The struggle of finding space for all your stuff is real! Yet, the truth remains, that the first rule to finding easy ways to organize your home is “a place for everything and everything in its place”.
Having a place for everything in your home sounds nice, but the truth is it can be a monumental task. And having no place to put your stuff is the primary reason our homes are cluttered and disorganized.
An Organized Clutter Free Home Pays Off By Simplifying Your Life
I consider myself a moderate minimalist. I’ve discovered great value in living with less, yet I have a family and want our home to be welcoming and cozy. This means I have stuff, just not an excessive amount.
However, no matter where you fall on the minimalism spectrum, having a place for everything in your home isn’t about keeping as much as possible. Rather, it’s about knowing where to find what you need when you need it.
Simply put, the less you have, the better it will fit into your home and the less organizing you’ll have to do. For those things you do have, each item needs its own space. If there isn’t a specific place for an item to go, it will never be put away. Instead, it will sit out right there on the table or counter creating clutter and chaos.
The more you learn ways to organize your home and limit the clutter the more you will simplify your life. This of course frees up your time for those things that matter most!
15 Ways to Organize Your Home
Organizing your home doesn’t have to be hard. That’s why I’ve got you covered with these 15 easy ways to organize your home that will pay off big time!
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1. Minimize Clutter
You simply cannot organize clutter. Before you can begin to find a place for everything and put everything in its place you need to minimize the clutter.
Even if your space is extremely neat, it will appear much smaller if it’s loaded with a ton of clutter. I have a lot of articles on how to go about eliminating clutter. You might want to start with How to Get Started on a Clutter-free Home or How to Stay Clutter-free for Good.
It does take time to go through your house and clear the clutter. And clearing clutter from your home is a never-ending task. Somehow, no matter how much we simplify, stuff always finds its way into our house. For now, just keep evaluating and simplifying what you are keeping in your home.
A basic principle I like to follow is not to own more than one of something. As you’re going through things ditch the duplicates.
Also when you begin clearing the clutter don’t start with the stuff that’s out. That’s the stuff you use. Start with all that stuff buried in the deep dark recesses of your closets and cabinets. That’s the stuff you’ve forgotten you ever owned and don’t need.
Having a clutter-free home is the easiest way to an organized home!
2. Keep the Floors Clear
Now that you’ve started clearing the clutter, the next rule for finding easy ways to organize your home is to keep the floors clear. You want to do your best to keep your floor space clear and make the most of vertical space.
Keeping your floor space clear naturally makes your home feel more clean and open.
To take advantage of verticle space add shelves where possible. Maximizing your shelving helps you avoid piling things up on counters, tables, or the floor.
One of the things I love that is super helpful is using floating cubes as a nightstand. These cubes hold everything you need and they keep the floor space clear.
3. For Easy Ways to Organize Your Home, Keep it Simple
One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to find a place for everything is that they run out and buy tons of storage items. But I’m gonna let you in on a little secret –you don’t need more storage than you already have!
If space in your home is already tight, the last thing you want to do is overload it with complex storage systems. The truth is this will only make matters worse.
If you’ve been working on clearing the clutter then you’ve created some empty spaces for the stuff you actually use to be assigned a home. So before running out to Target or the Container Store, assign things a home based on the storage you already have.
Now you may need or want to pick up a couple of cute decorative baskets or bins but do that only after you’ve used what you already have. Believe me, when the clutter is gone, you’ll be amazed at how much storage is in your home.
4. Store Like Items Together
When you assign a place for everything in your house haphazardly, you end up creating more clutter.
For example, when you store scissors next to your desk, another pair with the craft supplies a third pair next to the kids’ homework station, and perhaps a pair next to the phone. Well, you get the idea, you have scissors all over the house.
First, do you really need four pairs of scissors? Eliminate the excess and pick one location for storing the scissors. When someone in the family needs scissors they know exactly where they are and then they can return them to that same spot when they are done. No more looking all over for a pair of scissors when you need them.
Look, the point of storage is to be able to easily access what you need not have it at your fingertips no matter where you are.
You will never find easy ways to organize your home if you continue to invite clutter in. Instead, learn to store like items together.
All office supplies are in one place. Books in another place. Pots & pans together, glasses and mugs together. Store your cleaning supplies in one location. Keep all craft items together. Whatever it is, put things in the same category together!
5. Use Closet Storage Containers
5. Use Closet Storage ContainersI live in Southern California where we don’t have a real change of seasons. Nevertheless, by October or November, I am no longer wearing shorts and I am reaching for a sweater in the evenings. This is the time I store away my summer clothing and pull out my sweaters from the closet storage containers.
Having these containers helps to eliminate taking up hanging space in my closet and dressers with clothing I won’t wear for months.
In addition, I use these same containers to store items that I only need occasionally, but would be wasteful to go out and repurchase each time I needed them. As an example, I don’t craft nearly as much as I used to, so I got rid of a ton of my old craft supplies. Yet, a few times a year I do need some things. So I just store those supplies in a portable storage container. They are up out of the way and I have access to them when needed. This is such an easy way to organize your home.
6. Use Hooks
Investing in some inexpensive wall hooks has allowed me to create so much extra storage space in my home.
Attaching several hooks to the inside of the closet and bedroom doors is a great space saver and keeps the floors clear. We use these hooks to hang backpacks, umbrellas, purses, and robes. These are things we use regularly, so they are easily accessible but off the floor and out of the way.
I also love hooks for the bathroom. Assigning a hook to each family member for their towel uses so much less space than a towel bar, where you can only hang a single towel.
Honestly, you can use hooks to store so many things, belts, jewelry hats headphones pretty much anything you can wrap over them.
Use can even use command hooks to Organize Your Pot Lids and save cabinet space in the kitchen. Potlids have to be one of the most difficult things to organize in a kitchen cabinet, but this is a great solution.
For easy ways to organize your home, invest in some simple wall hooks.
7. Use a Shower Caddy
The bathroom is the smallest room in the house, yet needs to store quite a number of items.
A shower caddy is a perfect solution for storing bath supplies such as soap, shampoo, conditioner, bath gels, razors, and anything else you use while in the shower. This eliminates the need to store these items in cabinets or on your dresser.
It also frees up extra cabinet space for hairstyling supplies, makeup or towels, and washcloths.
8. Storage Ottomans
A big priority for me in my home is that it feels warm and cozy. We all love to cuddle up on the couch with a cozy blanket to watch our favorite T.V. show or sit with a book and a cup of tea.
A while back I purchased a couple of storage ottomans and they have been the perfect solution to store blankets books and other items we use often.
When it’s time to relax on the couch you can access all of these items, stored out of sight, by just popping open the top of the ottoman. They also serve as the perfect footstool, supply additional seating when needed, and can be used in place of end tables.
Storage ottomans provide easy ways to organize your home.
9. Access Hidden Storage
Every house has hidden storage areas. But, before we talk about this, it is vital that you DO NOT use these spaces to store things you really don’t need or use. All you’ll be doing is trying to organize clutter, which never works.
That being said, you can use the space under your couch or beds to store regularly used items. We have a couple of board games that we use often and keep stored under the couch.
The space under the bed is also great for storing things that you need to keep but don’t want to take up closet space or store on your dresser. I keep a couple of boxes under my bed that house my nail polish, sewing box, and hair accessories.
I purchased these bed risers for the kids’ beds, which added several inches of space underneath their beds. We were able to stack storage boxes for out-of-season clothing and shoes under the beds. If your kids are a little older, these power bed risers would be so handy for charging their e-readers or phones.
10. Use Tension Rods to Hang Cleaning Supplies
Something that gives a ton of extra under-the-sink storage is the use of tension rods. Cleaning bottles, spray bottles, and wash rags hang perfectly on these rods.
Tension rods can add extra storage to cabinets and closets.
11. Decorative Baskets & Bins
I am a big fan of both decorative baskets and bins with cute designs to store our stuff. They don’t take up too much space but keep everything handy and out of the way. I keep a couple of smaller bins on the bookshelves to corral bookmarks and small games or cards.
Plus, I have a couple of large baskets around the house that are used to keep up on decluttering tasks. Whenever I find an item that should be donated, I can easily toss it into the decluttering basket. When the basket is full I donate the contents to my local charity.
12. Utilize Drawer Dividers
Drawer dividers provide easy ways to organize your home. In fact, they are a lifesaver when it comes to finding a place for everything in your home. Tossing things into drawers around your home makes finding what you need an impossible game of hide and seek.
However, by investing in a few inexpensive drawer dividers finding a place for everything becomes so much easier. I actually use a kitchen utensil divider in my desk drawer to organize my office supplies. But you can purchase expandable drawer dividers that will work with any size drawer.
Another thing I use is these containers to store all my jewelry. They are perfect for keeping things organized and my necklaces tangle-free.
13. File Cabinets or Paper Trays
My personal opinion is to declare all paper evil. If you are not intentional with designating a spot for papers they will multiply out of nowhere forming large piles.
You can read the details on how I eliminate paper clutter here. But for now, if you don’t have a file cabinet, purchase one. I promise it will be worth the investment. It is such a relief to know that your documents are organized and filed away so that you can easily find them when needed.
It’s also worth investing in a couple of paper trays, like these ones. These will allow you to have a designated spot for the paper that comes into your home each day. Then schedule a regular time to go through these papers at least once a week.
14. Keep it Clean
Now that you have created some storage solutions and designated a place for everything in your home, you want to maintain this system.
Smaller spaces reveal messes much sooner than larger spaces do, so to stay on top of things make sure you are regularly returning items to their home as you go.
This makes general clean-up of your home much faster. I am a big proponent of having a regular cleaning routine in your schedule. You can see my cleaning schedule here.
By adding a couple of 15 minutes tidy-up sessions to your day and creating an automatic cleaning routine, you’ll eliminate a lot of stress by keeping things in order.
15. Don’t Buy Unnecessary Stuff
Without a doubt, the easiest way to maintain a place for everything and everything in its place is to avoid buying stuff you don’t need!
There are several really good tips on how to stop buying things you don’t need here.
Also, following the one in one out rule will stop your house from being overrun with clutter. This rule is simple, when you do buy something new, force yourself to get rid of something else to make room for it.
Another key question to ask yourself before making a purchase is “Where will it go when I get it home?” If you don’t have a place for it to go, then don’t buy it. It will just add clutter.
Make sure what you purchase is something you will use on a regular basis and that you don’t already have something similar that will serve the same purpose.
Watching your shopping habits actually helps provide easy ways to organize your home. And you’ll be able to maintain a clear and clutter-free space.
Finding Easy Ways to Organizing Your Home Is About Creating Systems That Work For You
Don’t be afraid to try new things until you create the system that works best for you. The likelihood is you won’t get everything right the first time. Be patient with yourself and know that you may need to adjust as you learn more about what works and what doesn’t.
The house will still get messy, the dishes will still fill the sink, and the laundry pile up, but it will take a fraction of the time to pick up and make things right! You eliminate the overwhelm and most importantly clear space for what matters most!
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