How To Organize Your Stuff Efficiently

Organizing is a fun thing for me. I love to organize piles of untidy things into neat, tidy “homes.” However, if you were to peek into my room, you would find disorganized chaos. Just saying….

In order to make party planning a breeze, you need to know what you have and where it is. It doesn’t necessarily have to be all in one place, just in a permanent home, where you can find it easily.

I have a china cabinet filled with the china we use every now and then. It also hold the glasses we use weekly for larger dinner parties. It has tea cups and coffee cups, as well as a few votive candle holders. This may seem like several different items all jumbled into one, but it works for me. I like to have certain items close by, so when we have last minute dinner guests, I’m not running all over the house looking for things. These are my “go-to” items, and I know I can always find them there.

We have a three buffets that hold several items…

1. Linens. Only linens go here. Napkins, table clothes, place mats.

2. Candles. ALL candles live here.

3. Odds and Ends. This one holds the flatware, dessert plates, a few (regularly used) linens, and serving pieces.

My craft items are kept in my craft room. If I need to work on a project, I go in there to do it, and try to keep it contained in there. Rarely happens.  (You will see my craft room later in this series!)

We have a cabinet full of salad bowls and salt/pepper shakers. As well as a few serving pieces.

Having these items in specific “homes,” I know exactly where to find items I need. I try not to keep things in these vital real estate locations that we don’t use regularly. Items that are only used for certain holidays, or not used often, are kept downstairs in the storage room. A shelf is devoted to vases and other paraphernalia.

Take a weekend, or a full day and put all your items in specific homes. If you find something you don’t use often, either give it away, or put it somewhere in storage, where you know you will be able to access it! After a year, if you still haven’t used that item, GET. IT. OUT. Just do it! It is SO freeing to give things away! Plus, it makes more room for *new* fun things!

I don’t iron my linens after I wash them, I just throw the table cloth in the dryer for a few minutes before I use it. If it really needs ironing, I’ll do it, but rarely. As for napkins, I do like those ironed and folded (into a square!). When I need to use them, they are pressed and ready. Ironing them into a folded square not only saves space in the drawers, it also allows for versatile napkin folds.

As far as platters, etc. We have labelled cabinets for those items. Let’s be real, they rarely make it back to the correct cabinet on the first try….. I try to keep the serving platters in one cabinet, the cooking vessels in another, etc.

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