Your House is Still Messy No Matter How Hard You Try?

Do you feel like you’re giving organization a GOOD try, but your house still feels messy and you’re just SO tired of putting in the effort and not seeing the results? I’m here to give you a few ideas WHY it’s still feeling messy, and what you can do about it.

But, before we get going — come join me in my 5 word organization challenge. It’s totally free — and may just change a few things about the way you organize!

Expectations Too High For Situation

I see this REALLY often. You have a busy household, likely with kids and a husband…. and you somehow think your house is going to look like the ones in Better Homes and Gardens, or on Instagram (love me some IG organizers).

That’s just not a thing. Humans don’t live in a home where life is like that.

Fix: Take a realistic look at your life. If you have kids your house is always going to look “lived in”. Stuff will be out, to remind you of all the people in your home that you love.

Yes, you can create systems and try to work with them to be as helpful as possible — but it’s always going to be that way — til’ they move out. And, people say I’ll miss it when that happens. Verdict is out on that one. 🙂

BTW, if you want kids to help out more — check out my course family routines that helps you ALL get in routines that create organized home (but they still look lived-in):

Not Staying in a Routine

You may have had a monster weekend, or month, where you just organized the HECK out of your house. That’s awesome — but it’s a long game.

You have to get into a good routine where you’re working to tidy up each area as you go.

Fix: Find a routine that will work for you. For me, I live by my 10 minute tidy to just get my house “back to baseline” once a day.

Sign me up for the challenge!

Part of the Pulling Curls Newsletter ~ Cancel at any time.

I have a few posts that talk more about how this works at my house:

• Getting Your Family to Help Out More
• I love cleaning {I know, I’m Crazy}: Six things to like about cleaning
• Using the 10 Minute Tidy
• Weekly Cleaning Schedule Template: The Benefits of scheduling a clean home

A System Isn’t Working

You may have created a system that isn’t working. This could be for a variety of reasons:

• The system works for YOU but not for others in the home
• It’s over-crowded
• It’s too complicated to use correctly

Fix (depends on the reason):

If it’s not working for others in your home ask for their input. Why it’s too hard to use the system and then come-up with ideas of how to get it to work?

That being said — my kids are just HORRIBLE about backpacks. We don’t have a great place to put them in our main living area, so they just have to take them to their room (but they’re lazy). I figure I will only have 18 years of backpacks everywhere….. I have yet to find a system that works (because, ultimately THEY have to work).

If it’s over-crowded you need to declutter again. If you feel like you absolutely NEED everything in there you need to expand your storage space, or split it into two spaces.

You just have to work within the constraints of your life. The amount of storage you have will limit how much you can have. You may have to throw out things that just don’t work for you. This is often a reality check for me, and it might be for you as well. It does NOT do any good to wish you had more space.

When I ask my family for help with a specific issue (not, YOU GUYS NEVER PUT ANYTHING AWAY) I am always surprised by the ideas I get from them. It’s just new eyes and new ideas. They can see why the system doesn’t work for THEM and because I’m not in the brain — I don’t always see that.

Can’t recommend asking your family to help with your specific problem any more!

It’s Just Too Much

I already sort of talked about this, but the issue, most often, is that you just have too much stuff.

I often don’t want to get rid of things, but I am SO happy when I do and stuff just naturally fits where I want to put it. Things are easier to put away, so they DO get put away.

It is NOT our inclination to get rid of things, but I promise you that doing it will lighten your mental load tremendously. That 5 Word Challenge has some of my best decluttering tips — don’t miss it!

Still Stumped? Get a buddy!

Organizing, especially as a mom, can feel really overwhelming. You feel like you have to organize for the whole family.

I finally had to realize that I had to organize it because I was the only one that it seemed to bother. My kids really don’t care if there is stuff out everywhere and all over. My husband was only bothered by it in a few areas…. so, if I wanted it done it often just fell to me.

But, you don’t have to do it alone. SO often I hear that people have tried EVERYTHING on their own but just can’t seem to make it work. Which is where The Organized Home comes in.

In there, I’ll help you:

• Get your brain on board for why an area is bothering you
• Show you some organizing systems that might work in that area (will likely trigger some new ideas for you)
• Encourage you to get going with some small steps you can take along the way.

You won’t be alone with it all any more. And that will feel amazing! No one needs to feel alone with this process.