049- Three Organizing Mistakes You Might Be Making

Spring Break is around the corner! Whether you're planning a family trip or using the break to refresh your home, a little organization can make everything run smoothly. But beware—there are a few common organizing mistakes that could be making things harder than they need to be.

In this episode, I’m sharing three organizing mistakes to avoid so you can keep your home functional and stress-free as you prepare for the season ahead.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

✅ Why drop zones matter—and how to set up the right ones
✅ How to create organizing systems that work for your family (not just for Pinterest!)
✅ The secret power of labels—and how to use them effectively
✅ My philosophy on “lazy organizing” (aka making things easy to maintain!)

Episode Highlights:

⏳ [00:00] - Spring Break plans & why organization matters
⏳ [02:15] - The biggest drop zone mistake (and how to fix it)
⏳ [08:30] - Why forcing an organizing system will backfire
⏳ [14:45] - How labels make organization effortless
⏳ [19:00] - Recap & the key to a home for Beautiful Living

Connect with me:

You can find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireflybridgeorganizing
Here's my website: https://fireflybridge.com

Call or text me: 305-563-2292

Email me: zeenat@fireflybridge.com

Transcript

In the US, families are getting ready for Spring Break. People want to get away, maybe to someplace warmer, if you live in the North, but often, it’s simply for a change of pace, a break in the routine of school and work and winter. A Spring Break trip is great! It also takes planning and preparation, and packing.

People also want to sometimes refresh their homes during this break, maybe declutter and organize a bit, get the kids to help on a couple more chores, cause now they’ll also be at home for lunch, and wake-up times and bedtimes are going to probably be different.

Whichever plan you have with your family, you’ll probably want an orderly way of preparing. 

And as you prepare, I want you to keep in mind 3 mistakes to avoid when you’re organizing right now with the approach of Spring.

Hey, welcome to Organizing for Beautiful Living, the podcast for working moms and entrepreneur moms that provides sustainable organizing tips for your home, work and life.

I’m Zee Siman, Professional Organizer and Productivity Consultant, and I’m here to share simple ideas that don’t take a lot of time so you can love your home, excel at work, and have the time to enjoy both without stress or overwhelm. 

Ready to get beautifully organized? Let’s make it happen!

I want to make it clear that I’m bringing up these 3 mistakes not because I want to catch you in the act and say, “Whoa! Hey! You’ve got to organize MY way!”

No - in fact, you should only organize YOUR way. 

There’s enough of comparing ourselves with other people that we really don’t need yet another thing to compare ourselves against, right?

So if you see a pantry organization system you love, with every single thing decanted into clear containers, and custom labeled, and you want that for your home? Well go for it!

If you look at that pantry, and it makes you anxious? By all means, do something completely different!

As a lazy organizer I give you permission (as if you need it - but you have it regardless) this is your permission to organize in a way that you can be lazy about organizing.

That’s what I do in my house.

But let’s get into the 3 organizing mistakes, and you’ll see what I mean.

The first organizing mistake you might be making is not having enough drop zones, or the right drop zones.

If the term is new to you, drop zones are the designated spaces where you naturally put things down—like keys, bags, mail, school backpacks - AND - listen carefully here - where you regularly go through the items in that drop zone to take care of them. In other words, a drop zone isn’t a permanent storage spot. If you don’t have enough of them, or they aren’t in the right spots, clutter builds up fast.

I’m pretty sure everyone has at least one drop zone, whether they planned it or not!

A most-common one is a mail drop zone. Mail, as in m-a-i-l. We get the mail from the mailbox, and it lands somewhere. When I was growing up, the drop zone for our mail was the edge of the kitchen counter closest to the door.

My parents, at some point, would work through the mail, and the pile would get smaller and smaller. But in those days, we received mail every day, so I sort of remember there being mail on that counter every single day! I would come home from college on vacation and after a meal, I clearly remember wiping down the kitchen counter, and lifting that pile up, cleaning under it, and dropping it right back down there!

So for my parents, that spot on the counter was probably an unintentional drop zone for their mail. I’m sure at some point my mom would have liked to move that drop zone, right? I mean, I’m sure it was probably an eyesore, and it took up a section of the kitchen counter, but for the rest of us, it was habit, and we just didn’t think twice about it! Now had it REALLY bothered her, my mom would have put her foot down and created another spot for the mail.

But - she chose to accept it. It was organized enough. The mail was in this one spot each day, not scattered all over the house creating clutter all over!

What are other drop zones you should think about having?
I mentioned a drop zone for keys, especially if you have multiple drivers sharing a car, like when you have driving-age teenagers in the house. A drop zone will hopefully mean that you can find a car key when you desperately need it.

A drop zone for your bag, or bags, whenever you come home is really helpful so those bags don’t end up on the floor of your entryway, or smack-dab in the middle of the dining table.

Drop zones for the kids backpacks can make it more likely that the kids, or you, will go through the backpacks to check on the daily stuff that comes home when they’re young, and that they can pack up quickly to get out the door on time when they’re older.

Some people will find it helpful to have a drop zone for a piece of clothing that they plan to wear again.

Now, this can be a slippery slope, right? All of a sudden, you’ve got a spot for clothes that, oh!, you might wear again before washing them, because they’re not really dirty!

So the way to manage that is to regularly clear that spot.

Now, like I said, in my house, I plan things to be placed in certain ways so that I can be lazy about organizing. I don’t want to be organizing or cleaning all the time. When I’m home, I want to enjoy being at home, and yes, I have a nightly wind-down routine that takes about 10 minutes.

But for clothes that I’ve worn once, and I think I’ll wear again before washing them, I hang them in a certain spot in my closet, or fold them and place them in a certain spot in a drawer.

Does this mean that my clothes will be out of color, or length order or whatever order at some point? Yes. 

If that’s NOT ok for you in your closet, then you should have another way of creating that drop zone. Maybe you set aside one special bin or basket for those wear-again clothes, or you have some hooks on the wall or behind the closet door that you use to keep them separate from the rest of your clothing.

Or, you hang them up so your colors and lengths stay ordered, but you turn the hanger around so you can quickly recognize which clothes have been worn and not washed yet. OK? 

There shouldn’t be anxiety about this. And clearing out that drop zone regularly should be part of your laundry checklist. Keep it simple.

And that’s true of every drop zone. You’ll know there’s a problem when you see shoes pile up in the entryway, but your drop zone is across the hall in your mudroom. 

Keep it simple. Notice where things naturally land and create drop zones there.

Mistake number 2 is trying to make your family fit a certain organizing system.
Sometimes we see a beautiful system on Pinterest and you want it. I’ve done it, and tried to force it into my home—only to find that it doesn’t work for my family’s habits.
When the kids were little, we had a LOT of toys. We were lucky to have a little playroom, but we also had toys upstairs in the kids’ rooms, and then there were bath toys in the bathrooms.
I was overwhelmed with the toys. I wanted order. I wanted it to look like a toy store, with everything in a little box or bag, and then contained in a larger bin, and then put onto a shelf or in a closet.
I wanted it so badly that I created it! It took days and days and days to set it up, not to mention I spent a small fortune on see-through boxes and bags and beautiful canvas bins.
I meticulously separated lego sets and special Barbie characters with their little shoes and tiny accessories - why do they make rings for Barbie? Her fingers are skinnier than matchsticks.
Anyway, I did it because I wanted that feeling of order, and I wanted a pretty play area.
Well you can guess what happened. There was no way the kids, their cousins and friends could ever put all that away, and I quickly realized that I couldn’t keep up with the very system I created. 
So think about the systems you need to create.
If you set up a filing system, but no one uses it, or your kids never put their toys back where they “should” go, or you feel like you're constantly redoing systems that aren’t sticking, then you’ve probably got a problem with trying to make your family fit into an organizing system instead of finding an organizing system that works for you.
Consider your family’s habits—do they prefer open bins over drawers? Or hooks over hangers?
Choose the solutions that require minimal effort to maintain.
In the end, I set up stackable open-front bin-type shelving, and we designated one section for certain broad categories of toys: One was for balls, another was for anything with wheels, another was for all things Barbie, and so on.
And if it really bothered me any given day, I closed the door to the toyroom!

And organizing mistake number three that you might be making is: not taking the time to label
Hear me out, because you might be saying, “She just said I could be lazy about organizing, and now she’s telling me to label everything?”
Labels may seem like overkill, but they’re the secret to long-term organization. Without them, people forget where things go, and your system unravels.
But you don’t have to label everything!
Just observe your family for a week: what do they always ask “Where does this go?” about?
Also observe the stuff that leads to frustration by any member of your family if it gets put in the wrong place. You might have to negotiate some compromises or act as referee, but frustration by anyone in your house just makes the entire day or evening pretty rotten, doesn’t it?
So when you find a spot that everyone can agree to, slap a label there so everyone remembers!
You’ll also know it’s time to label something because you all end up spending too much time searching, or you end up spending too much time tidying up, because other people in your house aren’t following the agreed-to system.
Start with broad areas, like instead of labeling each and every charging cord, label a drawer, basket or bin, wrap each cord so they don’t get all tangled up, and put them inside.
As time goes on, if you see the need to label certain cords, then go ahead.
For your really young kids, use pictures in addition to simple words.
In general, try to keep labels on broader areas simple—avoid making them too specific or detailed, so you don’t have to re-create a label every time you remove something or add something to that area.
So a quick recap of the three organizing mistakes:
One is Not having enough of the right drop zones, and you can figure that out by checking out where things usually land, and then creating a drop zone around them.
Two - Forcing an organizing system that doesn’t work for your family, and you can decide that by observing your family’s habits.
And Three is Skipping labels, which can lead to frustration, and way too much time trying to find things and trying to tidy things.
As I said, you need to do what is right for you. If you love putting each Barbie and her shoes and jewelry separately in a bag apart from her sister Barbies, you should do that if it fits in your life at this moment to do it! Do what brings you enjoyment, but also leaves you time to enjoy being in your home and spending time with your family and friends.
You have control. It’s in your hands.
Remember that organizing isn’t just about tidiness—it’s about creating a home for Beautiful Living.
I’ll see you all next week.