6 free organization hacks (in 5 minutes or less)

1. Put all your grocery bags in an empty tissue box. Let me tell you, I use plastic grocery bags for everything: wet kid swimsuits, lunch bags, carrying food into a potluck. And, is it just me, or do we all have a drawer that’s overflowing with the things? They’re impossible to stuff back in, and as soon as you close the drawer, you see part of another one popping out. Reuse them with ease by stuffing them all into an empty tissue box. You’re saving the cardboard tissue box and making it easier to reuse your plastic bags. Win!

2. Use a hanger and shower curtain hooks to organize all your tank tops. Genius! I am always hunting for tank tops, and more often than not, the one I want to wear is either hidden deep in the closet, or deep in a drawer, so it’s nice and wrinkled when I get it out. Sooo not cute. (And usually I have 5 minutes or less to get ready, so I end up settling for wrinklemania.) This solves all of that, plus you can see all your tank top options with one look! (And, let’s be real, depending on the kids’ schedules and the laundry priority this week, it may be slim pickins.)

3. Move all your plastic kid cups, plates and bowls to a bottom drawer. I know every mom out there has that disorganized nightmare of a kitchen cupboard that barfs plastic cups and bowls whenever it’s opened. My friend Lauren made this simple change, and it’s genius! It saves you at least 1 minute a day, and that adds up to 6 hours over the course of a year. Work smarter, not harder, Sister.

4. Store matching bedding sets inside 1 pillowcase. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to hunt down the blue pillowcase to go with the blue flat sheet to go with the blue fitted sheet. And then I just settle on the brown pillowcase with the toile flat sheet with the blue fitted sheet, because I’m exhausted and who cares if the bedding matches. Problem solved! When you do laundry, just fold the sets together, and then place them all neatly inside 1 matching pillowcase. Couldn’t be easier.

5. Use ice cube trays to store earrings, rings and bobby pins. It’s a nightmare trying to find the bobby pins in my “hair drawer” in the bathroom. I usually have time to hunt down like 1 of the 3 I need, and by that time, the toddler has found me and started using my curling iron as a sword. This is a simple hack that saves you the time of finding matching earring pairs, small rings and hair things.

6. Store Christmas ornaments in egg crates. Nothing sets a toddler off like finding that his favorite Christmas ornament was crushed by the hunting box in the garage, sometime between late September and Christmas Eve (when you finally got the family out to get your Christmas tree). Save yourself the time and trouble and store your Christmas ornaments in egg crates, inside your storage bins. Easy, free, you’re recycling something. Aaaand saving your precious keepsakes. What’s not to love? (Now it’s up to you to keep them safe from the toddler while they’re on the tree.)