Are you seeing any progress on your journey of 31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom?  I sure am! These little steps are making a big difference.  Today, I thought I’d share some of the ways that I have found to be successful in controlling clutter for my family.  With 6 kids, there are some things that really help me out and I think they may benefit you and your family as well.

Keep a Family Calendar

We have a large dry erase calendar in our Kitchen that we can change out Monthly {I purchased this one on clearance from Pottery Barn a few years back}.  My older daughters help me keep it current and we all add our events to it. This helps me to feel a little more sane on the days when we are going in 8 different directions.  One of the ways I organize it is by having a different color marker for each family member. So when my oldest has an art class we write it with her blue color and when the youngest has a doctors appointment we write it in orange.  This method works very well for us.

I do also use Google Calendars and share with my husband but I find that the calendar on the wall is worth the extra time because I am a visual person and when I see it all laid out for me every day I feel way more on top of everything.

 Baskets Everywhere

Kids seem to breed clutter. I have some clutter controllers in my home that help with the everyday messes.  I have a large basket {with a lid on it} at the bottom of my stairs which is also in my family room {This particular basket came from HomeGoods, which is one of my favorite stores ever!}.  This basket is for collecting escaped toys and items that need to be put away upstairs.  We collect items in there and once a week we clean everything out and put it all away.

We also have baskets for shoes {This one’s from Target}.  When you have six kids there are potentially 12 socks and shoes kicked off every day. We are working on teaching them to take them off and put them away right away but I have always felt like this is an uphill battle. That’s why I have a basket by the front door and near the garage door to collect shoes & socks to be put away at a certain time of day. These baskets also work well for mittens and scarves on cold days.

A Place for Everything

We have several hook racks in our home {I made this one from a board and hooks that I purchased from Michael’s}. They are great for holding towels, purses by the door, bags of items to return to the store, backpacks, etc… It’s worth the effort to teach kids to use them to keep floors clutter free.

Crazy Paper Piles No More

Kids seem to get paper from everywhere they go. We get notes from school, homework papers, activity sheets from church, coloring pages and more! Too often these papers end up in piles and I cannot find what I need when I need it. Enter the hanging files {I found this one at Target in the office supplies}. The kind I have found has exactly 6 folders and this works out to be one for each kid for me. I have it hiding in my pantry in the kitchen and this is where papers go.  This eliminates so much frustration over where to find papers when you need them. We clean it out every couple weeks to make sure we are on top of everything.

What Can I Eat?

“What can I eat?” is a famous question in my house and is usually prefaced with “I’m SO hungry!” I was getting frustrated with hearing this from 6 different kids coming home from school at different times each day. So I got a big basket and put it in the pantry and it is the “Snack Box.”  My kids know what is in it is what they are allowed to have for snacks. I have also made sure they know to only eat one serving size of whatever the snack is that they choose.

That’s it for now. Hopefully these ideas will get your organizing juices going and you can tackle some of the ways clutter builds in your home.

Tell me your tips too! I’d love to know what you do to tackle and eliminate clutter.