21 Must-Know Organizational Hacks (From The GroupTogether Community)

Alright, grab your popcorn because we’re diving into the ultimate list of life hacks straight from the GroupTogether community! Our organizers are the gurus of organizational wizardry, and in this blog they’ve shared some of their game-changing tips and tricks. Read on to make your life easier...one laundry basket at a time.

1. Bianca's Laundry Time-Saving Trick

My favourite life hack is a simple one but a time saver. When hanging out laundry, I hang the sock pairs together so I can pair and fold them straight from the line into the washing basket.

2. Kate's Bedding Sausage Technique

When going to stay somewhere for one night, and all linen for the bed is required, I untuck the corners of the fitted sheet at the bottom of the bed and then roll up all the bedding in a sausage. When I get to the top of the bed I roll the pillow as well, then finally untuck the fitted sheet from the last two corners of the bed to secure it so it doesn’t unravel. And there you go...a bedding sausage. Once at your new accommodation, do the reverse onto the new bed. Ta da!!!!!!!!

3. Dominic's Holiday Outfit Organizer

My favourite organizational hack is to use a foldable shoe rack that hangs on your door to pack outfits for the kids on holidays. It means each day, the kids pick what outfit they want and it all wraps into one nice portable package!

4. Rebecca's IKEA Hack for Wrapping Paper

My favourite hack is using the IKEA plastic bag dispenser to store wrapping paper!

5. Breanna's Special Event Calendar

I keep a special event calendar on the wall (ie. not a yearly calendar, a perpetual one). Every time a baby is born, every wedding we attend, every time someone special is lost, etc. I mark the date on the calendar. As it’s on the wall I see it all the time and never forget special occasions. Even when there’s no gift involved, people feel loved when you remember special events with a message or a card.

6. Jessica's Basket Blitz Method

The answer to keeping your house organized – or just appearing so – is multiple washing baskets. When unexpected visitors are on their way you can run around in five minutes grabbing and sweeping up every piece of stray clothing, paper and rubbish into baskets and hide them in a cupboard or spare room. It also makes it easy to walk around with them when putting things away.

7. Donna's Party Food Triumph

Always take something to parties that people will like and actually eat (and eliminate waste while you're at it). Party pies and sausage rolls are always winners! If you want to put in the extra effort, make your own sausage rolls. Super easy and delicious. Fancy them up with parmesan cheese and sesame seeds, or just keep them simple. Your plates will be cleaned up while a chunk of the cheeses and dips find their way to the bin.

8. Michelle's Daily Decluttering

My best organization hack when it comes to the kiddies’ things is “one shelf or drawer a day”. I have a huge art cupboard that was completely full. Each day I would empty one shelf onto the dining table and ask the kids to separate it into stay and go. The go pile was sent to girlfriends with younger age kids who loved the craft. This time of year feels like there is no time to get organized at home, way too many other things to do. One shelf at a time is perfect! Spurs me on to do more!

9. Angela's Mealtime Magic

Preventing the straw that breaks the camel’s back “what’s for dinner” question over the past 10 years (working full time with 4 kids) - a rotational menu that shows what’s for the week with what we need and THEN transferring it to an online shopping list. We have GF and lactose issues to attend to also. We never don’t have what we need to cook! Go crazy and swap Mon for Wed if you don’t feel like it, and we spend our time doing walks or other fun activities - not in the shops triple handling groceries! It saves about 5 plus hours a week of effort. Whoever is at home (stops the “not my turn” fights) can start prep knowing what’s needed - sharing the physical and mental load with all the family and preparing them for their future life skills too. There is never any food waste and our budget goes a long way.

10. Meiske’s Decluttering Mantra

Declutter! Start any organising initiative by first decluttering everything you plan to organize.

11. Stacey's Memory-Keeping Photo Books

My favourite hack is taking photos of cards (front cover and messages inside) people have written for me for Christmas, birthdays, my wedding, or for friends from their friend’s baby showers etc. and turning them into a photo book. I save them all to a OneDrive folder then at the end of the occasion, or the year, or a couple of years - I upload them into a photobook and get it printed when a sale is on! I appreciate cards and love looking back on the messages and who was around in my life at certain time points (especially grandparents no longer with me etc.).

12. Rebecca’s Xmas Shopping Solution

Shop during the Black Friday sales and then all I need to buy during the manic Chrissy shopping period is wrap! Store all pressies in a large delivery box in the garage, it saves boxes and finding a hiding spot!

13. Joanne's School Week Preparation

Hang a shoe organizer in your child's closet, label each compartment with a day of the week, and set yourself up for the school week by placing your child's school clothes for each day in the labelled compartment (i.e. undies, socks, shirt and shorts). Extra compartments can be used for sporting/swimming clothes (in our house - one for football practice/game and one for basketball practice/game). It means that you are never stressing about finding a pair of schools in the morning and helps your child to be more independent in getting ready.

14. Anne's Party Pleaser

If you want your kids to eat fruit or veggies at a party (and not just junk food), then make them exciting by chopping colourful fruit or veggies into pieces and putting them on a kebab stick! For some reason, kids love food on a stick. Adding a marshmallow will of course sweeten the deal too – add it at the end so the kids will have to eat the fruit and veggies first before getting to the marshmallow.

15. Helen's New Mom Lifesaver

First-time mum hack! Put a new diaper underneath the old diaper before changing! As soon as you slide off the old one, flip the new one straight up! (Oh, how this hack has saved me from being peed on in the middle of the night so many times).

16. Monica's Multilingual Motivation

My favourite organizational hack is to listen to music in a different language that I don’t know! That way, I stay motivated while I work, but I won’t get distracted by singing (or dancing!) along to the songs.

17. Pauline’s Productivity Hack

Lists! I don't always tick everything off, but I love a good list to remind me what needs doing.

18. Heidi's Sheet Size Solution

Best laundry hack – not all sheets have their size on the label, right? If you’re like me and have a household with a king single, a double, a queen and a king bed, you will understand how much we used to hate sheet washing day! HACK - Use a sharpie to write the size of the sheets at the bottom left corner in large writing and you will thank me later! It’s changed my linen laundry life!

19. Sarah's Family Calendar System

Our family organizational hack is that we have a spreadsheet on a cloud drive that we all share so we can keep track of what’s going on. Down the left column is dates with weekends shaded, and we have a column for each family member (including the cat!). We use this to keep track of people coming to visit, school dates and trips away. We have automatic formatting so dates that have passed are in black. It’s a great way of seeing the events of the year very easily, and we also use it to search previous big life events. Considering my husband and I use Android and Apple respectively, it means we have a way of easily accessing on any device what our availability is for the day. We can both edit it and share it with other family so they don’t need to ask if we are free!

20. Denise's Alphabetized Organization

My favourite organizational hack has to be anything alphabetised, placed in jars & containers – what better way to organise, oh & colour code!

21. Clare's Holiday Hack

My organizational holiday hack is visiting the museum with kids on New Year’s Day. It is always dead quiet (I don't think anyone realises they are open or are too hungover to care) but it’s air-conditioned, entertains the kids and lets you start your year off feeling self-righteous.

These hacks aren’t just about staying organized; they're about making life a tad easier and a lot more fun. So, dive into these tips, embrace the chaos, and let the organizational magic begin! A HUGE thank you to the GroupTogether community for sharing your wisdom! Cheers to being organized 🎉