Let’s face it—a cluttered home can stress you out. It’s time to make sense of the mess. Here are some top organizational solutions for your cluttered home that can bring about a sense of calm and order.
Edit Your Stuff Before You Try To Organize It
There’s no point in organizing a ton of stuff you’ll never use or wear again. The first step to organizing your home is to edit your stuff! This means going through each item in your home and deciding whether you love it, need it, or use or wear it regularly. If it’s none of the above, why is it still there?
Don’t Just Move Stuff Around and Try To Hide It
Moving stuff from one place to another or stashing it somewhere you can’t see it doesn’t count as organizing. Create a system that makes sense of your possessions.
Go Through Your Junk Drawer
In addition to your desk, shelves, and kitchen cabinets, you must organize your junk drawer. Elevate your junk drawer to make it an organized drawer of stuff you actually need. Use small baskets or dividers to keep things separate and easy to find.
Gather Organizational Supplies You Already Have
Before you rush out to buy tons of bins, boxes, dividers, and hooks, look at what you already have. Can you repurpose something to serve as storage? For example, consider shoeboxes as organizational tools. The goal is to reduce clutter, not add to it with unnecessary storage containers.
Be Systematic
It doesn’t matter which organizational system you choose—just choose one that appeals to you. It could be the Kondo “gives you joy” system or the 90–90 rule, where if you haven’t used an item in the last 90 days and don’t plan to use it in the next 90, you get rid of it. Or you could use the simple keep, donate, discard system. The key is consistency in whichever system you choose.
Corral the Chaos in Your Closet
Yes, you do have something to wear. In fact, you have way too many things to wear. Devote a rainy Saturday to pulling everything out of your closet and sorting it all into categories. Decide which items to keep, which are still good enough to donate, and which to recycle or donate.
Organize your keepers by type, color, or season. Consider adding a second hanger rod, an extra shelf, or a few more drawers to keep things tidy.
If you’re a chronic closet clutterer, consider all the ways you’d benefit from a custom closet. A custom closet system looks great.
Then There’s Maintenance
After all the work you put into getting decluttered and organized, don’t fall back to old habits and reaccumulate so much stuff that your home becomes cluttered all over again.
Bringing organization to your cluttered home will pay off with less tidying, more free time, and a more relaxed feeling. It might even help you lose weight and maintain a healthier lifestyle!
