With our track record of success building custom closet systems and providing home organization solutions, our team here at Modular Closets frequently hears the question, “So now that my home has been organized, how can I make sure it stays that way?”

 It’s a good point. Because if you really want to reap the long-term benefits of an organized home life, you can’t let home organization be just a one-time thing.

The good news is, once you do get organized, it can be easy to keep an organized lifestyle going, especially by incorporating some simple daily habits.

 So, now that you’ve finally achieved the goal of home organization, here are 4 tips to help make sure you stay organized for the long term:

1. Take “I’m Someone Who’s Organized” Part of Your Sense of Identity

Habit expert James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, argues that if you really want to stick to your goals, the key is to first focus on creating a new identity. It’s all about your sense of self-image. You need to start believing something new about yourself, in this case that you are indeed someone who’s organized.

If you’ve never been an “organized person” before, you need to start proving this new identity to yourself with small wins. What’s one thing you can do in the next 15 minutes that can serve as proof of this new identity? Maybe you can tidy up one messy area or make a cleanup schedule.

If you become in your own eyes the type of person who lives the life you want, that’s the first step in creating lasting results.

2. The Rule of “1-For-1”

Another good strategy you can use to ensure that clutter won’t build up around your house is the rule of “1-for-1”.

Essentially, for every one item you bring into your home, you give away or get rid of something else. This can be an especially useful strategy with clothing to keep your closet streamlined and organized.

So, go ahead, buy that cool new pair of jeans – but as you add it into your closet, make sure to sell, donate, or throw away something else.

3. Create a New Routine with “Habit Stacking”

Another great organization strategy from James Clear is habit-stacking. If you want to create a new cleaning routine, add a new habit to an existing habit. 

For example, if you already have the habit that when you come home from work you check the mailbox, you can stack on the habit that you’ll make a decision right away about each piece of mail that comes in: dispose of it or place it a specially designated drawer for mail that needs attention. 

Then you can create a new routine to deal with your mail by stacking that habit onto another habit. For example, if every weekend you do a crossword puzzle, try following the puzzle with the habit of going through your mail drawer.

4. “A Place for Everything – And Everything in Its Place”

This aphorism is popular because it truly is the best way to make sure that staying organized is simple.

For many people, the reason their homes become so cluttered is because they don’t have a designated place to put away all the stuff they own. This strategy might require that you add more shelves to an empty wall or get more bins or dividers. However, once you have a place for everything, it’s simple to quickly put things away.

Do you still not have a designated place for all your belongings? Creating a customized closet system is often a key component to making sure that keeping up with home organization will be easy on a day-to-day basis.

Sometimes it’s not just a matter of having your one-bedroom closet customized for all your clothes, but instead a home-wide customization plan to ensure you’re maximizing the space available throughout your house and creating a holistic approach to storage.

Our team here at Modular Closets will be happy to offer you a FREE custom closet design. Get the transformation process started by filling out our online form.