Aloha Friday - Organization

Welcome to this week’s edition of Aloha Friday. Every Friday (well, ok, almost every Friday) I ask a simple question for you to answer--nothing that requires a lengthy response. 

With three kids and a husband, the laundry never really gets done. Seriously, if you wanted to hide something from me, the bottom of one of our hampers might be a good place. And our laundry "room" doesn't help the problem. It was the one compromise we made on the house: I didn't want a little laundry nook right next to the kitchen with no room to put stuff. Well, our little laundry nook is in the doorway to the garage and laundry bags block the door most of the time (I tried keeping the laundry bags out IN the garage but we discovered our water heater has a habit of overflowing...by the time I found them they were mildewed and had to throw out a bunch of stuff. NOT something I want to repeat). So, this week, I'd like to ask about what you do to organize. If you have a solution to my lil' laundry problem, wonderful! But feel free to share other organization tips too...cause this isn't the only part of our house that needs help!

What's something you do to organize your home! Anything you do that works well for you. Thanks!

Oh, and here's some of the things that HAVE worked for me along the way...

• Organizing the closet by colors.  It only takes a lot of time the first time you do it.  Once it's done it makes it really easy to see where the different colors go, so it's easy to keep it that way...and makes it really easy to find stuff in the morning.  I also use kids hangers for my dress-pants, which makes them hang higher than the rest, and they have their own section...you can get special pants hangers for this if you weren't gifted with the "I can eat anything and still be tiny gene" and your pants don't fit on kids hangers.  Sorry folks, I know you hate me right now.
• If you have more than one child who will be inheriting clothes, DON'T label clothes with their first name...label it with your last name and/or phone number.    
• When you have more than one child, to keep their socks separate, label them with the size, not the name or initial of the child...because eventually the younger child will inherit the older child's socks, and if you used their name that makes things all sorts of confusing (yes, I speak from experience).  Also, it's helpful to buy a different brand or style of socks every other size.  For example, for size 5 buy the socks with the green seems, for size six go for the brand that has blue seems (or you could do knee high, then ankle, etc.) .  This helps keep the sock sizes straight.

If you have a blog and would like to post your own question you can leave your link at An Island Life and Thrify and Chic Mom.