people resolve to be more organized, this is a great place to start!

• Sort and label all your holiday decorations in totes. When you are decorating your home, store your everyday decorations in the holiday totes. When you are packing up the holiday decorations you can easily put back your everyday décor!
• Rachel from The CHIC Home recommends using a hanging garment bag to store unruly wrapping paper rolls.
• I use this Ikea garbage bag holder to contain my rolls inside a small closet. (I bought mine on Amazon because I don’t have an Ikea nearby, but they are less expensive at the store.)
• Never get tangled up again! Use the CordPro holiday to organize garlands, Christmas lights, and extension cords making them easily accessible and tangle free for next holiday season!

Pantry Organization

• Use mason jars to organize your dry ingredients. Not only does it keep everything fresher longer, you can see when it’s time to buy more. This is great for nuts, cereals, flours, rice, dry beans, and more!
• I love these Copco 3-tier shelves to help make it easier to see all the cans as opposed to stacking them one in front of the other.
• Sara from Mom Endeavors has a great pantry before and after to check out! Love her labeled baskets! We have several in our pantry as well.

Mail/Paper Organization

• Organize your mail as soon as you come in the door. Ashley from Mommy on the Mound separates it into different categories: Shred, Bills, Coupons, Garbage.
• Keep the mail all in one place. I personally like this mail organizer.

• Buy a shredder, and use it daily to avoid mail from piling up and to protect your identity. If a shredder isn’t in your budget you can get the same results with shredding scissors.

Cleaning Supplies/Storage

There are so many neat ways to store and keep yourself organized when it comes to supplies. Here are a few ideas.

• I like an over the door shoe organizer to keep cleaning supplies neat and out of the way from young children.
• Keep a smaller collapsible clever crate with carrying handles in the same space so you can load it up with the supplies you will need and easily carry it from room to room.
  
• Another idea from storing cleaning supplies comes from Little Bit Funky. She uses a tension rod to hang cleaning supplies and add space to her cabinets.

Photo Source

• Invest in a mop and broom organizer to keep them from falling out at you every time you open your closets.

Closet Organization

• Ditch all the wire hangers and invest in one type of hanger for your closets. It looks nicer and keeps clothing from having hanger marks. I personally like the velvet hangers that help to keep clothing from slipping off as well.
• Sabrina recommends turning your hangers backwards in your closet. Then every 3-6 months go through your closet and donate anything still facing the wrong way because you haven’t worn it.
• Don’t put sweaters or jeans in dresser drawers – that takes up too much space. Instead use shelf dividers in your closet to keep them neat without taking up too much room.
• Kids closets can quickly get cluttered as they always seem to be growing. Go through their clothing every 3 months, wash and store too small clothing in air tight totes or vacuum bags. This will make it easier to find what you need for younger children or organize it to sell when you don’t need them any longer.

Playroom

• Consider investing in square storage and fabric bins. Toys always look neat when they are put away – even if they aren’t! Check out my playroom before and after!

• Use pictures to label bins so even the younger children can help keep their toys organized
• Try the one in one out rule… For every new toy your child gets they have to pick something to put away or donate. (If one for one is too hard for your child, try asking them to donate 1-2 toys per month.)
• Use totes to rotate toys. Every few months swap the toys in the totes for the toys in the playroom to keep your children excited about all their toys.

General Tips/Tricks

• Use designated bins for each person in your home. These can be a catch-all for hats, shoes, mittens etc.
• Put a load of laundry in before you go to bed at night. Switch it to the dryer first thing in the morning. Then you can have it folded and put away before the day gets away from you.
• Prepare for your day before you go to bed at night. Lay out clothing, pack school lunches, and write to-do lists. This not only helps your brain shut off at the end of the day, it saves you time in the mornings.
• Instead of saving every project your child comes home from school with – take pictures. Consider using an app like artkive to make little books of their art as memorable and organized keepsakes.
• Upload your photos from your camera and your phone monthly and label them in monthly folders. This will make it easier to put them into yearly photo books or calendars.
• Meal Plan! Meal planning not only helps you to stay organized, it saves money and time! Time that you can use to tackle some of the bigger organizational projects!

 Do you have any tips to home organization? Let me know in the comments below!

Last year I did a post on the best and worst Super Bowl Commercials, this year I figured I would just do a top 10.

In no particular order…

10. Radio Shack – “The 80’s Called”

9. Cheerios – “Gracie”

 
8. Maserati Ghibli
(My husband’s pick)

 
7. T-mobile – “Tim Tebow is the boss!”

 
6. Audi “Doberhuahua”
(Excited about this one since they were on my worst list last year)

5. Volkswagen – “Wings”

4. Wonderful Pistachios – “Stephen Colbert”
(Part 1 and 2 together)

3. Doritos They had a few… but I loved  “Cowboy Kid”

 
2. Diet Mt. Dew – “Dale Call”

 
1. Budweiser – “A Hero’s Welcome: Full Story”

While most of these are in no particular order, It’s no mistake I had a hero’s welcome as the #1 video. If you know me you know my family has a military background and my husband continues to deploy for his job as a civilian contractor now. The moment she hugged her soldier is something I know too well and brought me to tears instantly… To me that was as American and as amazing as you can get.

Well done Budweiser!

I was bummed to not see the E-trade baby!

What was your favorite?

I’ve said it before, I really only watch the big game to see the Super Bowl commercials. This game with the brother’s Harbaugh going head to head (which is pretty darn epic!), the Beyonce/Destiny Child halftime show, and the crazy blackout (and all the FEMA jokes that came along with it) certainly had it’s highlights. I still was in it for the commercials.

Here is a list of what my family thought the best and worst Super Bowl commercials were!

Best:

Jeep – “Whole Again”
My personal favorite of the whole game.  Well done Jeep, well done!

Doritos “Goat 4 Sale” 
SO FUNNY!! The goat screaming made me nearly choke!

Tide “Miracle Stain”
My whole family laughed at this one.  My hubs was all like, “Oh man, that’s grounds for divorce!”  LOL!  Very well done Tide!

Kia “Space Babies”
Seriously super cute!! Who doesn’t love a commercial full of babies, and my son stared it awe at the rockets!! Very very cute!

Budweiser The Clydesdales “Brothers”
It really is not a Super Bowl without them!  This one was pretty sweet!

Hyundai “Epic Playdate”
What a cute family commercial! It would be a pretty epic day!

Oreo “Whisper Fight” 
I love the end.  “You guys have to stop fighting! We’re the cops!”  Lol!!  Very cute Oreo!

Dodge Ram “Farmer”
I really liked this commercial.  I think that it was a nice reminder of how hard our countries farmers work.

Worst:

Go Daddy “Perfect Match”
Hands down… once again Go Daddy had to have the most controversial commercial of the Super Bowl.  I really didn’t expect anything different from them.  I don’t care if you are the most beautiful couple or average joes, I don’t want see anyone kissing that close up.  GROSS!  So gross in fact, you can look that one up on your own… No video here!

Audi “Prom”
I am such a mom, but to me it only encouraged poor teenage driving decisions, and violence.  I liked that he went after what he wanted, I just wish he didn’t have to drive like a maniac and get punched as a result.

What was your favorite? Your least favorite?