Dining room – Office from Martha Stewart
Every August I share simple, practical housekeeping routines on The Inspired Room. These posts may not be the fanciest, but they address a basic truth: consistent behind-the-scenes effort is what makes a home feel comfortable and beautiful.
August always puts me in organizing mode. With school and fall schedules approaching, I start thinking about reorganizing rooms and closets so the house functions smoothly during a busy season. I love fall and want to be ready to enjoy it without the stress of clutter and disorganization.
Last year I posted about my four simple daily housekeeping routines that help me keep the house “clean enough.” Those routines are still my foundation — if you struggle to keep a home tidy, start with small daily habits and you’ll see real progress.
Daughter’s original room and closet — on its way to becoming a guest room and a combined gift/wrapping closet
Recently my daughter and I began a major overhaul of the second floor — bedrooms, the laundry room and linen closets are getting reworked. The goal is to create better flow and to free up space for a new office for me once the upstairs is sorted. I introduced my thinking about reusing space in an earlier post about rethinking how you use rooms; repurposing can take time, but it’s worth it when the space better serves your needs.
STEP ONE TO HOME ORGANIZATION:
ASSESS YOUR NEEDS
The first step to getting organized is assessing the needs and issues you currently have.
Look closely at how you live in each space: what works, what doesn’t, and why. Families change, schedules evolve, and rooms that once made sense can become inefficient. Make choices that serve your life right now, and be ready to adapt again later.
Repurposing rooms can be a key part of that process. In our house the upstairs overhaul isn’t just cleaning out closets; it’s a top-to-bottom reorganization. Two rooms will get new functions and four closets will be repurposed to better support our current needs.
Daughter’s current room, soon to be a guest room, as we begin clearing it out
There are three main reasons we needed this overhaul.
1. You learn what works by living in a space. When we moved in we made best guesses about how to use rooms and closets. After time, some of those choices revealed themselves to be less practical than we hoped.
2. Life changes create new organization needs.
Since moving in we’ve had several shifts that affect how we use the house.
One daughter has been in and out of college, my parents visit more often, and my oldest daughter and her husband stay over sometimes — we need a proper guest room. Our son plays less with toys and needs less indoor play space. My husband prefers working from a coffee shop and I need a home office as my family’s command center. Those changes open up new possibilities for room layouts and storage solutions.
3. This past year has been extremely busy for our family. When life gets hectic, projects get postponed and clutter accumulates. We reached a point where we wanted less chaos and a more functional home.
We’re ready to settle in and reduce the daily disorder.
Somewhere in this mess is the room my daughter will move to — it’s a big job, but we’ll get there.
What changes do you need to make to your home to be ready for fall?
If you want more ideas for routines and homemaking, a helpful resource is FlyLady and her beginner baby steps for establishing simple daily habits. Small, consistent actions lead to a more organized, manageable home.