Organizing

Sometimes the biggest obstacle standing between you and a cleaner, clutter-free home is an unwillingness to just let go of unneeded stuff. When faced with getting rid of things, we can all turn into a bunch of hoarders at heart (“but what if I need it someday?!”). Luckily, your best weapon against a chronic case of “keep it just in case”-itis is a simple thing we like to call the outbox.

There’s a quote by French writer Antoine de Saint Exupéry that I’ve always loved to repeat to myself when I need perspective: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” As much as you want your home to be a better, happier place, you have to understand that it takes work to get there. And not all of that work is spent on hands and knees, scrubbing showers or sorting drawers. Much of the work is just planning — deciding what to do and committing to when to do it.

Happy New Year! It’s always amazing to me what a boost your mind and body can get — in the form of renewed energy, motivation, and focus — by seeing the calendar reset at January each year. It’s the perfect time to make a fresh start, which includes getting your home primed for the year ahead. Because who doesn’t want a home that works better and looks better, too?

She's been cleaning out her attic on Instagram.

This time of year is one of influx and more, more, more. Layers of decorations, extra throw pillows and blankets, house guests, that second slice of pie — not to mention all the new items brought into the home as gifts. While everything is still contained in wrapping paper and ribbons, before the shiny new things enter the realm of official Household Stuff, take time to make some space by getting rid of these oldies you’ll never miss.

Decluttering—especially if you have a lot of stuff to begin with—can be an exhausting task. You can spend hours going through your things and realize you’re not even remotely close to being done with all your sorting. If you always feel totally spent when you’re done with a major decluttering session, the key might be in avoiding those giant, day (or weekend!) long clean-outs in the first place.

Here’s the thing about stuff—even when we don’t need it, it’s easy to become attached to it, assign meaning to it or feel guilt about getting rid of it. Gifts from loved ones or an expensive purchase you regret but can’t return can weigh you and your home down. So, what do you do when you feel like you can’t part with anything you own—even when you have multiples that you don’t need?

Nothing is more fun during the holiday season than hosting friends and family for a gathering. But what happens when you love to entertain but don’t actually have a ton of room or even a proper coat closet to store everyone’s stuff? Fret not, friends—a cramped living space doesn’t have to be a problem. Here are five options to consider when deciding where to stow your guests’ things during your holiday festivities this season.

I’ve picked up the odd Dollar Tree clear plastic bin here and there for, well, I can’t remember what for now that I use them for everything. Seriously, since discovering and drooling over The Home Edit‘s Instagram feed (I even rainbowtized my apps, but that’s a story for another day), I’m clear-binning all the things. Here’s why I wish I’d started organizing with them years ago.

Wish your bathroom was more organized? Even in the tiniest of bathrooms, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to make things work. Between damage-free hooks and shelves to portable items (like a rolling cart), you get can your bathroom in shape in no time. Pretend you have a budget of $100 to get everything you need to revamp your bathroom; here’s what you can get with that to make it all happen. Let’s get shopping — hypothetically at least — shall we?

Whether you crank up the Christmas music the second Halloween’s over, or you restrain yourself and stick to fall decor at least until Thanksgiving, now is the time of year that your bins of holiday decor have come down from the attic or out from under the guest beds. Rather than waiting until it’s time to put it all back and bemoaning the amount of stuff you have that, once again, you didn’t use, go through it now.

Be it a room, a cabinet or even just a drawer, your pantry deserves a little love.

Nothing turns a happy chef into a frazzled one like rifling through drawers or disassembling the kitchen to dig out the necessary tools. Don’t let this be you at Thanksgiving. For a smoothly running kitchen — and, more importantly, a smiling cook — eliminate everything that doesn’t need to be in your kitchen before the big day.

If you’re like me, you’ve always had a growing pile of shoes in your vestibule/ entryway/mudroom. Which normally wouldn’t be an issue except that the shoes are now boots – they take up more space, they track in more mud, and they can take a bit longer to dry out after a good rain or snow. So what do you do with all of them? How do you solve the growing boot dilemma this time of year?

If your preferred mode of transportation is powered by bike pedals, you might be familiar with the dilemma many bike owners + city dwellers face: Where the heck do you store a bike? Like, in a way that’s not totally revolting to the eyes? These real-life spaces have the right idea. As a rule, your best choice is going to involve some sort of wall or ceiling hanging situation. Why? Because attaching your bike (or bikes) to a solid surface will impose visual order on them.

We’re online shopping more than ever and, unfortunately, that means bringing unwanted waste into our homes in the form of cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, and other packing supplies. (A problem that gets especially frustrating when I discover the refrigerator-sized box on my porch actually just contains the single pack of face wipes I ordered).

Tackle your own Mount Shoeverest and try implementing an entry way storage solution that fits your needs.

I’m a stress cleaner—as in, I tend to clean and organize things when I’m overwhelmed or feeling down. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my emotional clean-out sessions, it’s that the sometimes the most satisfying thing on the planet is cleaning out your closet—even if it’s hard for you to part with some of your old favorite clothes.

It’s natural to focus your attention on the parts of your home that other people see, but we’d like to advocate today that you turn your focus to a small spot that easily becomes messy, cluttered and frustrating — your kitchen utensil drawer. Go open yours right now; what do you see? A streamlined monument to organization and efficiency? No? Ok, it’s time to straighten it up. It will look better and, more importantly, work better for you.

It’s not that anyone forgot that lockers and filing cabinets exist, it’s just that they aren’t used nearly as commonly as they ought to be in my opinion. They’re affordable (to buy new or find used at thrift stores) and you can store lots of different things in them. They’re DIY’able (hello, paint one a bold color!). They not only fit in with a lot of different design styles, but they offer up a heaping dose of industrial vibes to any room they live in.

The saying, “there’s nothing new under the sun” got a lot more real with the invention of the internet. If you think you’re doing something original, there’s a good chance Google will prove you wrong every time. That’s why unique ideas, like this log-holder-turned-blanket-storage from Chrissy Phelan’s West Hollywood home (and salon!) are all the more impressive.

If you’ve got a pantry—no matter the size, from a small cabinet to a complete closet to a dedicated room—chances are you have a door or two enclosing it. While you might have given attention to organizing the shelves within your pantry, have you thought about tackling all that wasted space behind your door? This DIY pantry door storage solution is functional and beautiful. And it’s such a good idea, we’re rerunning this post two years in a row!

Plastic zipper bags are probably a food storage staple in your home—they’re an easy way to store food in the fridge and freezer, plus they can help keep you organized in other ways, including being a necessity when you travel by air.

How often do you quickly tidy one area of your home by just moving the mess somewhere else? Have you ever come home only to put your coat on a chair temporarily before you finally hang it up in the closet? (I know I’m guilty of this, because it just feels easier in the moment after a long day). It might not feel like a time suck, but it actually makes you put in more effort in the long run—all those steps add up, and it makes keeping your home clutter-free a slightly harder task.

The most powerful tool in your decluttering arsenal? It’s your mind. Truly, when you seem to have a problem with “too much,” the biggest obstacle in the way of getting rid of needless things is your own brain. It’s there in the background insisting, maybe, that you’ll wear that ill-fitting dress some day again, or that this old broken lamp is the last thing that connects you to the memory of your grandparents’ condo.

When you think of a silverware organizer, you probably think of a standard cutlery tray—a plastic bin with sections for knives, forks and spoons, with maybe an extra section or two for other miscellaneous utensils. But just because most of the options you come across are simple, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck settling for the basics.

Decluttering a home is never easy. The thought of organizing a packed hallway closet or a stuffed storage room can be exhausting enough to make you put it off for another year. But what if we told you there was an easy, foolproof way to finally get your clutter under control that won’t take more than a few minutes of your day? All you have to do is remove one thing—just one thing—from your home that you no longer need – every day .

Wooden hangers are supposed to be the best—Martha Stewart swears by them, and a quick Google search reveals tons of sites extolling the benefits of using wooden hangers. They protect your clothes by preventing your clothes from being hung too closely together, they’re less abrasive and they allow for more air circulation, according to The Spruce.

On any given week, I’ll see anywhere from one to seven pairs of glasses and sunglasses make their way onto my kitchen island. (Why is the kitchen island the ultimate catchall for junk?) Coming in or going out, it’s the landing pad for shades.

A good-looking bathroom trash bin is hard to find. That’s why most of them wind up stashed near the toilet or under the sink. Sure you can invest in a fancy one that looks great, but who wants to drop serious cash on something as small and well, trashy as a garbage can? Lucky for you, we did our research and it turns out the web is filled with some surprisingly sleek and inexpensive bathroom receptacles.

Project by: Zach Rockhill for Hatchet Design Build Location: NoHo — Manhattan, New York The team for Hatchet Design Build worked with their client, Marika, to turn her apartment into a light-filled and texturally interesting space. With stained floors, envy-inducing tile and stylish yet inviting furnishings, the space surprises us by playing with our expectations of what a historic New York condo should look like.

Keeping your closet organized is hard enough when it’s just your clothes in there, but what happens when it’s shared by two people? When you have to divvy up precious wardrobe room with someone else, things can get a little stressy, fast. So rather than turn your bedroom into a battleground, try these tips for splitting the storage so everything stays fair and tidy.

Think your apartment is totally out of storage space? Think again—and look up. You probably have at least one doorway in your home with a little extra space above it, right? Now’s your chance to turn it into something useful—maybe it will be your new mini library, maybe you’ll turn it into a garden, or maybe you’ll use it to store towels in your teeny tiny bathroom.

Plus, it's super renter-friendly.

Trash cans and recycling bins can take up a lot of space, especially if you have to sort your recyclables into different containers. All those bins definitely add up. Whether you’ve been recycling and you’re just tired of your old system or you want to start so you can be more mindful, there are plenty of solutions that will allow you to recycle without taking up too much space in your home, or at least that won’t detract from your decor.

These creative ideas—some to buy, some to DIY—will look great stored away or on display for all your favorite pieces.

Raise your hand if you wish you could clean your home faster, but you just don’t know how to make it work. (I’m raising my hand along with you, if you couldn’t tell). The good news: Housecleaning pros, former messy people and the like all weighed in on Reddit with their best speedy—but effective—cleaning tips. Below are some of the best methods and tricks from the thread that might help you reduce your cleaning time and clean more effectively.

If you’re itching to kick your standard closed cabinets to the curb to update the look of your kitchen, you may be considering the controversial open shelf. But before you add a bunch of bespoke floating wooden shelves to your kitchen, consider this in-between look that’s a little less expected. It just might be the thing you’re looking for to add some organized, yet visually interesting storage to your cooking space.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting into a decluttering groove, of riding the high of letting go of things, of piling the back of the car high with bulging bags bound for anywhere but the over-full garage. But that’s not the end of it. Once the excitement subsides, you’re left with a space that has, well, space and you’ll begin enjoying the benefits of a life with less.

While our dream homes are clutter-free sanctuaries that would make Marie Kondo proud, our real homes are where we store our mismatched bedding sets, bulk paper towels from Costco, and Backstreet Boys CDs from circa 1999. To keep all of this mess out of sight and give the illusion of an organized home, try one of our favorite DIY clutter concealers. Curtains, roller shades, no-sew table skirts—these are the easiest ways to keep the chaos under wraps.

Rethinking the way you use your drawers—along with a little help from some clever products and DIYs like these—can make your dresser totally manageable.

Keeping bathroom ephemera organized—and possibly even attractive—requires constant vigilance, ruthless culling, and the right tools. This baker’s dozen of bins, caddies, shelves, and hooks will keep all of your supplies in order, whether on display for easy access or tucked away for privacy reasons. As seen in Ana and Patrick’s bathroom, above, a storage ladder can provide a ton of attractive storage on a small footprint.

In an effort to streamline their lives, many people seem to be turning a reactionary ship from a habit of consumption to a fascination with minimalism. But the fact that minimalism even exists as a movement bespeaks of our luxury to choose to own less. Not that the ramifications of such a choice aren’t beneficial. Far from it.

I’ve always had sort of a personal gripe with the minimalist movement. It’s a complicated cluster of feelings, but I can boil down my difficulty with minimalism into three words: I like stuff. I like having just the right glass for every drink (some of them thrifted and handed down through generations). I like collecting trinkets that remind me of people I’ve known, places I’ve been and things I’ve done.

When it comes to small space living, making the most of all of your available space is everything. Not everyone has sprawling bathrooms with expansive storage closets, but no matter the square footage you have available, we promise, you can make it work. All you need to do is zero in on the often underused spaces that you might be overlooking.

Your coffee table is basically the centerpiece of your living area. Guests gather around it, you lounge in front of it to watch Netflix, maybe you even you push it out of the way to exercise at home—and if you live in a tiny space, you almost definitely use it as a place to eat meals, too (I know I definitely do). And how you keep your coffee table—how you decorate it, if you keep it organized or whether you use coasters or don’t—shows a lot about your personality.

Did you catch this tour in which Shelbie and her roommates not only make a four-bedroom apartment look refreshing and cohesive, but also add a bunch of clever (and affordable!) storage solutions to their no-closet bedrooms? They all agree that lack of storage is one of the biggest challenges in their San Francisco apartment, but they make it look effortless and orderly using easily accessible products.

Sundays are for sleeping in, relaxing with Netflix and only changing out of your pajamas for brunch dates with friends, right? But sometimes—especially when you’ve got a particularly stressful week ahead—your usual chill Sunday can be better spent being productive. Sunday is also a great day to take care of all the things that usually plague you, from cleaning and cooking to getting ahead at work.

No matter how much you want to live more simply, it can be hard to part with your things. First of all, if you have a lot of stuff, where do you even begin? And what if you need these things again for some unforeseen hypothetical situation in the future? Will you be kicking yourself for throwing them out now? One simple system might help you sort it out: the 90/90 rule from Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, the duo behind The Minimalists.

Under-sofa organization is a many splendored thing. Not only does it provide you with extra storage room for stashing your stuff, it offers easy access to everyday items—newspapers, magazines, and DVDs—that can often get lost in living room clutter. To prove it, we’ve rounded up nine unexpected ways to maximize the space under your sofa. From DIY drawers to sliding storage boxes, each idea is designed to make the most of that small, but promising, area.

When you live in a small space, you face two major challenges: First, how do you make all your stuff work in such a tiny home? And second, how do you keep it from getting messy the second you use any of your stuff? For some—looking at you, minimalists—this is an easy task. But for others, learning to adapt to a tiny apartment can be a struggle. If you’re the latter, how do you deal?

Your guide to custom-crafted drawers.

I have some things that have been sitting in drawers and closets for years and—while I don’t need or use these things—I am pained to part with them. Some are inherited, some were formerly important, some never made sense, and a lot are scraps: of papers, events, good days, and really amazing trips. They’re little material bits of my life that sit in drawers or the back of closets. And I’ve never figured out how to part with them.

When you work from home (whether full-time or even just the occasional catch up day) it’s important to have a space carved out that’s just for getting things done. Not only because it’s hard to be productive and creative when you’re sitting in bed with a laptop, but because it’s hard to separate work and life when you spend half your time working in spaces that aren’t really designed for it.

Luggage is just one of those things that tends to take up a lot of space, and when you live in a small home, you know how hard it is to find a place for small trinkets, let alone huge trunks and suitcases. Whether you’re a frequent flyer or just take a trip once or twice a year, you probably own at least a suitcase or two, so here’s how to make use of them when you’re not on-the-go and where to hide (or display!) them when you’re settled in.

Walk into almost any hardware or craft supplies store and you’ll find a bin full of inexpensive wooden dowels. Buy one of these 48-inch-long wooden wands for under $5, and magically transform it into a useful organizing tool — everything from a DIY pegboard to a simple coat rack, like the one in the entryway above. If your home’s in need of some serious organizing help (whose isn’t?), let these hardware store hacks put things in their place.

No matter how long you’ve been dating someone, the ending is never fun. It can leave you feeling sad, confused and angry — and frankly, sometimes you just don’t know what to do with yourself. Often our post-breakup instincts fall somewhere between wallowing, wanting payback or finding something productive to focus on instead.

It’s easy to spend an entire day clicking through photos of gorgeous houses and apartments and finding decor inspiration, but what about when it comes to organizing? There are beautiful, clever ways to store your things that you may not have even thought of yet.

“Everything in its place” is a great mantra, but it doesn’t seem to allow for things like an errant IKEA S-hook that might be useful one day, or for the receipt you’re sure you’ll need if you change your mind about the shoes. But those things exist and they keep coming into our homes, filing themselves away in junk drawers and on the tops of dressers.

Ask anyone who’s lived in rental apartments with questionable design decisions, there’s definitely a different vibe between embracing trends because you want to and embracing them because you have to. (“White appliances are hot again!,” they say. So why can’t you look at your circa-1996 kitchen and get excited?

Many of you doing the January Cure are graduates of previous Cures and/or long time readers of Apartment Therapy, and if so, might have already done a version of today’s assignment at some time in the past. If so, stick with (and bear with) me, when I let the new Curers know – this is one assignment that is worth doing, NO MATTER WHAT.

In a small space, it’s hard enough to find room for a desk, let alone a big desk with drawers and tons of storage space. The good news is, you don’t need a cabinet full of drawers attached to your desk to store all your things—just use the space you do have to your advantage. These tips and tricks can help you make the most of your desk, drawers not included. 7 Ways to Organize a Bathroom Without a Medicine Cabinet or Drawers 9 Ways to Organize a Kitchen Without Many (or Any!

Make no mistake about it: when you’re selling your house, potential buyers want to see everything. That means no area of your home (not even your utility closet) is safe from the gaze of a serious house hunter. That’s why it’s crucial to maximize every square inch of your place—backyard shed included—by minimizing your overall clutter.

Stop right there! Before you throw away your next empty toilet paper roll, consider this: with a little effort, you can probably get so much more use out of it (and keep it out of a landfill). From keeping unruly cords at bay to organizing your favorite makeup tools and jewelry, those cardboard tubes can come in incredibly handy. So, sure, you could toss it in the trash, or, you could use it to make your home a more beautiful, organized place with these projects—you decide.

Okay, so you’ve got a few minutes before the newest episode of your favorite show comes on—how do you spend it? You could flip through the channels to find something random to watch until it starts, or, you could work towards making your home a more beautiful, organized place (and make your life a little bit easier). Need inspiration? Try one of these quick tasks… Are your books actually organized, or do you just place them wherever you have room on a shelf?

If you’ve caught the bullet journaling bug and now just can’t stop hunting for layout inspiration, follow these seven bullet journal-obsessed Instagrammers stat. Each feed is brimming with enviable bullet journal photos that will without a doubt get your creative juices flowing and help get your life totally organized. Italian bullet journalist Roberta Ranieri’s feed is filled with beautiful BuJo eye candy. Her layouts are simple, beautiful, and filled with creative doodles.

There is nothing like the start of a new year to get your home (and life!) in good shape – and Apartment Therapy wants to make it as painless as possible. If you are ready to make 2017 your best year yet, I have a plan. Sign up for the free group project we call the January Cure and I’ll send you do-able, one-manageable-step-at-a-time assignments throughout the rest of the month, designed to help you create a cleaner, more organized and peaceful home.

Your clothes aren’t one-size-fits-all, so why would your closet be? Whether you’ve got a walk-in wardrobe, an open clothing rail in your bedroom, or something in between, you’ll want to make it work for you and give you a thrill every time you visit. Here are five ideas for customizing your closet. So maybe your wardrobe isn’t the walk-in you dream of. It might not even be stand-in.

‘Tis the season to be merry—and host dinner parties, of course. It’s time to break out a couple of bottles (or boxes, no judgment here) of wine, about a metric ton of food and, well, the dishes to help you serve said culinary delights. Since most of us don’t host large dinner parties every day, this means some of the extra dinnerware used during the holidays isn’t in regular rotation.

So, you’re a “stuff” person. It’s okay—a lot of people get emotionally attached to their things (myself included!) to a point where it’s hard to get rid of anything that has any sort of meaning to it. But you probably know, on some level, that collecting things you don’t need and don’t use can lead to a ton of clutter, especially if you live in a small space or lack an abundance of storage.

There’s a subtle shift in the mood of every Sunday that signals the end of kicking back and the beginning of gearing up for the week ahead. Paying attention to this shift can mean the difference between a manic Monday and one that sets the tone for a smooth week ahead. Here are five ways to set yourself up to be on top of it as the week starts.

You wouldn’t trade your favorite curling iron for anything, and yet, you probably don’t even have a designated storage space for it. Keeping your heat styling tools clean and organized is important for more than just aesthetic reasons—having a safe place to store them will help them last longer, since easy organization means no more destroyed cords and damaging falls from the countertop.