Decluttering through Macro-Organization
The following is a guest post from regular contributor, Kristin at The Gold Project.
You might be wondering, “What is macro-organization?” It is something I have done my whole life, but did not know it had a term until recently. Macro-organization is when you look at the bigger picture in your decluttering journey. You are more concerned about getting everything corralled and in the same location rather than the tiny details. And, let’s be honest. There are some things in our homes that do not have be organized to the smallest detail. Today, I am sharing some of the areas I macro-organize in my home.
1. Toys
When it comes to cleaning up toys in my household, I am doing a good job if I can get them gathered up and placed in the same area by the time I go to bed. It seems like I think my kids are done with their toys for the day, so I put them up. I turn back around and out a new tub comes.
My kids play with their toys a lot and they do not play with one type of toy at a time (hot wheels, for example). They like it best if all of the toys are out at once. I guess they want to feel like they have a buffet of toys. So, I have learned to place them all in tubs and be done with it. No more separating by type because it does not work for us. It takes a lot of time to separate them out and the kids do not care. If I just get them off the floor, then the kids are happy, and I am less stressed.
2. Socks & Undergarments
This is an area that I have tried so hard to micro-organize, but it just doesn’t work for me. I have tried neatly placing them in nice little stacks in my drawer. Then, by the end of the week, it looks exactly the same as before I went through all of that effort. So, I have decided that if I get everything in the same drawer, then that is good enough for me. Sometimes, you can be too organized and I think that was almost where I was heading.
3. Lids to Pots & Pans
When my husband and I bought our first home, I did not know how to organize kitchen items. And, I still feel like I am learning every day, even though I know a little more now than I did then. I didn’t have any organization at all for pots and pans let alone the lids. I had the open the door, shove it in, and hope nothing falls out mentality. Then, it got to where I couldn’t find anything and I would have to reach all the way to the back of the cabinet to see if the lid I was needing got shoved back there.
Now, I have all of my lids in a basket in my pantry. If they are all in that basket, then I am happy. I don’t mind searching through one container looking for a lid. At least I know where they are all located.
4. Medication
How many of you have your medication in a cabinet? And, when you go to open the cabinet and grab for something, it all falls out in your face? That is what my medication was looking like until a couple of months ago. I decided that it would be easier if it was all contained in one basket or bin. Now, I have a container for band-aids, ointment, etc. and two small plastic bins with the bottles. I did not organize the contents based on cold and flu, sinus, pain reliever, etc. because honestly, I thought that was going overboard and a little confusing.
So, if I need a type of medication, I can pull a single bin off the shelf, grab what I need, and place it back. No more medication flying at my face.
5. Ribbon
I have seen some awesome organization systems where the ribbon is hanging nicely on a rod, color-coded, and beautiful. I tried that and it worked for a little bit, but then I accumulated too much ribbon and my organization system went from cute to way too much. So, I decided there are some things that do not have to require such detailed organization. Sometimes it is fine to place everything in one confined basket or bin and call it a day. This statement definitely rings true for my ribbon.
What are some things that you macro-organize?
My name is Kristin and I am a middle school career education teacher by day and a mommy/wife/blogger by night. I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have two loving children. We recently made a life-changing move to Arkansas, so our new house is always under construction. I get excitement out of finding new creative, functional, and cute ways to organize things! I also enjoy writing and documenting life as it happens. So, I put these loves together and created The Gold Project. With the help of my husband, I am attempting to turn our house into a home. So, check out this special place of mine and take this journey with me!
I love that this has a term. I do this for a number of areas in our home. We have the toys bins as well, but I also have a pet bin with all of our guinea pig supplies in it.
Thank you so much for reading. 🙂
I have always had a drawer mentality of not worrying about what the clothes look like inside the drawer as long as I know which drawer I’m looking for. And it saves so much time. And honestly – who cares if your panties are wrinkled???
So true on the panties. I have seen so many videos and blog posts about how to fold panties and I have tried, but I really think it is a pointless organizing task. 😉
LOVE this! Can I consider my whole house macro organized? I’m guessing not 😉
I am so glad you enjoyed my post. 😉
I sew, and have 3 plastic cookie/cereal type jars I keep all sizes thread spools in, one roughly sorted into blue/green and one for red/pink shades and one for black, white & brown & tan. This is roughly sorted like purple or orange would be red/pink jar. I have seen racks, etc. with real care taken, but this works for me and saves more time than if not sorted at all, but is still a pretty loose sorting. Similarly all elastic, velcro, etc. are together, all zippers, but no sorting by width or length.
I say what works for you is the way to go. 🙂 You are doing a great job.
The best part of this type of system is the ease of putting things away!
I have been doing this for years and didn’t know it! All mail and paper goes onto my desk. All filing goes into a bin for a year-filed at the end of the year. If I occasionally have to find something, it is corralled on my desk or in the file basket, and no where else in the house, and is not difficult to find. Same for craft items (ribbon, threads, patterns, etc.)
I say what works for you is the way to go. 🙂 So, you are doing a great job in my book.
Reading this just gave me several ideas of spots in my home where I keep micro-organizing, and nobody is impressed or cares; and it only gets maintained by me. I believe I’m going to macro-organize and see if it gets maintained better. Thank you!
Yay! I am so glad I could help. I had to do the same thing in my house. I was the only one that kept up with some areas, then I just said forget it. It is causing too much stress.
I’m a macro-organizer too! I didn’t know that. I don’t put my pot lids in one basket though. I’m doing that.
That small thing has helped me so much! No more lids rolling all over the place. 😉
I have a range where it has a drawer in the bottom part (I believe it used to be a warmer for food but I use it to store all pot lids and potato baker and little things like poached egg catcher where the cups go in etc This has saved so much room for rest of kitchen.
Any tips on how to tame electric egg beater beaters? Other day they came flying out of my cupboard.
Yay! I can officially say I’m organized after reading this post! I have been macro-organizing for years, and always thought I was being lazy or taking a short cut.
I don’t have a dresser, so in my closet there are several canvas bins. I toss all of my socks and undergarments in one, hair accessories in another.
In the linen closet, we have 2 bins – one of vitamins & supplements and another smaller one of actual medications.
I need to give up on the toys though because for years I’ve been trying to sort them and I think that is one reason why I have been driving myself crazy. I feel like you are giving me permission to intermingle all the toys as long as they all go in the bin at the end of the day. Do you realize how much of a sanity saver this will be for me?! This is life changing stuff (and I don’t say that lightly).
It sounds like we are the same on these things. I went through toys last week to create a donation pile, so I sorted like toys in bins. Total waste of time. Within 30 minutes, my son was in there and changed everything.
Thank you identifying the term “macro-organizing” and helping me feel like I am more organized than I thought. The small details drive me nuts at times…and then I become deflated and a bit crazed and nobody in my house deserves that 😉 I have two boxes in a kitchen cabinet for medications; one for adult medicine, the other for kiddo’s meds. What a life saver! I also corral papers by grown up vs. kids and hang them from magnetic clips on the back of our mudroom door. This way the school papers are right there in my face, off a counter surface, on the back door the boys use to leave to catch the bus. No more losing time sensitive school papers.
Thank you again for posting this. Here’s to macro-organizing!!
Now, I love the idea of the kids meds separate from the adult meds. I need to do that. 😉
You give me hope. I like organization but my life and space is cluttered. I will focus on macro organization. I see progesterone in my future. Thank you.
I am so glad I could help. 😉
I guess I have been macro – organizing for years & didn’t know it! All my white socks go in 1 drawer, black & colored in another. Washcloths get tossed in a basket. Ditto panties. When my kids were small, I threw all the toys (except legos) in tubs. However, I divided them up into 3 or 4 tubs & brought out 1 tub at a time, changing them out every so often. As for the legos – I stored them in our camper & brought them out on rainy days. Even kept dad occupied & me sane.