What are your best "household organization" tips and suggestions?

[chicwitpurpose]

I participate in a womans get together on fridays and a few of us have been asked to give a talk on different topics, mine being organization since i am a clean freak and im very well organized around the house. I have a LOT of original ideas but I feel like it's not going to be enogh to present to the group. I need some very original helpful practical ideas for organizing a home. It can be anthing from how to organise a tool shed to how you keep your kids socks matched....IDEAS PLEASE! : )

 

[extex_cop]

This doesn't have to much to do with household items, but will help you in the long term.This one is for first time home buyers or owners. Keep all your receipts in a box or envelope on things ( paint, electric outlets, lumber, garden plants and trees ), so when you sell your place you can take most of the earlier expenses off the top on the profit income.Those little $10 to $50 items add up over a five year period. It could save you over $3,000 of income profit when you sell your place.

 

[awakeatdawn]

My mom handled the laundry in a brilliant way. She had 5 children, and each of us were assigned one day of the week in which to do all of our own laundry, then on the remaining days of the week she did the miscellaneous stuff and the grownup laundry. She started us pretty young. We had to have a footstool to reach the knob, but we all learned the skills, and our bed linnens, jeans, and even bathroom towels (which were assigned by color) were washed every week on our day. If we failed to take advantage, we suffered the consequences. Nobody "forgot" two weeks in a row. It sounds like a little thing, but in a big family laundry is never a little thing.

 

[Allergic To Eggs]

From TV shows and personal experience I'll list a few:1. http://www.shopgetorganized.com2. organize closets by color3. http://www.wallperfect.com4. larged linen-lined rattan baskets in the same color. these would go on shelving. you can add decor items such as framed family photos in between or next to the baskets and it wont look bizarre. you can have basket, basket, frame, frame and on the next shelf: basket, frame, frame, basket, and on the highest shelf: all baskets5. create a map to find things, also called a legend. this is necessary when your storage is not transparent or transluscent. and please, when you reorganize, update the map!I also read one interesting suggestion from someone on YA which was to use clear food storage bags to keep like items together in drawers. I did something similar when I didn't have enough storage space for hardware, I kept hardware in big clear comforter bags and it kept things together. Hefty now sells something similar called http://www.heftybigbags.com