My key rule of thumb is to keep the clutter manageable. My five children at one time shared two closets. This meant only what was worn was kept and I rotated clothing by season each fall and spring. I still do that for Ty but have everyone else scaled down to what they actually wear so it is unnecessary. (Unless you live upstairs with the young adults. I don't go up there and fear my ceiling may cave in someday. Just because they have my example doesn't mean they follow it. Ahem.)
For laundry organization, I keep two laundry baskets on the floor of my closet, one for lights and one for dark clothes. They serve Greg, Ty and I as I expect teens to do their own laundry. When a basket is full, it is tossed into the washer. I immediately dry and fold clothes as they are finished for two reasons. I don't like wrinkles and I don't want a pile of laundry hovering on my to-do list. This brings me to another key idea. If it takes minutes to achieve, do it immediately. Things that pile up, unfinished leave me feeling overwhelmed so I take care of tasks as they present themselves if at all possible. And it is usually possible. I use this same approach with the dishwasher as well. Dirty dishes in the sink do not thrill me so I keep the dishwasher ready to accept those dishes as soon as they are dirty. Every family member rinses and loads their own dishes. I also make everyone use the same glass all day to prevent several dishwasher cycles.
Every once in a while I will notice the Tupperware bowls and lids are becoming difficult to match despite my lids being stored in a dish drying rack by size under my sink. I don't know what happens to my sets but eventually they are no longer sets so I take ten minutes about twice a year to match every container. Those items without mates are tossed.
I have slowly eliminated paper products in my kitchen. We use cloth napkins and I recently invested in Norwex "paper towels". Now I still keep actual paper towels for real life moments like cleaning up cat puke or to catch bacon grease on freshly fried bacon. Otherwise the goal was to use the more environmentally friendly Norwex. My people didn't get the memo so I had to make them more accessible. It's still taking some redirection but I have noticed it is clicking. And frankly, now that I have it, I like the display. But as cloth napkins or towels need laundered, they are simply tossed into the washer to be included in the next load.
As far as organization of clutter, ask yourself if you are actually using the items you are trying to store. I know for my house, less is best from toys, to dishes, to clothes and even towels. We waste less and clean around less if we stick with what we use. Even in providing childcare, I kept the toys stored in baskets that didn't scream "childcare center". The kids played with a few favorites every day quite contently. I have found that if they were overwhelmed with options, they behaved accordingly; also overwhelmed and cranky. They knew where the toys belonged and tidied up each day before lunch and again at the end of their time in my home. My own children grew up with the same parameters with the exception being on-going creative projects that also had a space to be contained.
Each family member has one bath towel. I have a couple of extras for guests. But the kids would toss towels into the laundry rather than hang them to dry after each shower which created unnecessary laundry and the need to keep more towels on hand. My system on this may not be for everyone but I gather up the towels twice a week and launder them. In doing so, I hang clean towels back up rather than take up key storage space for folded towels.
My kitchen cabinets are an on-going battle. My people are obsessed with travel cups and mugs. When I say this is a problem, I am so serious. At one point we had three cabinets dedicated to these items because all were "special" to someone. I failed to agree and have on more than one occasion bagged up the "special" cups and put them into the attic for safe keeping. This slightly appeases the people who live here. Other times those suckers are donated instead. It depends upon who witnesses my slightly dishonest approach. But I am equally as brutal with my own gadgets. I have a smaller kitchen and do not have a pantry so storage is at a premium. In order to feed all the mouths living here, food needs to take priority. All those pampered chef gizmos some saleswoman convinced me I needed one hundred years ago are no longer in my kitchen. The truth is I didn't use them. I only keep what I use. The rice cooker I got as a wedding gift was donated two houses later......as just one example.
A sweet friend once asked me to clean for her because she didn't have time and I noticed all the knick-knacks she displayed throughout her house and recognized immediately why housework was so daunting for her. It would take hours to dust alone. If you have to move a dozen items on each surface of your home, it would be too overwhelming to even begin. Scale back personal tchotchkies to what you can reasonably keep cleaned.
I am seeing a strange movement on Facebook about asking if a specific object brings you joy before deciding if it remains in your home. I personally don't find joy in things so I can't relate but acknowledge the purpose of the exercise. Do you need this? What is it's purpose? And in keeping it, are you going to be happy cleaning around it?
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