How to Be Organized at Home

Co-authored by Caitlin Jaymes

Last Updated: September 17, 2022 References

If you live a busy life, it’s easy to come home one day and find that you’ve let your home become totally disorganized. However, there’s no reason to fret! Even if you don’t know where to start, you can definitely turn the place around and be more organized at home. The best way to do this is to take it 1 room at a time, removing the clutter that has built up, and reorganizing things to make your home tidier and your life easier.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Decluttering Your Home

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Get rid of anything in your home that you haven’t used in 6 months. Generally speaking, if you haven’t used something in 6 months, you’re almost definitely never going to use it. Go through all the drawers, cabinets, and closets in your home and toss out anything that you can’t remember using in the past 6 months.^{[1]
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- There are obviously some exceptions to this rule. If you have a costume in your closet that you only use at Halloween or decorations you only break out during the holidays, the 6-month rule doesn’t apply to these items.
- Mementos and items with strong sentimental value, like things that your children made for you, also don’t fall under this rule. However, if the item only has a weak sentimental value, consider tossing it.
2
Throw away expired food or any kitchen items you don’t use. If there are items you’d like to keep but which you don’t use that often, move them somewhere where they’re not adding to a cluttered kitchen, such as on the top shelf of your pantry. Any items that you own but have never used and just can’t see yourself using, donate them or throw them away.^{[2]
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- This sounds harsh, but this is the best way to keep your kitchen organized and free of clutter.
- If there are food items that are about to expire, make a plan to use or eat them that day or the next day. If you don’t think you’ll eat them before they expire, throw them away.
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3
Toss out any clothes that don’t fit you anymore. If you’re looking to make your home more organized, there’s no reason to keep clothes that you can’t physically wear anymore. Root through all the clothes in your closet and dresser drawers and donate the ones that don’t fit you to charity.^{[3]
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- If there are clothes you come across that still fit you but that you haven’t worn in a long time, toss them out as well, unless you strongly feel that you’ll wear them again.
- If you have younger siblings that wear the same kinds of clothes as you, consider giving them your old clothes as hand-me-downs.
4
Minimize the number of items you keep on the bathroom counter. Keeping as much open space on your counter as possible will not only make it look tidier, but will also make cleaning and reorganizing the counter in the future much easier. Remove any items that you don’t use on a daily basis and push the remaining items to the back ⅓ of the counter space.^{[4]
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- Those items that you take off of the counter can either be stored under the sink or on the backs of the cabinet doors, or simply thrown away if they’re things that you know you won’t use.
- Use small, rectangular trays to hold any items that you leave out on the counter and to keep them in an orderly arrangement.
5
Consider holding a garage sale and selling the things you don’t need. This is the best way to turn the clutter in your home into a little bit of pocket cash for yourself. If you come across a lot of items that you don’t use very often and can reasonably live without, sell them to both declutter your home and make money.^{[5]
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- This method is best if you declutter your home in the spring or summer; it’ll be a lot harder to get people to come to your garage sale if you hold it during the cold weather months.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Getting Your Stuff Organized

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Use hooks and organizers to hang items on walls and doors. Place over-the-door organizers over the backs of your bathroom door and cabinet doors or install command hooks on your doors and walls. Then, hang items from these surfaces to clear up space in your drawers and cabinets while also utilizing this vertical storage space.^{[6]
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- Command hooks work great for storing cloth items like hand towels and washcloths, as well as utensils and accessories that feature hanging loops, such as oven mitts and spatulas.
- In the bathroom, store items that you only use once or twice a day on the insides of cabinet doors, such as toothpaste. This way, the rest of your bathroom looks neat and clean for most of the day!
- You can also technically use over-the-door organizers on the back of your bathroom door, although the door may be too tall for this method of organization to be terribly useful.
2
Place items you use most often in easy-to-reach places. For example, store items you use every day in the kitchen, like your silverware and coffee mugs, in the most accessible areas of the room to emphasize ease-of-use in your kitchen organization. Do the same thing with key items in your bathroom, such as hand soap and towels.^{[7]
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- It will also make your rooms more organized to store similar items together. For instance, place all of your bowls and plates in one cabinet and all of your cups and glasses in another.
3
Put cabinet items in easily stacked, see-through containers. These containers will allow you to use your cabinet space in the most efficient way possible, as well as make finding cabinet items much easier. For best results, opt for square or rectangle containers over circular ones.^{[8]
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- If you use these containers in the kitchen, make sure the containers are dishwasher safe so you can clean them before and after you store food items in them.
- If the area under your bathroom sink has a lot of empty space, use see-through modular drawers that stack on each other to store bathroom items and add labels to the front of each to describe what they hold.
4
Store things under your bed using thin storage containers. There’s tons of tiny storage space under your bed that is hard to take advantage of without storage bins. Store bed linens and non-essential in these containers, or other items that you only use every once in a while, such as seasonal decor.^{[9]
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- Long, thin storage containers are the best to use under the bed since they will stretch all the way to the back of the bed while still being long enough to be easily reached.
- If you don’t have thin containers, you can also use cubbies, baskets, or bags, or make your own containers out of repurposed dresser drawers.
5
Use drawer organizers to bring order to messy kitchen drawers. These wooden or plastic drawer inserts are pretty cheap and are very useful for organizing your drawers. Use one organizer for silverware, another for larger utensils, and another for your “junk” drawer.^{[10]
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- If you have any items that are too big to fit in these drawer organizers, such as very long spatulas, store them separately in their own drawer or in a jar on the countertop.
- If any of these items have hanging loops, see if you can hang them on command hooks on the walls or cabinet doors.
6
Have furniture in the living room that maximizes storage space. For example, put tall shelves with large sections in the living room (or bedroom) so you can place a variety of large and small items on them. You can also opt for a 2-tiered coffee table instead of a traditional table to double its storage space.^{[11]
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- For added convenience, keep a collapsible stool behind the shelf or somewhere nearby so you can reach the items on the top shelf.
- You can also go with a coffee table with drawers if you want the things you store in it to not be visible all the time.
- If you don’t plan to keep anything on top of your coffee table, or don’t plan to use the stuff you store in it all that often, consider going with a lift-top coffee table.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Keeping Your Home Clean and Tidy

1
Take steps every day to keep the rooms in your home organized. A big part of organizing your home is keeping it from becoming disorganized in the first place. Make keeping your home organized part of your daily routine in order to maintain a “cleaning flow” and be more organized every day.^{[12]
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- For example, make your bed every morning or clean your kitchen counters at the end of each night.
2
Deep clean your home once a week to maintain it. This deep cleaning can involve more involved cleaning tasks like cleaning your bathtub and shower, reorganizing and cleaning your refrigerator, or vacuuming all the floors in your home. Doing this deep cleaning each week will make keeping your home clean and organized much easier in the long run.^{[13]
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- For best results, try setting aside a particular day each weekend to devote to cleaning and organizing your home. That way, keeping your home organized will just be part of your ordinary weekly schedule.
3
Avoid leaving clothes or other items on the floor. When you step into the shower or you’re just coming home from work, it’s all too tempting to just leave your clothes, shoes, or other accessories on the floor. However, this will only lead your home to become disorganized again. Instead, always be sure to put away clothes or accessories as soon as you take them off to keep your home clean.^{[14]
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- If you find you’re always leaving your dirty clothes on the floor when you take a shower, it might be an issue with the way your bathroom is arranged. Make sure you have a hamper for your dirty clothes and put it in a convenient location in your bathroom.
4
Keep items stored in your drawers neatly organized. If you store any clothes in dresser drawers, keep these clothes neatly folded instead of haphazardly tossed in the drawer. For smaller clothing items like socks, belts, or lingerie, use drawer dividers to keep these items in order.^{[15]
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- Although it may seem counterintuitive, keep shirts and pants in your drawers organized horizontally instead of vertically to make them easier to sort through.

Expert Q&A

Question

Do I try on clothes when organizing my closet?

Caitlin Jaymes
Closet Organizer & Fashion Stylist
Caitlin Jaymes is a Closet Organizer and Fashion Stylist based in Los Angeles, California. With a background in Fashion PR and Fashion Design, she specializes in creating wardrobes for her clients with pieces they already own. She has experience working with celebrities, editorial shoots, and men and women of all ages. Caitlin uses fashion and organization to help instill and influence confidence, ambition, and stress-free lifestyles for all her clients. She runs her business by two guiding principles: “fashion has no rules, only guidance on how to look and feel your best” and “life has too many stressors, don’t let clutter be one of them.” Caitlin’s work has been featured on HGTV, The Rachael Ray Show, VoyageLA, Liverpool Los Angeles, and the Brother Snapchat Channel.

Caitlin Jaymes

Closet Organizer & Fashion Stylist

Expert Answer

Yes! When you're organizing your closet, you really need to try most things on. That's not always the most fun, but it will help you determine what you're hanging on to just because you like it or paid a lot of money for it, but maybe it doesn't fit your body type or your style.
Question

How can I make my closet look better?

Caitlin Jaymes
Closet Organizer & Fashion Stylist
Caitlin Jaymes is a Closet Organizer and Fashion Stylist based in Los Angeles, California. With a background in Fashion PR and Fashion Design, she specializes in creating wardrobes for her clients with pieces they already own. She has experience working with celebrities, editorial shoots, and men and women of all ages. Caitlin uses fashion and organization to help instill and influence confidence, ambition, and stress-free lifestyles for all her clients. She runs her business by two guiding principles: “fashion has no rules, only guidance on how to look and feel your best” and “life has too many stressors, don’t let clutter be one of them.” Caitlin’s work has been featured on HGTV, The Rachael Ray Show, VoyageLA, Liverpool Los Angeles, and the Brother Snapchat Channel.

Caitlin Jaymes

Closet Organizer & Fashion Stylist

Expert Answer

Change up your hangers! For an easy, inexpensive way to make your closet look more organized, hang all your clothes on matching hangers.