One easy, fun way to get ideas is to go to Pinterestdotcom and search for organizing tips. You'll get lots of posts that you can click on about how to organize different parts of your home.
The best book I ever bought about clutter and the way it impacts our lives is Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston. It's an awesome book - changed my life and the way I view "stuff". One of the only books I go back and read and reread again and again. Good luck!!
DeeSimp, does your Mother want to have her house organized? Depending on her age and if she has any issues such as limited eyesight, she may want everything where it now located as it is easier for her to find the items. My Mom is almost blind due to macular degeneration but she knows exactly where every is. My Mom is quite organized, but Dad has his paper messes... [sigh]
If your Mom is willing to downsize what she has in her house, have 3 large plastic bins that are easy to carry. One bin will be for items to keep.... another bin for donations.... and a third bin for items to toss out because it is beyond repair or something no one would take for free.
Throwing out things might become difficult because if your Mom grew up during the Great Depression they were taught that everything has a value and not to throw it out as someone else can use it.
My mom is home alone and with some dementia. Change is VERY difficult and she demands to be in control even though she cannot make good decisions. SO...I don't feel I can just go in and say....for example....we're cleaning out this closet and I am deciding what stays and what goes..... BUT...whenever she gets interested in cleaning a cupboard or part of the house, I travel to 'help' because anything we can declutter now is something less I will have to do later on. Here is what we've done though....a BIG help....we've done a linen closet AND her medicine cupboard....which is a huge thing, for bathroom linens and meds...not those little built in metal things! I had her tell me what she used all the time, or did not use often, and put things on shelves easy to reach that she used all the time...sheets for her bed and first aid supplies, daily common meds for example. Seasonal things...Christmas decorations, winter blankets were placed high and low. As we did the big medicine cupboard, I encouraged her to find ALL her medicines so we could get them all in one place. She had them in multiple funny places....a bottle stuffed here and there...old meds, old antibiotics etc. And we got rid of everything old, and got them all in one place for her. THEN...when a project was done...THIS was an amazing idea from a daughter....I took pictures of each shelf with my cell phone! NOW...if I am here and she is there and she can't find something....I can generally look at the pictures and remember which shelf it's on or 'supposed' to be on!! I know there will be times, she moves something again or stuffs it somewhere else, but when I visit, I hope I can quietly move it back where it goes. But we've already 'found' several items that she just couldn't notice with her eyes and her dementia, when they were right in front of her on a shelf....just by looking at a picture of a shelf. I did sort of far away, to generally see what was on which shelf and then a close up of each shelf, so I could see what was behind what all the way to the back of the shelf. With dementia, the brain often does not let the eye see and recognize something, so it could be right in front, and she doesn't 'see' it...but the pictures sure do help! I hope this idea helps another here!
My husband Xeroxed his parents' tv remote control so that whenever they would call and have the tv messed up, he could consult his copy and help.
Buy a file cabinet, 2 drawer is probably big enough, some manila folders (I like the colored ones) and any necessary office supplies, and a shredder. As you go through paperwork, it is so much easier to find things if they are filed neatly.
I agree with others, that what we see as too much stuff or disorganized, may be EXACTLY the way our parents like things. Be wary of bulldozing into an organization project that will just cause them distress.
A good place to start is with the empty plastic containers in the kitchen. All mothers have them I think. Match the container to a lid and anything that is just too many or doesn't match up can be recycled. If you dump them all out onto the kitchen table, and have her sit down to do it herself, it will help her to understand that she has too many and can safely get rid of some.
Contact your city regarding proper disposal of old medicine. They don't recommend flushing them or throwing them in the trash anymore. Our city has collections 2X year for hazardous waste and medicine is included in that, plus I think the police dept. is a drop off location during the year.
Be sure when you are cleaning at your parents' houses, that you are not discarding something that has been promised to someone else. For example, my aunt placed no value on a partial set of old dishes of my grandmother's and sold them at a garage sale, but GM had promised them to me. I had part of the set already, and was to get the rest when GM moved from her house. My mother knew, but aunt didn't I guess. The sale was long before she was moved to a nursing home, and I didn't know about it ahead of time.
txcamper and others...re: disposing of meds. Our Walgreen's pharmacy had for sale, kits that you dump the old pills in....all of them mixed together....and then add a cup of water. seal it and swish it around, let it sit for an hour, and whatever powder was in this bag, neutralizes all the meds and after one hour, you can just dump the whole sealed bag into the regular trash. It was around $6.00 and held all her meds....quite a bunch of them.
I bought a post paid envelope from my HMO's Pharmacy. I can dump all the pills in it and mail it off to where ever. I was told by the pharmacy to buy some cat litter and pour the liquids into it, seal it all up in a bag or can marked trash and place in regular trash...I had an old coffee can I used.....ran duct tape all around plastic lid and criss crossed over the top, marked it trash and threw it out!
STUFFologist Brenda Avadian has been dealing with clutter since age eight
The best book I ever bought about clutter and the way it impacts our lives is Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston. It's an awesome book - changed my life and the way I view "stuff". One of the only books I go back and read and reread again and again. Good luck!!
If your Mom is willing to downsize what she has in her house, have 3 large plastic bins that are easy to carry. One bin will be for items to keep.... another bin for donations.... and a third bin for items to toss out because it is beyond repair or something no one would take for free.
Throwing out things might become difficult because if your Mom grew up during the Great Depression they were taught that everything has a value and not to throw it out as someone else can use it.
Buy a file cabinet, 2 drawer is probably big enough, some manila folders (I like the colored ones) and any necessary office supplies, and a shredder. As you go through paperwork, it is so much easier to find things if they are filed neatly.
I agree with others, that what we see as too much stuff or disorganized, may be EXACTLY the way our parents like things. Be wary of bulldozing into an organization project that will just cause them distress.
A good place to start is with the empty plastic containers in the kitchen. All mothers have them I think. Match the container to a lid and anything that is just too many or doesn't match up can be recycled. If you dump them all out onto the kitchen table, and have her sit down to do it herself, it will help her to understand that she has too many and can safely get rid of some.
Contact your city regarding proper disposal of old medicine. They don't recommend flushing them or throwing them in the trash anymore. Our city has collections 2X year for hazardous waste and medicine is included in that, plus I think the police dept. is a drop off location during the year.
Be sure when you are cleaning at your parents' houses, that you are not discarding something that has been promised to someone else. For example, my aunt placed no value on a partial set of old dishes of my grandmother's and sold them at a garage sale, but GM had promised them to me. I had part of the set already, and was to get the rest when GM moved from her house. My mother knew, but aunt didn't I guess. The sale was long before she was moved to a nursing home, and I didn't know about it ahead of time.