Organizing your home isn’t about being tidy.
A recent note that inspired a collaboration that turned into free downloads.
I recently posted a note that got a lot of love from the Substack community:
Organizing your home isn’t about being tidy.
It’s about knowing what you have.
It’s about being able to find it.
It’s about not spending energy on what doesn’t matter.
When your home works for you, everything feels lighter.
Organizing is how you take back your time and your peace.
I became curious why it resonated so much that I decided to not only do a deep dive into this reframe, but also collaborate with Papatya to design a few printables you can download.
Organizing your home isn’t about being tidy.
I recall there was a time when organizing meant something very specific: minimal aesthetics, matching containers, rainbow-colored bookshelves, labels for things that seemed self-explanatory.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a well-organized space and appreciate the design sensibilities. But real life, especially with children, looks different. Sometimes there’s a half-finished art project still on the kitchen counter, or laundry that sits for a few extra days before there’s time to fold it.
But home organizing has evolved into so much more than visual appeal. I’m grateful for what finding homes for your belongings and mindfully making decisions can create. To reference my teacher Marie Kondo, it really is a kind of life-changing magic.
It’s about knowing what you have.
When you can actually see what’s in your cabinet, you stop replacing things you already own. No more buying a third bottle of sunscreen because the first two were buried somewhere you forgot, and you realized after finding them that the unopened bottles are expired.
That’s why, when you know what’s in your home, you also stop the slow drain of money, energy, and space. And you have more mental space to remember things — like you haven’t eaten anything and should probably drink some water.
It’s about being able to find it.
Every once in a long while, a client will email me, asking if I know where something is stored. I always do — not because I have a photographic memory, but because there’s only one logical place it would be. Extra coffee filters would be inside the upper cabinet shelf, above the coffee mugs, which is above the coffee machine.
That’s a pretty straightforward example, and you can see how it makes sense. And it’s the way I teach families to think about storage: making their home feel more intuitive, so they can feel the flow.
It’s about not spending energy on what doesn’t matter.
Before I learned how to organize a storage space with purpose, I used to reorganize the same spaces over and over because I wasn’t making meaningful decisions about what I owned. I kept things out of “what if I need it,” or out of guilt — like a sweater my mom gave me that I’d never worn, kept out of fear she’d get upset. Or the box of random tools I didn’t know how to use, just moved further back in the garage so I didn’t have to deal with them.
When you’re able to make clear, confident decisions to let go, what remains is what actually matters to you. You’re more likely to take better care of those items, putting them back after use. And your storage spaces only hold things that are useful or enjoyable to your family.
When your home works for you, everything feels lighter.
A lighter home doesn’t ask you to keep organizing it. Everything has a place, and nothing is hiding behind a closed closet door. Storage spaces make sense to everyone who needs something from them. And maintaining order takes little effort.
The lightness becomes even more evident once you’ve worked on including the whole family in the decision-making and skills-building. Over time, resetting the home at the end of the day starts to feel like a well-choreographed dance, everyone moving through the space together.
Organizing is how you take back your time and your peace.
Organizing is more than solving a storage issue. It’s a way to enhance the life you want to enjoy with your family.
Keeping books easily within reach by a cozy chair, so you can read to your children.
Having baking ingredients accessible, so making cookies together becomes a family tradition.
Having a bedroom that isn’t just visually calming, but what you keep in by your bedside actually helps you feel more rested.
An organizing system that works means it will continue to bring you order and calm until it has to change because your family’s needs have changed — welcoming a baby, getting a new pet, changing careers.
The rest of the time, its job is to be in the background, so you and your family can focus on connection and doing what you love.
And if I can help you get there sooner, I’m ready when you are.
Joyfully,
Ann
Enjoy these downloads:
Thank you Papatya for collaborating on designing these together.
❤️
You don’t have to have a perfectly organized home to teach your kids how to care for theirs. Instead, show them what you’re working on, let them see you figure it out, invite them to be part of the process.
You know more than you think you do. It’s enough to start with what you have.
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It was such a beautiful collaboration, Ann! 💖🤗 You are truly so wonderful at this. I really hope these prints bring a sense of peace and comfort to those who need it. Thank you so much! ✨
Well, these are just beautiful. I’m printing them.