How to Stay Organized in 5 Simple Steps (and a free printable!)

Happy Monday! …Right?  It’s back to the daily grind today after the weekend, but after some intense clutter clearing on Sunday, I’m feeling pretty good about the week ahead. Sometimes my desk at home looks like a craft bomb went off– snippets of paper, glue sticks, scissors, ribbon, twine– you name it, it’s somewhere in a jumbled pile on my desk. For an organizing control freak like me, having such a mess makes it nearly impossible for me to think, much less get any work accomplished. My crafting area reached apocalyptic clutter levels over the weekend, so I decided that it was time for a major overhaul– and I’ve broken down my organizing process into five easy steps to follow.

How to Stay Organized in 5 Simple Steps

1. Bins & desk organizers are your friend. I seriously can’t tell you how lost I would be without a designated place to put my pens, paper, notebooks, and even a mini organizer for crafting tools like scissors and glue.
   
   

   
2. Like items go with like. I try to divide my craft supplies into categories and organize by category– scrapbook supplies go together, beads & jewelry supplies go together, all of my Etsy shop materials stay together on one shelf. When you have a specific place for a single set of items, you’ll always know exactly where to look for them.
3. Choose a pretty color scheme. When all of your organizing accessories look good together, your space will automatically look more cohesive and less cluttered.
   
4. Keep the items you use most often close at hand. I keep my scissors, glue, notebooks, and planners right at the tips of my fingers, because I know that if I had to get up and go across the room to get them off of a shelf, there’s a very strong likelihood that they would never make it back to that shelf. Give the things you use most often prominent and accessible space in your desk.
5. Do a little clutter clearing every day. It sounds obvious, but more often than not my clutter accumulates until it feels almost unmanageable. It’s so much easier to simply put things away as you finish using them, rather than having them pile up into unruly stacks– even if I don’t always take my own advice on this one!

To help you start the week off right and keep your organization under control, I made a free to do list printable to share! You can click here to download the printable.

I hope you have a wonderful week, and if you use my printables I’d love for you to tag me on Instagram! ❤️

What tips and tricks do you use to stay organized? Share them below in the comments or talk to me on Twitter (@merricataddams)!