You’re a busy mom and between running a household, juggling schedules to getting dinner on the table you’re also trying to maintain an organized home. It’s no small feat and at times it can be overwhelming. Part of keeping your home organized is keeping your kids organized and in ‘Organized Homework Station’ we showed you one way to keep your kids on task by giving them their own space. Part of good organization starts with decluttering, and here we’d like to go over a few ideas from around the world that busy moms can use to maintain an organized home.

Tidying and Decluttering

Staying organized doesn’t mean neatly arranging all the clutter in your home. Organizing without first decluttering is a waste of time. Japanese decluttering queen, Marie Kondo’s decluttering methods and advice to keep only things that “spark joy” have caught on in the U.S. Called the KonMari Method, this method of decluttering and staying organized is part practical and part spiritual. It focuses on organizing your home by item categories rather than specific rooms. These include clothing, books, sentimental items, paper documents and Komono or miscellaneous. Decluttering means getting rid of things and it can be an emotional experience as we tend to get attached to things. But if you haven’t touched it in the last year and it doesn’t bring you joy, it needs to go. Kondo also recommends getting your kids on the tidying techniques, specifically, her signature vertical clothes folding method that keep everything from your shirts, pants, socks, and underwear impeccably neat and organized.

Maintain Basic Facilities

A part of staying organized means being efficient and ensuring that everything else in your home is running efficiently. In this sense, your home’s heating, cooling and plumbing systems should be maintained to function at full efficiency, to reduce costs and keep everyone happy. The Conversation notes that in Britain heating homes accounts for 70% of energy consumption, which means that by keeping their boilers and radiators running at peak efficiency, diligent moms can reduce their annual energy costs.

With winter just around the corner, plumbing experts also recommend that maintenance checks and inspections be done now so no unexpected problems arise in the middle of winter. Additionally, HomeServe highlight the importance of heating breakdown insurance to ensure that if anything does go wrong that you are covered and a professional will fix the issue immediately. To make sure everyone is cozy it’s also recommended that you turn on the heating earlier in the morning, before everyone wakes up, but at a lower temperature to save energy. One tip you can also take from organized moms in the UK is investing in a combi boiler if you’re going to upgrade your heating system, as these are much smaller units and can be tucked away out of sight unlike older models which are much bigger.

Minimalist Living

A minimalist approach to your home will help you be better organized and eliminate some of the chaos in your daily life. Minimalist style can be defined as the discipline of less but better and is especially prominent in Swedish homes that feature cleverly organized environments that are cozy and inviting. One way is to compartmentalize and divide every storage space, from cupboards, drawers and your wardrobe, to get rid of the mess that accumulates over time.

Swedish moms are also full of clever organizational tricks with a common one being magnets. In the kitchen, they can be used to organize knives on a magnetic strip and in the kids’ room as a way to keep metal toy cars neatly organized on the wall. Hooks are also a great organizing technique and in Swedish homes, you’ll see a lot of household items hung from them. A stylish metal or wooden hook can complement almost any wall, and placed strategically in your home can help avoid messy floors. Use them in the mudroom to hang coats or in the garage for scooters and bikes to hang neatly and in organized fashion.