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One day Little Grasshopper, my mom, and I went on a (super fun!) day trip to an indoor play zone. We drove in my mom’s car, and when we arrived back home I got super frustrated with getting our stroller out of her trunk:

Me: “Mom! Why do you have so much junk in your trunk?! It’s all coming out with the stroller.”

Mom: “I don’t have a lot of stuff in my trunk.”

Me: “Yes you do! You’re super disorganized.”

Mom: “What do you mean? I’m organized!”

Me: *speechless*

Now don’t take this the wrong way…I love my mom dearly, and she is just one of those people who will do anything for anybody.

But organized she is not.

Our differences in handling stuff is hands down the biggest stress in our relationship. And this situation got me thinking…

Do some people not get organized because they don’t realize they need to get organized?

If my mom is any example, the answer is “yes.”

But have no fear! I’m here to tell you 10 signs you need to get organized that maybe you haven’t noticed before. And even if you are mostly organized, maybe you’ll have some inspiration to target the areas you haven’t organized (yet!).

1-) You can never find your keys

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Or your phone. Or you wallet. If you spend more than 2 minutes a day looking for the essentials when you go out, it’s time to develop a system! You can either have a key bowl or a place to hang them right next to the door when you walk in. If you have a table with a key bowl, do NOT put anything else on the table (especially mail)! If you have the space, you can also put up a full command center. That will really help you get organized!

2-) You can’t remember what you have

I mentioned before that we once ended up with five jars of mustard because we could never remember if we had any. Why couldn’t we remember? Because they were tucked away behind all the other jars of stuff we had. We spent a lot of time getting creative with mustard once we actually realized how much we had.

If you ever find yourself in these types of situations or find yourself at the grocery store wondering if you need more mayonnaise then you need to spend some time organizing your pantry. Your mental health and your wallet will thank you.

3-) You’re always late

Enough said.

4-) You have to dodge toys when you walk through a room

Yes, kids know how to make giant messes in five minutes when they play. It happens. But if you can’t clean up a given mess in a room within 10-15 minutes at night so you can walk a straight line from one point to another, then you got a serious toy problem.

In an earlier post I admitted that the pressure to get our kids the latest toys can be tough. I feel it too. But kids really don’t need an entire store’s worth of toys. They just don’t. So find a toy storage system that works with your space and put the toys away every night. Any toy overflow beyond what can comfortably fit in the toy storage should get donated or sold. If your kids are old enough you can even teach them the value of giving to others.

5-) Clean and dirty clothes are interchangeable

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Don’t lie. We’ve all smelled the pits of a shirt before to figure out whether it was clean or not. But if it’s a habit because your laundry situation is out of control then you need to come up with a better system. Here’s a tip that may prove life changing:

If your washer has a timer, use it!

You guys, I will put a load of laundry in before I go to bed  and set it to start around 6am. By the time I wake up all I have to do is throw it in the dryer. Bam! One load of wash done before 9am! It’s so easy!

6-) Your home stresses you out

The bathroom is too small, you trip over all the loose shoes in the entry way, there’s not enough room for all the clothes!

Y’all, your home doesn’t need to be a constant source of stress. A lot of these things you can actually fix (and inexpensively)! And if you feel like you’re constantly fixing these issues but your family keep making messes, then have a word with them and hold them responsible. Bonus: your kids’ future spouses will be grateful if they know how to clean up after themselves.

7-) You have to clean your counters before you cook

If you’ve read any of my other cleaning/organizing posts (like this one), you probably know by now that I’m a bit of a crazy person when it comes to keeping my counters clean. And I’m going to argue that you should be too. Here’s why:

You come home after a long day at work. Your kid has soccer practice at 6:30 so you have to rush to get his/her dinner made and feed the family. But instead of just starting the cooking process, you have to clean up all the mail, dirty dishes, and tomato sauce from last week first. You budgeted about 30 minutes to make dinner, but you spent 20 just cleaning off the counters. Now you stress out because everything is running behind.

Does this sound at all familiar? If so, you need to work out a system to keep your counters clean! We found that the best way for us to keep up with it is to make sure we fully clean up the kitchen after dinner at night. That includes clearing off the counters and wiping them down.

Want help getting organized? Get this ultimate bundle of organization tools at an unbeatable price!

8- ) You have an avalanche when you open your closet

I mentioned before that just shoving things in your closet only hides the problem of having too much stuff. It does NOT fix the problem. So what’s the consequence of continuously just throwing stuffing your closet?

Dangerous avalanches, yo!

If you have an avalanche when you open any closet, cabinet, or fridge you need to go through your stuff pronto (as soon as you finish reading this post, of course!). Put it on your to-do list, block out a day devoted to closets, just do what you gotta do to get it done! I promise you’ll feel much more sane after you do it.

9-) Your finances are shaky

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You know an easy way to make money? Sell some of your stuff. Sometimes people buy a bunch of stuff that they don’t need and then they don’t have any money to put into savings. Then the heater dies, and they’re stuck scraping the bottom of the barrel.

If you’re one of those people, sell stuff and recover some of that money! You can learn some tips about buying and selling second hand here.

10-) You throw out a lot of food

If you find yourself throwing out food a lot then chances are your food buying/meal planning system isn’t quite working out. And remember, all that money you spent on the food literally goes in the trash when you throw it away. So you owe it to your pocket book to develop a meal planning system that works!

Fortunately, I made up worksheets to help you work out a meal planning system so you can stay organized and minimize food waste. Get them completely FREE  (as part of my mini planner) by joining our growing community! You’ll also get exclusive tips and be the first to know about updates at The Modern Nest! Sign up now in the box below! After all, the food isn’t getting any fresher!