Organize Your FAMILY Like a Pro in 2025!

By the way, please leave your favorite family organization tips that really work in the comments below for me and others!

Interesting Statistics about Family Organization

I was reading recently that  54% of Americans report feel overwhelmed by clutter in their houses, and 78% don’t know how even begin to manage all their belongings.

It gets worse though. Apparently, people spend an average of 3,680 hours in their life looking for lost items. Not surprising. The other day I lost my phone for awhile, (I found it in the fridge 30 minutes later).

Guess what one of the most stressful things 23% of adults loose though? Bills! Twenty-three percent of adults pay late bills for this reason.

One surprising stat found that 40% of housework could be reduced if people would just declutter.

Another stated that disorganization and clutter can cost families up to 15% of their income! That is astonishing!

How Chaos Takes Over

So how do people end up in these predicaments?

I think there are multiple ways.

One theory I have is that the importance and art of organization and keeping a home is a skill that isn’t taught young like it should be.

I believe that anyone that plans to live in a home, be it large or small, should be taught some basic organizing skills early in life, as well as why we put some thought and energy into creating organized spaces.

But sadly, too many people have gotten too wrapped up in the idea that they need to do everything for their kids in order for their kids to feel like they had a “good” childhood. The other day I heard about a mom who was overwhelmed. One of the things on her to-do list was cleaning her teenage kid’s bedrooms every weekend.

The result of situations like this is adults that can’t adult. Just last week I had a comment roll in at Mountain Mama’s Home from a woman in her late 30’s talking about how awful it is to be the age she is and not know how to get organized and keep a home. She wen’t on to plead with readers to teach their children life skills before they wind up struggling.

It’s true: by teaching kids and giving them tasks and responsibilities, you can teach them important skills like time management, prioritization, and accountability, as well as working together as a team to create a more organized and harmonious home.

It’s so helpful to kids’ futures to involve them in organization processes, especially processes we expect them to use (unless you enjoy picking up the shoe collection blocking the door every day). Believe it or now, we can teach them valuable skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives and allow them a happy childhood!

When Things Change

When it comes to family organization, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and stuck in a rut but chaos and disorganization can take over during major changes too, like when family dynamics change.

For example, when a new baby is born, a move or job change happens. Disorganization and chaos can take a firm root during loss, hardship, or sickness too. It takes time establishing organization routines that work but it also takes creativity and flexibility to recreate new systems when the old systems no longer work.

Why Is It Important to Get Organized As a Family?

The truth is, having a well-organized family can make all the difference in the quality of the entire families life. It can mean more free time, less stress, less bickering, and better relationships with your loved ones.

There are so, SO many studies showing how clutter and disorganization can trigger feelings of overwhelm and anxiety for the entire family.

As Christians, there are a couple Bible verses pertaining to order that come to mind;

1 Corinthians 14:40“Let all things be done decently and in order”. 

1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace”.

I don’t know about you, but there isn’t a whole lot of peace when nobody in the house can find what they are looking for, or when the floors are so dirty that we step on sharp painful rocks or discusting spills walking across the room, or when everybody is cranky because lunch is late because breakfast mess was taking up all the counters and we had to make space to make lunch before we can even make it.

One example I use for my kids is years ago we went to a birthday party and ended up with food poisoning. Food poisoning is the result of unsanitary cleaning practices and contamination. So I remind my kids, that is why a clean kitchen is important. Nobody wants to be living in chaos with vomiting and food poisoning, so let’s clean up after ourselves!

And that’s why I want to share with you today – how to organize your family like a pro in 2025.

How to Organize Your FAMILY Like a Pro in 2025!

So, how can you organize your family like a pro?

1. The first step is to identify the problem areas. What are the areas of your home and life that constantly throw wrenches in the day? Is it meals? Communication breakdowns and not having a way to communicate important messages? Lost bills? I would suggest creating a list, and once you are done to hold a family meeting to get your family’s input.
2. Secondly, save massive amounts of time by taking a little time now to problem solve the problem area’s. Do you need an ingoing and outgoing mail basket by the door? Do you need a shoe bin by the door? Is your entryway system a tripping system and do you need to spend a little time figuring how to organize the space in a way that will work for your family? Be aware, most kids just dump stuff. It’s helpful to keep things a simple as possible for them while scaffolding them towards better systems. For example, if they come in the door, take of their shoes and leave them then having a complicated place for them to put their shoes might not work well. So you might just want a large shoe box or basket.
3. Get a FAMILY PLANNER. Too often mom’s get a “Mom” planner that they alone use. Nobody else knows up from down or what is going on in the family unless they “ask the mom/wife”. This is silly and creates metal overload for the mom/wife. If you have a family, teach the family how to use your planner. Instead of asking you, teach them to use the planner. Set the planner up in a permanent spot and make this the family command center, complete with calendars, whiteboards or whatever you need. My family has learned they can tell me they need xyz by or on Monday, but by the time Monday comes around I’ll have forgotten and xyz ain’t happening, and they have learned that if they write it in the planner mom makes it happen. I’ve taught my family not to make me stop doing what I’m doing to write things in the planner too, I’ve taught them they can write it themselves. Sometimes we need to discuss what day to fit it in.
   
   The family planner can also help you identify pockets of free time where you can schedule in some quality time with your loved ones. Whether it’s a family game night, a movie night, or a simple dinner together, having a calendar can help you prioritize what’s truly important.
   TIP! It helps to create a master to do list in the planner that anyone in the house can tackle. You can have one with month goals and one with year goals. The heads of the household will probably be the only ones doing this, but it’s really helpful to have to lighten the mental load.
4. Hold Family Meetings. This is a good time to go over the upcoming week, discuss problems area’s around the home, foster togetherness and team spirit, among other things like share gratitude. Without fail, when we have family meetings to go over the upcoming week we have better weeks and less things go wrong.
5. Create Cleaning Checklists. I keep ours in a binder. On housecleaning day we tackle it as a family and get done in a couple hours vs a whole day like before we had the checklist (see below for a couple free checklists to get you started).
6. Create Chore Systems that work. For younger kids we find that THESE CHORE CARDS work best. As kids get older, a whiteboard or chalkboard seems to work better. For the oldest kids, checklists might be the winning ticket to staying on track (my oldest kids like checklists).
7. Involve your kids in the organization process. Honestly this is crucial. I’ve found it’s pointless to organize a space without the kids. They need to watch the process and be involved. When they are not, I kid you not, I could spend a day organizing a space and a day later it will be destroyed if the family wasn’t there to see the reasoning behind the space being organized. It helps to label things, and be flexible if the system isn’t working.
8. Declutter together. If you utilize Goodwill, a great way to motivate kids to declutter their spaces is to let them donate the items they no longer want to Goodwill themselves because Goodwill offers a coupon for donations. My kids LOVE this!
9. Meal Plan. This can be detailed, or super simple. If you have the time to create a detailed plan and will follow it, definitely do so! It helps to make a few plans that can be rotated or just kept in your family planner in a menu section for when you hit cookers block. If you don’t have time to make one, you can purchase some (I’ve started created some here). Another way that I like to go about it when I’m short on time, don’t want to follow a plan, or just need to be creative with what I have is to shop my freezer and pantry, get enough meat out for the week, and plan from there. I’ve found that a key to making this work and not having food go to waste though is to write down what I took out in the family planner so everyone knows the food that is available that week. This is especially important if you have a houseful of cooks like I do.
10. Create a daily tidy up time. Every day, sometimes twice a day depending on how wild things got, we all run around for about 15 minutes and we play “What’s Next Time”. I’ll be honest. I have to call the kids in and they sigh every time. But on the other hand I notice if we don’t do this they are more irritable because the mess! So what I do is call the kids and and we tidy up for around 15 minutes. I direct the kids to run around and clean up the messes they have made-the only things that stay out are projects in process. Here’s the thing, you can have a place for everything, but if things are not regularly put pack everyone will forget where those things were supposed to go.

Free Printables

I like to create easy checklists in Canva for myself and family. Once I incorporated these into our family cleaning and organizing routines it simplified life so much! I’ve included a couple of ours below, but you’ll probably want to create your own personalized ones in Canva for yourself.

In Summary

As we wrap up this video, I want to summarize the key takeaways. By identifying the main problem areas, devoting a little time to problem solving those, utilizing a family planner, creating systems and chore routines that work, involving the family in organizing and decluttering, and by creating a tidy up routine and meal system you can drastically simplify your schedule, declutter your space, and create a more harmonious home. Remember, it’s all about finding a system that works for you and your family, and being flexible enough to adapt to changes as they arise.

Thanks so much for watching, and I’d love to hear from you in the comments below – what are some of your biggest organization challenges, and how do you stay organized as a family? Don’t forget to check out my other videos for more tips and strategies on organizing your home and your life.