Last fall, I drove down to Baja to help my mom pack up her home of 20 years and get it ready to lease. Having recently lost her partner, clearing and resetting her house for new residents was an emotionally complicated task. I looked around at all the things they had accumulated —outdated tech, mismatched Tupperware, half-empty toiletries, totes, papers — and had a mental flash of everything piling up in my own home.
Organizing someone else’s space, even when it’s your own mother’s, is so much easier than addressing your own. But I know my kids’ outgrown clothes, neglected toys, miscellaneous kitchen tools, school art and more will take over our space, both physically and mentally, if we don’t create some sort of system.
But where do you start?
I spoke with local organizers from the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO) for some great tips for families wanting to hit the reset button for the new year.
Mind over matter
Before we can address the objects taking over our lives, we must get into the right mindset. “The most successful clients I know write down their goals,” says John Trosko, owner of OrganizingLA and past president of the L.A. chapter of NAPO. “A sheet of paper, a notebook, a notes app, a Post-it… even crayons and drawing paper for kids — it all works.
“Writing down goals creates motivation and accountability,” he says. “A simple family question, ‘What would you like to accomplish in the new year?,’ gets everyone thinking. Or use ‘What big stuff would you like to see next year?’ [while] sitting in the car with your kids before drop-off. Follow up later to get those goals written down.”
Gail Sullivan, owner of Calm Space LA, also believes in the power of intention-setting with your family to create and maintain an organized home. “Instead of traditional New Year’s resolutions, consider creating a family ritual to set intentions for the coming year,” she suggests. “Make a list of adjectives that describe how you want your home to feel. You could go room-by-room or keep it more general. Notice if there’s a disconnect between how things are now and how you want them to be. For example, if your goal is clear surfaces, notice what tends to pile up and find a place for it.
“If you need help with that, hire a professional organizer,” she says. “You might collage a vision board or perform a smoke-cleansing ritual where you speak your intentions into your space.”
Take inventory
Once your intentions and mindset are clear, look at all your clutter and make note of which items usually pile up and where they wind up. And be sure to involve the whole family.
“Your house is more likely to feel like ‘home’ when everyone who lives there is involved in creating a vision for how you want to live and accountable for maintaining it,” Sullivan says. “Make a list of things that you need to do daily, weekly and monthly to maintain your home. As a family, decide who will take on which task, being mindful of age-appropriate expectations.
“To support family members in adopting new habits, set phone reminders, print checklists or, for younger kids, make a picture chart,” she says. “Choose a weekly reset day to review your checklists and prepare for the coming week. With kids, remember that the goal is to build the habit of helping around the house, not to perform tasks perfectly.”
Trosko suggests you ask yourself a specific set of questions. “Whether it’s a guest room, playroom or garage, start by observing: What’s bothering you? What’s working? What’s the goal for the space? Then ask: ‘What do I need to make the shift?’ A simple written list helps you keep your eyes on the big deliverables and gives you momentum as you cross things off.”
Create processing zones
Now that you know what the problem areas are, create systems to help move these items to their rightful place.
Sarah Holden, owner of Room Service Home Organizing, works with busy families throughout L.A. “Most surface clutter isn’t random,” she explains. “It’s usually just stuff ‘in transition’ like new purchases, school papers, retail returns, project supplies or items that belong in another room. A small processing zone with a few labeled bins — Incoming, Outgoing, Projects, Put Away — set up near the spot where clutter tends to pile up (often the dining room or entryway) works wonders. Everything has an easy temporary home, so surfaces stay clear, and you can do a quick weekly reset without starting from scratch every time.”
Another system Holden has implemented in many family homes is the “put-away bin.” “Instead of trekking all over the house returning every rogue item, each family member gets their own basket,” she says. “As you do a quick tidy, you drop things into the right person’s bin, and once a week — or whenever your household energy allows — they take it to their room and put things away. It makes tidying faster, calmer and much more realistic for busy families.”
Second semester reset
Families with school-aged children have a whole other set of organizational challenges to consider. Fortunately, the new year also means a new semester, which acts as a nice built-in reset button of its own.
“If managing your kids’ school and activity schedules is overwhelming,” says Sullivan, “create a ‘command center’ for storing essential information (babysitter info, family schedules, weekly menus, carpool contacts, etc.) and managing incoming papers (school calendars, homework assignments, reading logs and special event flyers). Organize the information on a pegboard, a desk or anywhere else that is accessible and visible to all family members.”
Make it fun
A reset doesn’t have to be a huge, dreaded task. In fact, the more fun you can make it, the more will get done! If you’re more of a visual person, Trosko recommends using AI to picture a more organized and functional space.
“Upload a photo of your room into ChatGPT and describe how you’d like it to feel or function,” he suggests. “The more detail you give, the better the visual plan. You can move furniture around, change paint colors, install bookshelves, a credenza or dresser. We now use this technique with clients who are especially creative all the time. It’s incredibly motivating and a modern way to approach a space reset.”
Another fun tool? Music! Holden recalls how one client with two Swiftie daughters programmed Alexa to play three Taylor Swift songs every night at 8. “That became the family’s cue to tidy the living and dining rooms,” Holden says. “Toys were put away, homework returned to backpacks and surfaces got cleared. The music made it fun, and the built-in time limit made it manageable — especially for their neurodivergent family. Structure plus fun is a magic combo.”
Whether you’re resetting a zone, a room or your whole house, let the new year be your opportunity to create sustainable systems tailored to your family.
Nina Harada is a writer, artist, mom of two daughters and Digital Editor of L.A. Parent.
