If you've done your homework properly, and didn't skip ahead, your organizing job will be much simpler than you thought. You need to assign a home for your treasured items, and then return to after they've been used.

• Create zones or centers, like in a kindergarten classroom, to keep track of your household objects. Take a moment and close your eyes, picturing yourself or your family using these household items. Mentally walk through a typical day, thinking how and where you would use these items. Or if you're a hands-on learner and need to write things down to make better sense of your thoughts, use your action plan to take notes. By thinking about where those items will be used and putting them there, you are assigning a home and establishing a good habit for the future.

• Store things where they'll be used instead of wherever you have room for them. There's no fast rule for organizing your things; common sense will play a big role here. Store tools in the basement or garage, arts & crafts supplies in the hobby room or kitchen, and extra paper towels in the kitchen pantry. Don't be afraid to do some rearranging or moving to keep things where they belong. You can always come back and make adjustments later to improve your new organizing system.

• Use storage containers creatively to contain clutter you've already sorted, keeping in mind that the most-used items should be the most accessible. In other words, things you use every day should be in plain sight or in a main cabinet, while those items you only use once a month or less can be stored in a closet, on a shelf, or in a sturdy tub. Wicker baskets, shoeboxes and plastic crates make wonderful containers for books, photos and cookie cutters.

• Remember the four basic principles of storage solutions:
  1) Hang it up
  2) Put it in a drawer
  3) Store it on the floor
  4) Shelve it
  
  If you use these four simple strategies you can easily contain the clutter in a closet, garage, basement, bathroom, or playroom. The concepts are the same despite the area to be de-cluttered. You can hang a bathroom towel on a peg rack from the dollar store, for example, or invest in an expensive over-the-door rack from an upscale home decor catalog – it all depends on your budget and the style you have in mind.