What is your best organizing tip?

[~Kim~]

DD's toys are in two of those 5 plastic drawer thingies. Each type of toy has it's own drawer (potato heads, puzzles, barbies, kitchen stuff etc) and is labelled so she can put the stuff away.
DS has 2 wheelie bins and some hidden tubs which I rotate into the bins.
I'm also a huge fan of tubs with lids that roll under stuff and stack.

[Epacris]

A place for everything and everything in its place. AND, this is the clincher for us, volume for volume replacement – any new things get put away and the same volume of things must be donated to charity. It doesn’t work perfectly, I know we have more stuff now than we used to, but it does help enormously to keep it in check (the grandparents tend to go a bit crazy with “stuff” and drive me totally insane ).

All the best!

[Kazbah]

When I sort, I don't sort stuff to toss, but I sort which stuff I want to keep. The rest goes.

[AnyDream]

When I sort, I don't sort stuff to toss, but I sort which stuff I want to keep. The rest goes.

That's a gem.

[Roryrory]

Along the same lines as what the others have said, my best organising tip is to get rid of as much as possible. Less stuff = less mess.

With kids toys, I rotate them. For example, at the moment all the jigsaws are packed away with the blocks and Mr Potato Head. I'll bring that stuff out when the boys tire of the toy food set, Thomas train set and etch-a-sketch.

[lindsaymaree]

A friend of mine has those large plastic tubs with the lids, They seperate the toys into the 3 tubs, 2 tubs go into the shed (out of sight/out of mind) and the one tub inside that can be pulled out and played with, etc. Every couple of weeks this tub gets packed up and rotated to the shed, the kids get a new tub from the shed of toys they've forgotten about.

Because the kids forget about the toys that have been packed away, my friend can then get rid of things they normally wouldn't let her part with.

[Liviam]

Great tips ladies. Keep them coming. I'm in massive need of some storage/clean up ideas. My house isn't very big and we have toys and stuff everywhere - it's driving me crazy!!

[didispunk]

Thank you all,

What about kitchen drawers etc, and that utensil drawer etc.. where you can never find anything,
or your bathroom drawers, and food cupboards etc?