Learn how you can get your home organized with my easy step-by-step organization course. My course is full of organization ideas as well as home organization tips and tricks to get your life and home organized and keep it that way.
ONLINE DECLUTTERING COURSE
For the past several months I have been putting together my Online Organization Course, The Balanced Home. I am excited to teach you my decluttering and cleaning process. These processes also teach you how to create simple routines and cleaning schedules which allow you to naturally maintain your clean and organized home.
No need to hire a professional organizer, or live with the clutter because you will have the skills and learn how to overcome any mental barriers or fears you might have to get started!
Stop Drowning in Household Clutter
Transform your space without the overwhelm. Join The Balanced Home Course for a step-by-step system to get your home organized and keep it that way for good.
Learn More & Join Today →
WHAT DOES THE ORGANIZATION COURSE COVER?
The Balanced Home Organization Core
($1,000 Value)Contains my core Decluttering and Organization Processes, which shows you how to:
- Learn how to declutter and organize your home–by learning processes and techniques that really work!
- Deal with stuff you don't know how to get rid of
- Understand what qualifies as hoarding
- Understand how to overcome hoarding tendencies
- Deal with your junk room or junk drawer
The Tools
- Workbook, Resources, Labels, and More ($250 Value). Contains everything you need to help guide you through each lesson, including:
- An easy-to-follow workbook to guide you step-by-step through the lessons
- Printable Labels
- A vision sheet for your home
- A working checklist of tasks you can accomplish in 30 minutes or less
- Shopping and To-Do Lists
- Monthly Calendar and Weekly Schedule
The Mental Foundation
The best processes to overcome mental barriers from Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi's Mastermind Course ($200 Value). Helps you to find the time, the energy and the motivation to organize your home by:
- Discovering your “true, internal why” -> what motivates you to want an organized home
- Helping you clearly identify what is holding you back from success
- Teaching you how to organize your schedule to create new pockets of time
- Helping you discover what is most important for you to accomplish with your time, as opposed to just urgent or habit
- Helping you cut out the things that aren't important and identify gaps in your schedule you can dedicate to working on your home
Your Ideal Home
The best processes to set and achieve your vision by breaking it down into actionable steps ($300 Value). Teaches you how to break down an overwhelming project into small, manageable steps, by:
- Clearly defining your goal and vision for your home
- Learning how to evaluate specific rooms and identify what you want to be improved
- Identifying specific, easy to complete tasks in each room that will contribute to your overall goal without overwhelming you
- Getting your family or others involved in the process
Cleaning and Maintaining
The best processes to clean and maintain your home after it has been organized ($200 Value).Teaches you how to maintain your home once it is clean and keep it organized, by:
- Providing you with the basic cleaning routines you need to naturally stay in control of your home
- Teaching you my amazing “Ten-Minute Clean-up” process, which allows you to clean an entire floor / room in ten minutes or less!
- Showing you how to establish routines with your kids and other members of the family
- Sharing important resources such as chore cards, favorite cleaning products, and a deep-cleaning checklist, and more
- Explaining the laundry routine we use in our home to get our laundry done every week without even thinking about it
- Teaching you how to deep clean your home after it has been decluttered and organized
- Showing you how to help the other members of your household be on the same page and not “unclean” your home
During the course, we will:
- Show you the process of how to go throughout your home decluttering, cleaning, and organizing. Then you can take this process and go throughout all the rooms in your home–including the bathrooms, kitchen, craft room, home office, basement, entryway, playroom, garage, attic, and all other rooms in your home–cleaning and organizing.
- Clean out and organize not just the rooms themselves, but organization spaces such as closets, shelves, drawers, and bookshelves.
- Learn how to properly use organization equipment, such as bins, drawer organizers, storage bins, food storage containers, lids, and baskets.
The Private Balanced Home Community
(BONUS – Priceless). Provides a community that you can go to whenever you need a place where you…
- Seek inspiration and ideas from others
- Receive support and motivation from others
- Share your successes and see the successes of others as we all work towards finding balance and clarity in our homes.
- Can ask questions and let me know what you may still need help with so that I can continue to cater the course to your needs
What Do People Have To Say About My Organization Course?
“This course was instrumental in helping me organize my space as well as my time. As a busy mom, I have a better grasp on what my days need to include so that I can enjoy my family rather than spend my time spinning my wheels cleaning up after everyone.”
“The Balanced Home Course helped me to be the “professional organizer” for my family! Simple steps to follow, check lists, printable labels, suggestions and worksheets will keep you on track to successfully maintain your own balanced home.”
“I am pretty sure I have solved more issues with the seven layers and clarity tool than I have in 6 months of therapy!! I think this course is going to help much more than my home. Thanks Amy!!!!”
When I realized I had been overcomplicating the idea of organization, that simplifying was a key component, then things really started to fall into place!”
When I realized I had been overcomplicating the idea of organization, that simplifying was a key component, then things really started to fall into place!””
HOW TO GET MOTIVATED TO ORGANIZE YOUR HOME
HOW TO OVERCOME FEARS AND MENTAL BARRIERS
I asked and these are the things that are holding you back from getting started! I made sure my course helped you overcome your specific fears and developed processes to address each of the concerns below. Have you ever had any of the same concerns?
- “I don't have the time.”
- “I don't know how to break it down into manageable chunks.”
- “How do I balance other activities?”
- “I don’t have enough energy / motivation.”
- “I'm overwhelmed and don't know where to start.”
- “I'm scared / unable to commit.”
- “I don't trust myself.”
- “I don't have the confidence I will finish.”
- “How do I maintain / keep on top of it?”
- “I have a hard time with inconsistency / finding balance.”
- “I'm afraid of quitting too soon and having it be a mess.”
- “How do I build the habits and routines?”
- “Keeping it clean and organized”“Staying focused and not getting distracted.”
- “What if I have physical limitations.”
- “I don't have the supplies / resources / money (i.e. containers etc.) / storage space.”
- “I don't want to part with things.”
- “What Do I do with all the stuff? Donate? Kids?”
- “What if I need it later?”
- “My family has stuff they want to keep.”
- “Family is not being helpful or even counterproductive… How do I get my family on board?”
- “No sense of design / vision for what I want.”
- “Lack of knowledge.”
- “Afraid of not doing it right.”
- “Being okay with not having it perfect.”
STILL NOT READY TO BUY?
Because I know that sometimes it can be difficult to take that initial leap of faith, I wanted to give you something that would allow you to get your feet wet a little, something that you could access RIGHT NOW. I think you'll like it. I've opened up a “sneak peek” section of my course, where you can access one or two of the lessons that are a part of The Balanced Home Course. If you click the button below you will be able to create your own personal account / log in for the course and access the “sneak peek” videos.
OTHER ORGANIZATION PROJECTS
If you are interested in taking a deeper look into some of the spaces in my home, check out the following posts!
That is beautiful! A great job well done & a complete tutorial! Thank you for sharing!
Your banister looks lovely! Did you put the varnish on both the stained and painted parts? Excited to do mine. Thank you for the tutorial.
Yes, we did.
Do you have a post about that wall paper wall. It is nice.
I don’t have a post on it specifically. But here is a link to the wallpaper I used! http://www.designyourwall.com/store/Darcy-Pearl-Circular-Geometric-modern-wallcovering-GB57218d-pr-3175.html
Well worth your time and effort. Stunning results.
Thank you so much Bonnie!
Would you share what your paint color is on the walls up the stairs? Thanks
Yes! The paint in the entry way is Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore. This paint is my very favorite gray!!
That looks amazing! I wonder if I could use that gel stain on our front door and shutters outside. Hmm….off to investigate that. :)
I hope it will work for you! Good luck!
What color white paint did you use? There are so many shades of white out there :P
I love your wood floor !! I would love to know the brand and color of it!! Thanks!
I just found this article and have the same question. We need to refinish our floors and railings both. Thanks for the info, Amy!
@AMY & @theidearoomassistant,
I love your wood flooring as well, it seems to match the handrail and newel post. What stain is used on your flooring? Thanks for the staircase inspiration, Darlene
I will have to find what color of wood floors we installed. It has been awhile since they were installed. It is really close in color to the handrail though.
Thanks for the tutorial. I’ll be ding this soon. LOVE the kid pics on the wall!
Annie, Thank you so much!
Love the finished product! I want to do this to my banister-How much stain did it take to do the 2 coats to the banister? I see the stain comes in 1/2 pint and 1 pint cans and don’t want to buy too much. Thanks!
I used a pint can but, not sure how much you will need for your banisters. I like to have extra in case I need to touch up later on down the road.
This is lovely. I am curious, on the wall side (no railing) did you just put up moulding diagonally. and then add the batten above, or is there a specially cut stair stepped piece before the diagonal moulding?
Hi Amy,
We redid our first floor with dark floors and off-white trim. Upstairs is all oak. We want to paint/stain the staircase just like yours, but then it won’t match the upstairs trim. Did you have this problem?
Hi Amy! Looks lovely! Can you actually tell me the paint color you used on the walls? Thanks!
Do you think this staining would work for oak kitchen cabinets and baseboards?
Holly, I would think so, but you may want to try a small section before you commit. Thanks.
Hi, I love your banister! I just want to verify that you used Java? The color of your project turned out so lovely and such as nice shade of brown. All of the other posts that I have seen who have used Java look so black. Thanks!
Yes! It was Java. I was nervous it would be so dark too. But we did have a very lighter yellow oak to begin with. Test it on a hidden area first if you are really unsure. Good Luck!
Beautiful job! Thank you for the tutorial. How did you avoid getting the stain on the carpet?
You can tape down plastic or craft paper to avoid spilling on the carpet.
When you painted the white are you able to see the oak drain through the paint or did the primer take care of that? Looks great!
Kristi- The primer seemed to take care of that. Great question.
Well done! I too had this job priced out and decided to attempt this project by myself. My question is – did you work up or work down?
Susie- We worked down the railing. I don’t think it would matter which direction that you go though. Good luck on your project. I would love to see pictures when you are done.
My stairs are all painted white and the balusters. How well the Java gel do on the handrails? Will the wood grain show through?Am I going to have to sand down to bare wood? Thanks for your tips! It looks great!
Not sure how well it would stick to white paint. I have only used it on stained wood. I think you may have to sand it down.
Can you give me more details on how you applied the topcoat? You said you applied it with a sock… Do you just rub it on in a very thin layer on the banister and all the balusters? Did you use a brush at all? Do you have to go back over with another cloth and wipe the excess off? Also, the Instructions on the can say to sand between each coat… Did you do that? I would be afraid of taking off my stain and paint.
Heather- Yes rub a thin layer on with sock. I only used a brush in areas that were too tight to reach with the sock. You don’t need to rub excess of with this stain. I did not sand in between coats. Hope this helps.
I love your oak banisters!! We are in the process of re-doing our oak banister with gel stain but I am concerned it will ‘yellow’ over time. Did you have that problem? Should I use a water based top coat to minimize tannin bleed?
Thank you for the tutorial and inspiration!
I have not found that they have turned yellow. Hopefully they wont. I think because the stain is much darker than the oak stain, it should be ok.
I am getting ready to do this same project, someone suggested a product called TSP. Have you ever used this, or heard if its better then sanding.
Thanks!
I try and stay away from harsh cleaners, but I have used TSP before. I did not use it on my banister. I just sanded it. If you are planning on using TSP, it must be handled carefully. I would wear rubber gloves and a mask, and in a well-ventilated area. I would give ample drying time before painting. It can be a replacement for sandpaper as well since TSP cleaner will remove paint.
Very professional looking job, beautifully done, thanks for sharing.
Thank you.
You make this sound doable! I’m getting a bid on totally replacing ours but if that proves cost-prohibitive (which it probably will), this might just be a summer project! Thanks!
Kristin- I hope you end up doing this. It was totally worth it!
I just started my own stairs today using your tutorial for inspiration. With one coat down, it seems to be getting darker as it dries. I can also see every scratch in the wood – I’m wondering if I wiped off too much? Will that all even out with more coats?
Julie- I found that mine did even out with more coats. I would love to see pictures of the finished banister!
I really appreciate hearing a positive review of gel stain!
Amy- Thank you. We loved the gel stain!
Im following this article and starting the project this weekend, I’ve already lightly sanded everything! I know you say use a semi gloss for the white paint bannisters but should it be latex based, Acrylic, water based?
I used latex based paint. Hope this helps. You will have to send me pictures of the finish project.
I would lie to refinish my stairs however I’m afraid they will be very slippery. Whatsyyour thoughs about it.
Doris- I don’t think they will be more slippery if you refinish them. I don’t know for sure though. I love the look of wood on the stairs.
Your stairs are beautiful and the décor. Which color stain did you use on the stairs I love that color.
Lashawn- Thank You! We used this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035YI8SY/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0035YI8SY&linkCode=as2&tag=thidro-20&linkId=QAGMZJCP5D43PTTS
Can you paint the balusters first? What are the negatives besides messier? And how much messier lol? I’m thinking paint them white this winter and stain next winter after my new kitchen is done to coordinate the stain color.
TC- I think it would be fine if you painted them first. Just make sure to tape off really well.
Amy. I’m starting a similar project and have been researching Gel Stains. I also noticed your stained interior door. Any tips of keeping those looking nice. Our stained pine doors are showing some wear and tear.
Sara- I would apply a sealer on the pine door to keep it looking nice. You can also apply an oil for doors. You can find them at your local hardware store. Hope this helps. Thanks for following along.
Hi! I’m excited to try this! Yours looks beautiful! My question is if the General Finishes SH Gel Topcoat Satin finish is oil based or water based?
Thank you!
Lorraine
Lorraine- It is an oil based gel.
Great tips on wood stain selection! I’ve been looking to restore my handrails and your advice on choosing the right finish really helped clarify my options. I appreciate the detailed comparison of stains. Can’t wait to try the one you recommended!
Thank you. Glad you found this post helpful!