People are the key. "If you get it out, put it up when you are finished using it". "If you turned it on, turn it off". I am one of those "messies". My precious (now deceased) Mother followed me, doing the organization I should have been doing. Her house looked like those in the magazines. But I did not become accustomed to keeping my own things in order. I know one family that has a BIG box in the garage. Stuff left really-out-of-place is put in the box, usually by Mom, but any family member can put things there. Anyone is permitted to retrieve things from the box. Children soon learn to not leave it where it will go to the garage.

I just read that no child should have more than three boxes of toys. If toys aren't being used, give them away or put them away for the next child to 'age into'. This is is probably the maximum amount of toys you are going to get any child to put away, too. Open shelves worked best for me -- things get buried in boxes, then *everything* comes out as they dig for one item.

I definetly agree that people are key. But I'm also hoping that planning out a place for things will help too. I like the "out of place stuff, goes to the garage idea!" :) No garage at this current house - but looking forward to our new one.

chisue - I am looking forward to doing some drastic paring down of toys as we pack up for the move. I think/hope the kids will enjoy choosing toys to donate to our local children's home.

Bus Driver is right -- People are the key!

Toddlerhood is the best time to start teaching self-responsibility as well as family participation. Teach them to pick up and put away toys that are not actually being played with -- if Susie has dolls out, they go back on the shelf before the puzzle comes out. Boxes for some of those shelves will be helpful -- a toddler can understand putting all the trucks into a 'garage box' whereas neatly lining up the trucks on the shelf is probably too advanced. A 10-minute nighty-check to be sure all toys are put away is a good habit to get into, especially if any un-put-away toys disappear overnight. I never mentioned more than once that X should be put away. I used a duffel bag instead of a garage box, and toys had to be earned back with age-appropriate chores. If you haven't already been doing this, the move is an excellent time to start nice habits for a nice home.

Consistent age-appropriate rules, along with much praise for accomplishments will do wonders to corral potential mess.

Oh, and the rules go for grown-ups, too. Put the magazine in the rack before answering the phone. If the TV is on [which hopefully is for no more than an hour a day], then all other entertainments should be off. If Junior wants to watch Sesame St while Suzie wants to read -- separate them! A special quiet reading area can be a blessing. I'm sure you've already gotten "food rules" in place, but remember that mummy and daddy are setting the example. If DH is going to have snacks on the sofa while watching TV, don't expect Junior to go along with keeping snacks in the kitchen. And if Junior has to remove muddy boots before getting a drink from the fridge, same goes for all regardless of age or species :) If daddy finishes reading the paper and then neatly folds up and puts it away, Sammy will find it easier to put away the Dr. Seuss books that aren't being looked at.

A family is a group of people who support and love each other, in spite of each being an individual.

I support the notions above that it's holding everyone accountable for keeping clutter at bay that makes the organization system work. But, it's so much easier if everything has a place to go. So, the storage that you're building into the house will be a big part of keeping your house organized. I really thought about everything that we have and everything that needs a place and made sure I built in storage for all of it and tried to anticipate what we might need to store in the future. Shelves just for the sake of shelves don't offer much. Shelves and storage tailored for exactly what you need, will be essential. Good luck.
I don't have kids yet, but built four mudroom lockers. Hopefully to be used by Mom, Dad, and two kiddos some day. I love using my cubby, but I cannot get DH to buy into using his. His briefcase goes directly into his study. That functions better for him because he works from home in the evenings and needs his work in the study ... not left in the cubby. I, on the other hand, love that I leave work stuff in the cubby and can focus on home when I'm at home (for the most part). I had anticipated being able to leave "action items" for each other in our respective cubbies, but that efficiency hasn't happened yet. We've only been here two months, so there is still time for it to catch on. The point here, though, is to keep some flexibility. DH's refusal to use the cubby as I planned for its use is really no big problem, because he nonetheless has a "place" for his stuff and it remains organized.

On second thought...clutter feels worse where you are all living in a tight space. The 'big enough' house with storage space is as key as getting the big and little people to be responsible for their stuff.

People are key, but so is 'a place for everything' for 'everything to be in its place.' At least, please, oh please, let that be true! We're moving in in the next several weeks, and I have high hopes. I also think it's more motivating to keep clean and new surfaces looking that way. In our old house things looked dirty even when they were clean, so there was no pay-off to doing all the work.

My dd says, "Everyone expects that the new house will be magic..." I suppose she's right, but it's a nice place to start new habits.

Yes, having organized and plentiful storage is much better!

When we built, I did an inventory of the items in our kitchen and decided that we didn't need a breakfast room since we love eating at our casual dining room. Making the kitchen bigger and more functional has been a tremendous improvement. We can eat at the island if we want (empty-nesters with sons in graduate school).

DH had the downstairs coat closet made to be a big walk-in with shelves for all of his musical instruments. I have shelves for wrapping paper, seasonal decorations, etc.

That said, about every 6 months, we have to clean out the message center as we don't always promptly deal with the mail and paperwork. If everything is incoming and nothing is outgoing, the organized space eventually becomes full and disorganized. We take a few hours to sort and shred. DH helps me because he considers the consequences of my shredding something he wanted to keep!

Every year in November before starting holiday cooking, I clean out our pantry of all canned goods that haven't expired and donate them to the food bank. I throw out opened things that have been opened too long. I basically restart the pantry supplies once a year.

We do something similar with our clothes. If we haven't worn an "everyday" item in a year or so, we collect it all in December and donate the extras. We continue to keep specialty clothes for hiking, travel, etc. that get used less often.

Anyway, storage is like computer disk space -- if you've got it, you will fill it up so you have to delete and reorganize periodically!

Hope this helps.

well, of course people are the key BUT if you've got no where to put things they end up all over the place. we renovated a 103 year old home and we incorporated beautiful closets and built-ins. everything had a place to "live." we moved three years ago and are in the planning stages of our build. the forty year old raised ranch (that should have been knocked down thirty years ago) has NO storage. no mudroom, no closet space, no cabinets ...nada. my kids are very good about following directions now (ages four and five) but things inevitably end up on the kitchen floor, the dining room, wherever. forget about a mudroom! this "house" doesn't even have a hall closet. we're definitely going with a custom build as opposed to a development house. you could pay three million dollars for a mc mansion and it STILL wouldn't have a mud room! sigh... ok. i'm sorry. rant over.

The things that made the most difference in our house was putting a walk-in closet in every bedroom, a walk-in pantry in the kitchen, and a big closet by the front door. We have a mudroom in this house that is identical to the one in our old house, so there is no change there other than I would not want to be without a mudroom. But walk in closets in kids' bedrooms is what has made the most difference in our lives and uncluttered out house the most.

I agree with others that kids (and sometimes spouses!) need to be taught good picking-up habits, BUT...adequate accessible storage goes a long way toward making that happen.

In our current house many things the kids use have no homes, or their home is a bin on a crowded little rack that you have to dodge around the desk to get to, or it's on a shelf out of reach. That makes it hard...heck, even I don't want to put things away!

We haven't moved in yet so I can't say for sure, but like you I thought hard about convenient places for everything in the new house, and I do believe life will be easier and neater because of it. Or as dd says, "Life will be perfect in the new house!"

LauraG

And kids are kids - MESSY!!! LOL, especially little ones 6 and under. I think great suggestions are made as far as not having too many toys, box them up and swap them out every 6 months or so. Having a four story house and trying to keep it clean HAS to be a pain too! Having a much better floor plan and start training the children and hubby from day one and I bet things will be much more organized. Congrats on the start of your build!