Organizing Things Where You Need Them

6. Could You Keep Supplies Where the Job Happens?

Sometimes our supplies are organized beautifully—they're just nowhere near where we use them.

If you clean the bathroom mirror regularly, could a cloth and cleaner stay nearby? If you write checks or open mail at the kitchen table, could your pen, stamps, and envelopes be there too?

Think about the activity first. Then ask whether the things you need for it could live nearby.

7. What's Too High—or Too Low?

Notice when you stretch, reach overhead, bend way down, or get on your knees to retrieve something. Then ask yourself how often you use it.

If it's something you rarely need, that may be the perfect place for it.

But if you use it every week—or every day—try moving it somewhere between about knee and shoulder height.

Save those harder-to-reach spaces for things you don't need very often.

8. Could You Create a Little "Landing Spot"?

Think about what happens when you walk through the door. Where do the keys go? The mail? Your coat? Your purse or wallet? The things from your pockets?

If they tend to land wherever there's an open surface, try creating one convenient spot for them.

It doesn't have to be fancy. A hook, basket, bowl, tray, or small table may be all you need.

9. Are You Storing Things Where They Used to Be Needed?

Homes change along with our routines.

Maybe you once cooked for a large family and still have cabinets filled with large serving dishes. Perhaps supplies for a hobby you don't do very often occupy the easiest closet. Or something is still upstairs even though you now use it mostly downstairs.

Look around and ask: "Do I still use this here?"

If not, perhaps something you use more often deserves that space.

10. What Would Be Handy to Have Right Here?

Sit in one of the places where you spend a lot of time—your favorite chair, kitchen table, bedside, desk, or porch. Now look around.

What do you regularly get up to retrieve? Your glasses? A pen? Tissues? Phone charger? Book? Remote? Hand lotion?

Pick one thing and try keeping it nearby for a week or two.

If you find yourself thinking, "Well, that's handy." keep it there. If not, move it back.

Sometimes getting organized isn't about putting everything away. It's about putting the things you use where your life actually happens.

Most of us have certain places where things are supposed to go.

The towels belong in this cabinet. The scissors go in that drawer. Cleaning supplies are kept under the kitchen sink. The extra blankets have always been on the top shelf of the closet.

And after years of living in a home, we don't really question it.

But here's something interesting to think about: What if the best place to keep something isn't where it has always belonged—but where you actually use it?

Over the next few days, pay attention to the little trips you make around your home.

Do you walk into another room every time you need the scissors? Carry something upstairs only to bring it back down again later? Reach into a high cupboard for something you use every morning? Keep an everyday item tucked away simply because that's where you've always kept it?

Those little moments are worth noticing.

You don't need to reorganize your house. In fact, don't. Just choose one thing and experiment.

Move something you use every day a little closer. Keep an extra one in the room where you need it. Bring something down from a high shelf. Put something you rarely use in its place.

Then live with the change for a week or two.

If you find yourself thinking, "Well, that's handy," you've probably found a better spot.

And if you don't like it? Put it right back where it was.

Being organized isn't about having a perfect place for everything. It's about putting things where they make your life a little easier.

10 Little Things to Notice Around Your Home
You don't need to spend the weekend reorganizing cabinets and closets. Instead, just pay attention as you go about your normal day.

Notice what you reach for, what you walk to another room to get, what you have trouble finding, and what seems to be stored somewhere simply because that's where it has always been.

You may discover that moving just a few things can make everyday life surprisingly easier.

1. What Do You Use Every Single Day?

Think about the things you reach for every day—your favorite coffee mug, medications, reading glasses, phone charger, television remote, cooking utensils, or toiletries. Are any of them tucked away somewhere inconvenient?

Try giving one everyday item an easier-to-reach home.

If you use something every day, it deserves a pretty good spot.

2. What Do You Keep Walking Into Another Room to Get?

Pay attention to those little trips you make without even thinking about them.

Maybe the scissors are always in the kitchen, but you usually need them in the living room. Perhaps tissues are in the bathroom, but you often want one beside your favorite chair.

Instead of making the trip every time, could you keep an extra one where you actually use it?

Sometimes having two of something makes more sense than having one in the "proper" place.

3. What's Taking Up the Best Spots?

The easiest shelves and drawers in your home are valuable real estate. Take a look at what's occupying them.

Are things you use once or twice a year taking up space while something you use every day is on a high shelf or at the back of a cupboard? Try switching them.

Let the things you use most often have the easiest spots.

4. What Do You Have to Move to Get to Something Else?

Open a few cupboards and drawers you use regularly. Do you have to move one pan to reach another? Take three containers out to get the one in back? Lift something off an appliance every time you want to use it?

If you're constantly moving something out of the way, that's a clue.

Try rearranging just that little area and see whether it works better.

5. What Are You Always Looking For?

Where are my glasses? Where did I put my keys? Has anyone seen the remote?

Some things seem to wander around the house all by themselves.

Try choosing one convenient place for something you regularly search for—a small basket, bowl, tray, hook, or spot beside your favorite chair.

Then experiment with putting it there every time. You might spend a little less of your day searching.