How to Start Organizing Your Home: 12 Expert Tips
Guest Post by Julia Weaver at Red Fin
2020 has been a whirlwind of a year. Whether you live in Philadelphia, PA, or Portland, OR, you’ve suddenly found yourself spending almost all your time at home. Now you’re noticing just how messy your home has become. Because let’s face it, it’s easy to accumulate stuff over the years. But amidst the endless piles of laundry, dishes, and to-do lists, it can be nearly impossible to find the time to organize every room in your house. Luckily, we’ve gathered X tips from the experts on how to start organizing your home.
Sort, Toss, Donate, Keep, Repeat
In other words, be sure to declutter and purge items before purchasing storage and containerizing them. A quick how-to: Take each item out of its area and sort the item into the following categories: “Keep in this room,” “Keep in a different room”, “Donate,” “Trash,” and “To do” (items that need follow up such as a bill that needs to be paid or an article of clothing that your sister might want). Do not attend to each item until you are finished sorting. Once you’re left with the “Keep in this room” items, you may move on to creating a system and purchasing storage. – One to Zen Organizing
Find a home for all your belongings
The guiding principle I use when I organize for my clients is “Everything must have a home.” Anything that makes it into your house needs a designated place, and everyone in the household needs to know where it goes. Then, regularly take time to put things back in their ‘home’ – and if it can be done in less than a minute, do it now! – OrgaNice
Introduce a rotation system in the kids’ area
Keeping the kids’ toys, books, games, and puzzles organized is very challenging. We suggest parents implement a toy rotation system to limit the number of things the kids have access to. That will minimize the toys they “dump” on the floor and cleanup will be much easier. Plus, studies show that kids concentrate and engage more with a toy when they are not overwhelmed. – Di is Organized
Use clear bins and labels in your pantry
Seeing what you have and knowing where to put your items away is key to maintaining an organized space. – Simplicity Organizers
Keep your makeshift home office organized
How are you currently using the kitchen office? Get clarity on what you need the space for (transition zone, information zone, workspace) and organize to meet the need. Make sure the things you need have clearly defined homes and put the things you don’t need away somewhere else. Put things where they belong, routinely clear the space of items that don’t belong. Make adjustments to tweak the behaviors you need to make your kitchen office space a productive one. – Simply Placed
Take time to plan out your goals
Whether you have an overflowing closet or consider yourself to be a minimalist, organizing your closet can be overwhelming from the start. The easiest way to avoid the sorting scaries is to map out the space first. No matter what size your closet is if you take the time to logically plan out your goals in the space, knowing what you want your end result to be can make it much less overwhelming when you get going. Use blue painter’s tape and a sharpie to map out your inventory. – Life in Jeneral
Promote productivity in your home office
In today’s work from home environments, the home office is more important than ever. A dedicated space to separate work from everyday home life can play a big role in successfully transitioning to working from home, even if it’s only part-time. A good quality desk and ergonomic chair are the bare minimum in setting up a productive work environment that will promote comfort, ergonomics, and productivity. – Crandall Office Furniture
Organize your fridge with clear containers
Use clear containers with handles to corral items by category in your refrigerator. No more lost, unreachable items hidden away and spoiling in the back. Best of all, you can quickly shuffle and reorganize items to make room for bulky leftovers. – The Organized Approach
Bring your newborn home to an organized nursery
You want to bring your baby home to a clean, organized space, using natural fibers, organic materials, and visually beautiful items whether that be furniture, diapers, or clothing. There has been a huge resurgence in cloth diapering recently because they’re beautiful and easier than ever to use, and since you only need a small stash instead of 100’s of diapers, it’s easy to incorporate them into your nursery décor and storage with floating shelves or cubes. – Bundle Baby
Consider the size of your kitchen items and organize accordingly
The very best tip when organizing a kitchen is to look at is as boulders, rocks, and pebbles. Your boulders are your key pieces such as pots, pans, and dishes. They have a set home that is by the stove and dishwasher respectively. Something like a large Instant Pot can also be viewed as a boulder as there will only be so many places that will fit. It is a foundation piece. The smaller items, the rocks and pebbles, will fall into place. Remember to sort first and put away second. – Calm Order
Place “donate” bins around the house
Make it easy to move things on by putting a “Donate” bin in key areas of the home that tend to collect unwanted items (the laundry room, kids’ closets, and the garage are common hotspots). Schedule a weekly calendar alert to take donations to your local drop-off. – Graceful Spaces
Display your most commonly used tools in the garage
How much time do you spend searching for tools to complete a repair or project? Use a storage solution that allows you to have as many of your commonly used tools on display and ready for immediate use. Wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, hammers and more all lined up where you can have immediate access to them whenever you need them. It also makes it very easy to ensure that every one of your tools are put back in their place for use next time. –Omni Wall