So, I’ve seen a few of my northern friends posting pictures of snow already. SNOW. Really?! WOW! I am having a hard time believing that, but pictures don’t lie!
While it’s not “technically” winter yet, while chatting with one of my lovely guest-bloggers, Sofia Lewis, she suggested a post on Winter Home Organizing. We decided we might as well get a jump on it, since it will be here before we know it, right? Let’s see what Sofia has to say about organizing your home during the winter!
There are many ways to keep things orderly during any season, but winter makes organization much more important due to a number of factors, chief among those being the fact that we will often stay indoors for extended periods of time. To keep things well-organized, we will need to focus on a few things, such as the following:
- A good way of handling your sewing supplies is to have a sturdy, three-ring-binder repair kit. This will help you find things when you need to do a project or some quick fixes on your clothes. You can also add some zipper pouches and a needle holder for additional supplies.
- Something else worth doing is coming up with a useful smart calendar for the rest of the year, so you will never forget your schedule. You can use sticky notes to move appointments on it, unless of course you prefer an electronic solution instead.
- Winter is a great season for charity and helping those less fortunate. Since it will be quite cold outside, why don’t you find a way to give older clothes to people who need them through a local charity, thrift store or something else? Another thing you can do is take some of your books you will likely never read, donating them to your local library as a great gift for the winter season.
- You can also discard your expired prescription medicines and cosmetics to free up some space in your medicine cabinet. Use a cut piece of galvanized steel and glue it with construction adhesive to the inner side of the cabinet. You can use it to hold magnetic hooks for your scissors and other cosmetic supplies, as well as plastic cups for smaller object such as hair clips, rubber bands and other necessities.
- You can also reorganize your hall closet by adding a row of shelves under the jackets. Install them near the base of the closet and you will never have to dig through things to find what you need. The lower shelves can also be used for shoes and a number of other items such as toys or similar objects. Make sure you leave enough space between the shelves and the frame for your umbrellas or other things.
- You can really make your place more welcoming by upgrading your already existing shelves. Floating bookshelves are a great addition to any home, especially if you cover them with wallpaper. Measure the shelves, cut the wallpaper to a slightly longer length and use wallpaper paste to affix it to the shelf, working one at a time. Cut slits into the paper at the ends and use the flaps to make it flawless and ready for use.
Well, I don’t know about you, but now I have some project ideas for the winter months! I love Sofia’s idea for organizing sewing supplies, and she’s right, it’s a great time to donate clothes to those in need, as well!
What organizing projects do YOU do during the winter?
Due to the amount of comments from all of my wonderful readers, it is not always possible for me to respond to each one. However, I absolutely do read them all, and if you’d like to address something specific, or have a question for me, please don’t hesitate to email me atKristen@theroadtodomestication.com. I will respond to your email as soon as possible! Thank you for visiting the blog!
Thank goodness in Florida I do not have to do much reorganizing depending on season. I remember growing up in NY and watching my mom for hours rotating clothes and blankets etc. Not for me lol
Great post! Excellent ideas!
All good tips! When I see those photos of snow up north already, I’m so happy to be a southerner!
Here in Nebraska, though the days are still warm and lovely, they are getting shorter, so we are inside more. We naturally start cleaning and de-cluttering and preparing for more time spent inside. It’s a sweet cycle, though already I’m looking forward to spring—!!
Lovely read and great tips… I’m from the Caribbean tho.. always sunny.. 🙂
We’ve been cleaning out the house and have donated a bunch of things already. I plan on going through all the upstairs cabinets and cleaning those out too.
We are donating clothing right now also. Getting rid of the stuff that doesn’t fit and trying to declutter.
Fantastic tips! We live in Pennsylvania and moved into our current home this past summer. We have begun organizing, donating and decluttering. With 3 sons and a daughter, donating is a big thing. Plus we homeschool, so that adds more to our need to streamline things. Thanks for the tips and inspiration!
These are terrific ideas. Winter is such a hard time to store everything that needs to be put up and then you throw in Christmas on top of that you can have a mess quick!
These are all great ideas. I desperately need to organize my home.
What great ideas! I like to go through my stuff and get rid of. Always a good feeling.
YES! I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, that is actually a nice size, but it seems like I keep filling it up with more and more…. junk! Haha, it’s nice to have some tips to help me get back to my clean and organized home 🙂
Aha! A lower shelf in the coat closet is just the thing I need! There is always something covering up the shoes, like paper sacks or fallen jackets. Since this is also the kitchen closet, we have a broom rack installs to the side, so I’ll have to work around that.
Thanks.
I’ve already had to rotate baseball hats/sunglasses out and rotate hats/gloves into our hallway baskets. My next thing will be adding blankets to all the bed clothes.
Thank yo for these amazing yet depressing tips lol…with winter coming I do a lot of my organization but hate the winter.
As always you have the best tips. as for winter i am happy to be living in the south right now.
Using sticky notes to mark appointments is a great idea. That way you can easily change them if anything comes up!
These are great tips. I just re-organized earlier this week. I will have to keep your tips in mind for next year 🙂
It is a good time to donate clothing. I need to finish up my fall cleaning before its time to bring out all things Christmas.
I am so not into organizing. Of course I really should be–some of my closets could certainly use it. Maybe this winter when the snow is piled high and I am not on the computer or reading.
We have to redo our patio in the winter since it won’t be so warm. These are also great ideas to add in to our routine.
We had a dumpster here a few weeks back and got rid of so much stuff, but it doesn’t even look like we made a dent 🙁
Sounds like you have a lot of planning to do! Thanks for sharing.
I just moved into a new house and have a lot of organizing to do. I will be spending a lot of time this winter going threw all the totes.
I use gallon size clear/transparent bins for my various sewing supplies. I have tons for crafting though.
I loved the tip about using metal hooks under the cabinets! Brilliant!
I don’t usually reorganize for winter. I just get rid of things that I know we won’t be using the next year and btw we’ve had a bit of snow already here too. Winter is coming early for us.
These tips are reminding me that I have some winter organizing to do. My hall closet is a mess.
Well being from Trinidad, Winter is the last thing on my mind. However, I think these organization tips can work for anyone, anytime. I love the idea of donating books and clothes to others. I do that all the time.
I usually do most of my organizing ( spring cleaning) during the winter months. I live in a warm weather state and I prefer to do those things when it is cooler. I go through each room every year and get rid of things that I haven’t used and rearrange and what not about twice a year.
In the winter I tend to organize the garage sale stuff in the garage. Get rid of the things we know wont sell the following year. I also tend to organize summer clothes to pack and then get out the winter clothes. Since kiddo grows so fast, she often has things that won’t fit the following year, so they tend to go the garage sale piles.
Life is just a little easier with an organized space. Great tips to stay organized
I definitely need to go through my old prescriptions and my old cosmetics. I haven’t done that in a really long time.
Winter is the perfect time for donating to a charity. I always make sure to get those clothes my kids have outgrown from last winter, so someone can have them that can use them now.
I should make use of your guideline soon – everything is a mess here and I can’t even find the time to actually organize things :((
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Hi! I’ve been reading your blog for a long time now and
finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Huffman Tx!
Just wanted to tell you keep up the great job!