A question I’m often asked is how do you stay clutter-free and organize your small home? Living in a small space definitely has its unique challenges when it comes to maintaining a handle on the clutter and keeping things organized.
Living in a small home means that you probably don’t have the luxury of a pantry or extra closets or storage spaces for supplies. If you’re not careful it doesn’t take much for your space to look cluttered or messy. But more often than not, pretty containers don’t solve the problem, all they do is hide it.
So before you attempt to implement new organizing systems or look into products to help you organize your small home, make sure you first work on getting rid of the clutter! It comes down to first things first, that means declutter first, organize second. If you need some help with decluttering here are some good resources to get clutter-free!
While I firmly believe that you can’t organize clutter, and most people’s biggest organizing problem is simply too much stuff, I have found that having specific organing systems and tools in place does help keep the clutter out. Sometimes storage solutions are worth the investment!
The right storage tools will help you organize your small home and keep it clutter-free. I do want to encourage you to reuse what you already own. But if you find that it’s not enough, below are some of my favorite organizing products for my own small home.
Remember, you don’t have to buy anything to be organized. The more clutter you eliminate from your space, the more room you will have. But when a particular product will help you to love your home, that’s money well spent.
So let’s look at some tools that actually work to organize your small home.
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Products to Organize Your Small Home Kitchen
One of the most important rooms to keep organized and clutter-free is the kitchen. After all, the kitchen really is the hub of the home. It’s the room we spend most of our working time in and you want it to be neat and tidy. Let’s face it, no one wants to cook or prepare food in a cluttered Kitchen because it makes it so much harder and doubles the time it takes to clean up.
If you live in a small space you probably don’t have a lot of extra space or storage, which creates a unique challenge in staying organized and clutter-free. So here are some favorite tools that will help you organize your small home kitchen!
Kitchen Canisters
Because I don’t have a pantry keeping my cupboards neat and tidy is important. These canisters are great for storing dry goods! They’re airtight, lightweight, and take up less space than storing items in their supermarket packaging.
An added benefit I discovered is that they actually keep food fresher, longer, and I always know exactly how much I have left of an item. This helps avoid buying duplicate items that end up taking precious space.
Of course, I also like the fact that they make my cupboards look pretty!
Magnetic Spice Containers
These magnetic spice containers are fantastic for saving space. The magnetic bottoms allow you to store them on the side of the fridge, which of course frees up extra cabinet or drawer space.
Turntables/Lazy
While lazy susans are designed for the table they really help keep sauces bottles, jars or even cans organized and easy to grab! They actually allow you to squeeze out a little more space from your cabinet or shelf.
There are a variety of turntables and lazy susans available. Personally, I prefer these open versions for use in my pantry. However, I do like to use this style, with dividers, for under the sink to keep my cleaning supplies organized and easy to get to.
They even have designs specifically made for corners or tight spaces, allowing you to get the most of limited kitchen space.
Tiered Shelf for Canned Goods
Another option for keeping pantry items organized is these tiered shelves designed for canned goods. I used to keep my canned goods on a narrow shelf and these were lifesavers. There are many tiered shelf styles on the market. I highly recommend these if your canned goods on narrow shelves
Drawer Organizer
Most of us have way too many kitchen gadgets in our drawers. Let me just remind you that it’s a whole lot harder to organize clutter. In other words, before you start organizing your kitchen drawers make sure to declutter first!
Once you’ve decluttered your drawers, you want to add inserts to help corral and contain what’s left. To do just that I recommend these expandable drawer organizers. You can adjust them according to the size of your drawers so they fit pretty much any space.
Counter Organization
I really do like to keep my countertops as clear as possible. However, when you’re in a small space, the countertop may be the only place certain necessary items have to live.
To keep my kitchen countertop organized I love this crock. It looks beautiful and houses the utensils I use most often for cooking.
I also keep this salt keeper on the counter next to the stove. It’s super convenient as most recipes call for some amount of salt.
Products to Organize Your Small Home Living Room
The living room is another important room to keep organized and clutter-free. This is the room where we spend the most family time when we all want to relax.
Baskets
Baskets are my number one organizing tool when it comes to the living room.
I have a large basket that is used to corral items that need to be relocated elsewhere, or be decluttered. I really like this basket for this purpose because of the lid. It would keep everything nice and hidden.
A different basket is used to store throw blankets and favorite games. Smaller baskets are kept in the TV cabinet for storing remotes and other electronic game controllers.
Storage Ottomans
Another one of my favorite organizing tools for the Living Room is a storage ottoman. They are perfect for keeping stored items out of sight and yet easily available when you need them!
I’ve used smaller ottomans like this one to house the kids’ toys. The nice thing is it doubles as extra seating when you have guests over.
One of the hardest things about living in a small space is finding a place to store paperwork. I feel in love with this storage ottoman because it doubles as a file cabinet.
Products to Organize Your Small Home Bedroom
You always want your bedroom to be a place of rest and relaxation. That’s hard to do if you have clothes strown about or even worse tossed all over the bed. The key to keeping a small bedroom comfortable and relaxing is to make sure it’s neat and clutter-free.
I have found that the biggest cause of clutter in the bedroom is clothing. We all have wayyyy more clothing than we need. Before you can organize your bedroom, you’ve got to declutter your closet! Here’s a good post from Happy Simple Mom with lots of tips for decluttering your closet.
Related: How a Capsule Wardrobe Will Make You Love Your Closet
Velvet Hangers
Now that you’ve decluttered your closet, it’s time to invest in some quality hangers. Let me tell you, not all hangers are created equally.
Velvet, non-slip hangers are well worth the investment and they’re really not that much more expensive than the cheap plastic ones.
Not only do velvet non-slip hangers give your closet a uniform look, but they also protect your favorite clothing items and you don’t have to worry about them slipping off.
Clear Bins
With the clothing portion of your closet looking beautiful, it’s time to focus on the shelving and floor areas. By far, my favorite tool to organize this area are clear bins.
The fact that you can see through them, make them the perfect choice for closet organization! Clear Bins are available in a variety of sizes, and I probably use them all!
I use these small ones for organizing all of my shoes. I use the larger size for organizing accessories such as scarves and belts and for seasonal clothing.
Open-Top Bins
When it comes to organizing kids’ rooms, I recommend open-top bins. They allow the kids to help with clean up as it’s easy for them to toss items in without the hassle of taking off the lid. You can place baskets on all the shelves in the room to create a high end, uniform look while also adding lots of extra storage space!
Over-The-Door Storage
Over-the-door storage is an excellent way to maximize storage space! I prefer these pocket organizers for the inside of closet doors, as they are usually not seen.
For bedroom doors (or bathrooms, or any open doors) I prefer these more structured units as they look much nicer. They hook onto your door by the hinges and hide whatever items you stash inside of it, without taking up any floor or wall space. I absolutely love the Cabidor, their slogan is “Minimize Clutter. Maximize Space”!
Craft Box
This is the craft box I use to store my jewelry. It’s the perfect size for collections of “small-sized” items. It surprisingly holds quite a bit of jewelry in a small space. I love that it keeps my necklaces and other items from getting all tangled up!
Baskets
Did I mention that baskets are a favorite organizing tool;)? My favorite part of using baskets for keeping your home clutter-free and organized is that they are a great design element and creates so much texture for a room.
In my bedroom, I have two large baskets. I use this one for a clothes hamper. The other basket, I use I refer to as my decluttering basket. Basically, whenever I come across an item I no longer love or is just time to declutter it goes into this basket. When the basket is full, I bag up the contents and donate it.
Products to Organize Your Small Home Bathroom
When you’re trying to organize your small home bathroom, it’s unlikely that you have the luxury of a linen closet. Without a linen closet, it often means having to store extra toiletries directly in the bathroom. This makes maximizing your bathroom storage space essential.
Pull-Out Cabinet Organizer
This is a total game-changer when it comes to maintaining and organizing a small bathroom. I was often secretly proud of the amount of stuff I could actually fit under our bathroom sink.
The problem was that when you needed something stored under there it often required taking out ten other items just to get to it. These simple pull-out cabinet organizers will change all of that.
Closet Hooks
We are a family of four with one bathroom. Having a place for everyone’s wet towels to hang was a big issue for me because they generally ended up on the floor. Ugh…
As our bathroom is so small there really is only one space for a towel rack to go. Obviously, there’s no way four towels can dry on one towel rack. To solve this problem, I found hooks were a perfect solution. It is such a space saver to hang towels on hooks versus a towel bar.
Over-The-Door Cabinet
I talked about the Cabidor above for over the door storage in the bedroom. These types of over-the-door cabinets are also a wonderful option for creating extra storage in the bathroom. You can even attach a mirror to the outside!
Make-up Storage
My bathroom is so tiny I really have no countertop storage. But if I did I would love to have space for this make-up organizer. Instead, I use a simple makeup bag like this. It holds everything I need and I’m able to store it under the sink. I do keep my makeup brushes in a cute little jar. The brushes I use are all white so they look decorative as well as useful.
Another option I love for storing lotions and sprays is this acrylic Lazy Suzan. Because it’s clear it visually feels like it takes up less space and you’re able to grab what you need easily!
Organize Your Small Home Office & Desk
Keeping my office and desk areas organized is critical to keeping me productive.
Binders
For me, dealing with paper is the worst. It’s hard to get a handle on and if you don’t keep it organized it can be costly. Lost bills equal lates fees. To stay organized I’m in love with using binders. They are stored on the bookshelf and I know exactly where everything is.
These are the binders I prefer. They are very sturdy, they even survived my kids’ backpack all year long! An added bonus is the rubber seams because they don’t rip like most binders!
If you don’t have one, make sure to pick up a three-ring hole punch.
Scanner
Hands down, the easiest way to deal with paper is to go paperless!
It’s actually EASY to eliminate a lot of the paper in your home when you have a good scanner.
There are a ton of scanner apps for your phone and many of them free. If you have a large number of papers to scan it’s worth investing in a computer scanner as it will save a significant amount of time.
Bankers Boxes
For the papers, I must keep these banker boxes are what I use. The handles make them easy to lift, they are stackable. Because they are designed to hold papers it’s easy to access the contents.
File Cabinet
If you have space, a file cabinet is a great option for storing papers. I love the sleek look of this file cabinet as it doubles as decor. Add a cute decorative tray or vase on top and you’re good to go. If you’ve decluttered your paper this should hold everything you need.
When you find yourself struggling with paper here are some tips to finally conquer the paper clutter!
Desk Organizers
I use a simple utensil drawer organizer to organize my desk drawer. It’s super inexpensive and works great!
Label Maker
Do you need a fancy label maker in order to be organized? 100% No! Absolutely not. However, I love the ease of printing out consistent labels to stick on bins and containers around my home. This is the label maker that I own.
But when it goes to making labels there is another inexpensive option. These chalk labels are the bomb. They are easy and make anything you attach them to look cute!
So there you have it, some of my favorite products that help me keep my small home organized and clutter-free. I hope this list is helpful and you’re able to get some pretty and useful items for your home so you can stay clutter-free and organized!
Let me know if you have a favorite product that I didn’t mention.
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