Stephanie Pase shares her ultimate home organisation guide for 2021

A super-organised mother-of-two has offered her ultimate home organisation guide for 2021. 

Stephanie Pase, from New South Wales, shared a YouTube video showing how she keeps her daily routine and home in order – all while juggling a family-of-four and a full-time job.

The 30-year-old organisational queen explained exactly how you can contain the clutter in every space of your house, from the wardrobes and kitchen to the bathroom and linen closet.

She said by implementing small habits like putting things back where they belong or decluttering 10 to 15 minutes a day can eventually become part of your routine. 

‘I want to really stress to you guys that being organised isn’t about being perfect, it’s about not feeling like you’re a slave to your own home and your own life – and this is what I’m all about,’ she said.

DECLUTTER EVERYTHING

Before you organise your home, Stephanie – who blogs under Just Another Mummy – said you need to declutter everything.

‘When you declutter a space, it always gets worse before it gets better,’ she said.

‘You don’t want to be organising junk in your house that you don’t need and you will learn along the way what you actually need.’ 

Stephanie noted that once your home has been decluttered, you still need a system that works for you so you can keep on top of every room.

‘You’re not going to overhaul your house and then it’s going to stay that way. You’re still going to get messy spaces, the bench is going to get cluttered every day,’ she said. 

‘It’s just something that you need to know that you need to implement these habits every single day and you’re just looking after your future self.’ 

KITCHEN 

‘The kitchen is the heart of the home and I feel that place can become messy really fast and I know a lot of us feel like we’re constantly cleaning the kitchen,’ she said.

To keep on top of the kitchen, Stephanie said the magnet planners on her fridge have been a ‘lifesaver’ for organising their weekly meals and shopping list.

‘Our fridge is basically like our family command centre, it has everything we need to know for the month ahead and it has all our meals planned out,’ she said.

‘Planning is a really good tool for anyone, it helps you save a lot of money, you know exactly what you need from the shops and you’re not going to the shops and just buying random stuff that ends up not being eaten and it goes off.

‘It honestly does help you budget. If we don’t eat these meals in this order, we still have stuff to make it, even if that means we freeze the stuff at the end of the week. If I go to the shops and pork is on sale, I stock up on pork and put it in the freezer.’

She has a monthly planner where she writes down her family’s upcoming medical appointments or events such as a wedding, holiday or her daughters’ swimming lessons.

‘It really does help with communication so you don’t feel like you’re always chasing each other down trying to figure out what’s going on. So I definitely recommend having a family command centre like this,’ she explained.

Alongside her planners, she also has a ‘don’t forget’ list where she writes down any household chores she or her husband Ryan needs to do like do the laundry or clean up the play room.

‘This is my declutter list and like to-do list. So either Ryan and I would try and do one of these things a week or a day depending on how busy we are,’ she said.

FRIDGE

Inside her fridge, Stephanie strategically arranges every shelf to avoid waste, stacking half-eaten snacks and anything nearing its expiry date in a ‘use me first’ shelf to ensure they’re used, not thrown in the bin. 

She stacks sauces, condiments and spreads on a $7 Lazy Susan-inspired turntable from Kmart so she can clearly see what’s left in each bottle.

The mother stores her children’s yoghurts in an $8 glass tray that can be pulled out fully to save her rooting around at the back of the fridge.

She uses the same containers for dairy, raw meat and lunches, which makes everything ‘so much more organised’.

‘Having everything that you need laid out in the fridge in a certain way and having certain systems like this can stop wastage and you don’t end up finding things in the back of the fridge [weeks or months later,’ she explained.

Every Sunday, she sets aside time to prepare all her family’s weekly lunches and dinners – and she also chops up all the fruits and vegetables so she doesn’t need to do them later in the week.

‘These routines will just become a habit for you guys over time,’ she explained.

PANTRY

Stephanie said having a well organised pantry helps her save a fortune on her grocery bills because she can exactly which ingredients runs low or empty.

‘Having an organised pantry is going to make your house run smoother and stop food wastage because you always know what you’ve got especially when you’re doing your shopping list,’ she said.

She categorises the food in her pantry, which includes snacks, side dishes, meal kits, sauces, baking essentials, cooking oils and a range of vinegar.

‘Coming up with the categories for your pantry is going to be handy when you’re making your shopping list so you don’t end up repurchasing things you already have,’ she said.

NEW AGE JUNK DRAWER

Instead of leaving things out in plain sight, Stephanie created a ‘junk drawer’ for her family so they can store away loose items like coins, chargers, hair ties, pens and any other knick knacks that they don’t want lying around the home.

‘Junk drawers are useful because it stops your benches in your kitchen from getting messy,’ she explained.

To keep it neat and clutter free, she used a $29.99 cutlery tray from Ikea that’s perfect for dividing up her drawer.

‘I recommend going through your junk drawer and making a system for it,’ she said. 

‘So this stuff is basically things I grab every morning like I have some makeup powder that I need, we’ve got phone chargers which I’ve wrapped up and tied off so it’s not as messy. I’ve got lots of pens, coins and stuff like that.

‘I definitely don’t condemn the junk door, I think it’s a great thing to have.’

‘DROP OFF ZONE’ ENTRYWAY

The key to having a well organised home starts at the entrance of your home, Stephanie explained.

‘Another part of the home that tends to get really cluttered and messy and can just be chaotic is the entryway – this is what I call the drop off zone,’ she said.

‘This is an area where you drop your bag, keys, phone, wallet, shoes, kids’ backpacks, school notes, mail, everything goes into this small space. It’s super easy for it to go out of hand and if you can nail your entryway, the rest of the house is going to flow.’

She uses a $19.99 wall newspaper rack from Ikea to store all the mail and notes.

‘I absolutely love it, I use it in the office as well – it’s perfect for kids school notes and just stuff you can throw in there and it doesn’t have to take up your whole kitchen bench,’ she said.

Along the wall, there’s hooks so the family can hang their hats and a shoe cabinet where all the footwear are stored away neatly. 

‘Having a place where you can throw all your things can be amazing to have and make life a lot easier for you guys,’ she said.

WARDROBES

To declutter her wardrobe, Stephanie said she does a ‘big cull’ every six months so she could get rid of any clothing she no longer wears.

‘I find six months is a good time frame because we tend to hold on to things but you probably won’t wear them again,’ she said.

To determine whether or not to keep an item, Stephanie said there’s three questions she always asks herself. 

‘I like to ask myself “have I worn this in the last three to six months?”, “if I saw this in a store, would I buy it?” and “do I know someone that would get more used out of this than me?”,’ she said.

‘With those questions, you can kind of determine if you really need that top and you’ll probably find each time you cull, you’ll keep looking at the same top and that will end up going.’

Once she creates a pile of clothes she no longer wants, she donates them to a charity store or gives them to her family or friends. 

For storage, she puts her accessories like belts, scarves, hats and hair ties into its own box, which she buys from bargain stores for just $2.

‘It just keeps it a lot cleaner,’ she said.

Stephanie uses a $15 four-pack shoe boxes from Ikea, which she says are great for storing away footwear in the wardrobe.

‘You don’t have to break the bank to be organised,’ she said.

For her husband’s casual shorts and work clothing, she neatly stores them in a $12.99 box with lid from Ikea.

‘This is kind of like his wear again tub so these are clothes he usually wears again and then throws them in there. I just find it is a lot neater than having shelves with just clothes thrown on them,’ she said.

‘You really do have to work with your family and what their personality is like which is fine and this just works really well for Ryan and I.’

LINEN CLOSET

Stephanie categorises everything in her linen closet, ranging from quilt covers and sheets to bath towels and cushion covers.

‘We sorted them into categories using tub. Everything has its place and if I ever buy anything that means I get rid of something,’ she said.

She said you should only keep the towels and sheets you actually use. 

‘You don’t need a million towels and a million sheets,’ she said, adding her family only has no more than two to three fitted sheets each. 

BATHROOM

Just like the rest of her home, Stephanie also categorises her toiletries and places them into $4 boxes from Ikea.

‘So the bathroom is where the cabinets get very very messy and you end up buying a lot of shampoo and conditioner that you’ve already got,’ she said.

‘Obviously cull through your cupboards and then get some tubs and just make categories of it.’

Her categories include face, body, masks, hair and tanning.

‘This is just what works for me and it hasn’t gotten messy once,’ she said.

‘It is so much better having everything in a category because you know exactly what you have and what you need. Being organised honestly saves you a lot of money.’