Organizing & Storage

While I do enjoy cooking and baking, what I don’t enjoy is rummaging through cluttered cabinets and drawers to corral all of the bowls, measuring equipment, and other tools required for meal prep.

Marie Kondo is more than a household name. She’s crossed over to the next level and has become a verb for those of us who write, think and obsess about all things home. Yes, “KonMari-ing” and “Kondoizing” are things now. We need our socks to spark joy if we are going to keep them around; why should we settle for anything less?

I’m an accessory junkie, it’s true. I like to make, buy and hunt for new accessories and it’s very hard for me to part with old ones. This simple DIY project is a great way to organize some of your trinkets, and also a great use for all those old doilies floating around in the universe. Whether they’re from your local thrift shop or passed down from your family, this project is a great way to give doilies a new fresh life.

With every season comes a different set of clothing, accessories, and gear that’s front and center in your home for a couple of months. For summer, it’s light weight clothing, open toe shoes, and umbrellas. And, while there’s probably lots of time left for the charcoal grill in late August, the clock is ticking on the bicycles, canoe, and pool noodles currently loitering around the house.

If you can’t add more actual storage cabinets to your living space, you can always increase the capacity of what’s already there. This includes kitchen cupboards, free-standing wardrobes, media centers, and medicine cabinets — all of which are silently pleading “make me better, make me better!” Fulfill their organizational destinies, with these nine tips… 1. Go for store-bought inserts that increase the amount of stuff that cabinets hold.

Closet size: 25.3 square feet How many people use this closet? Two! My husband Jonny and I. How long have you lived in your home? 2 years Your closet in 5 words or less: jam-packed, chaotic, mysterious, lazy, hoarding Aimée and Jonny’s closet is a major multi-tasker. When they first moved into their current home, Jonny had the closet all to himself. A year later, Aimée started sharing it with him.

At first this closet was perfect. Then it slowly fell apart over the course of a couple of months.

Closet size: 4.125 ft² plus a garment rack How many people use this closet? 2 How long have you lived in your home? We moved into this apartment about 8 months ago. It’s gone smoothly for the most part, but I’m definitely messier than Steven. Your closet in 2 words: Cramped and cluttered Can Melanie and Steven’s closet even be called a closet?

An organized home is incredibly gratifying. It allows tasks to get done more smoothly, cleaning completed more quickly, and projects processed more enjoyably. Plus, the tranquility and uncluttered emptiness of an organized home is a beauty all its own. These over-the-door storage products won’t tidy your entire home, but small organization projects are an encouraging way to start!

Closet size: 24 square feet How many people use this closet? Two. My partner Todd and I share the closet. How long have you lived in your home? Five years Your closet in 5 words or less: Small, narrow, chaotic, cluttered, disorderly. We moved into our Oakland apartment five years ago, and our bedroom closet has been a mess ever since. It’s not the amount of space that’s the problem, but how we use it.

Paper! This is a big one for lots of us and it’s one area where clutter not only causes mess, but can actually cost you money and time. Keeping on top of bills and being able to find important documents when you need them reduces the possibility of mishaps like late fees and getting a routine set streamlines the paperwork process. So, let’s think about this assignment as a investment – clear it out, set it up and permanently reap the rewards of less stress!

It doesn’t matter if you see washing dishes as a necessary evil, or if it’s a meditative time to focus your thoughts while doing routine chores. All of our kitchen sinks need TLC from time to time. It’s where we wash our food and cookware daily, store cleaning products, and where all our dirty messes go down the drain. Scrubbing the sink and organizing underneath isn’t glamorous, but certainly makes your kitchen a more effective and pleasant place to be.

One of the most challenging decisions a parent faces in decorating a kids’ room is storage. Where on earth does one store all their stuff? Two popular options among Apartment Therapy readers are IKEA’s Kallax (originally the Expedit) and Trofast storage systems. But which will work best for your needs? Read on to find out who wins out in the Trofast/Kallax kids room throwdown! As a bench? Winner: Trofast. Sure, the Expedit looks lovely beneath sun-filled windows.

If the prospect of a shiny new year has you wanting to jump back onboard the KonMari-method decluttering train (à la Emily Gilmore in the Netflix “Gilmore Girls” revival), you’re in good company. The start of 2017 has us reimagining our homes as minimalist sanctuaries, filled only with joy-sparking essentials.

Ultra-thin tablets. The MacBook Air. Everything’s getting smaller and more compact—but somehow we’re still dealing with big and bulky printers. Until Apple releases the Inkjet Air, we’re stuck with finding different ways to store our printers and make them less of an office eyesore.If you think the desk and the floor are the only spots for your big inkjet printer, think again. You can stash your printing gear in a million different places, if you know where to look:1.

Kitchen set-ups often dictate the tone of the moments that make up our home lives—from the kinds of breakfasts grabbed during the morning rush to how often a home-cooked meal makes it to the table. Whether you’re starting afresh in a new place or you’re ready for a re-do of your current space, here’s how to organize a small kitchen so that rather than creating a Pyrex-wrangling, pots-and-pans banging mess out of you, it serves you.

In the bathroom, space is always at a premium, and that’s esepcially true in a smaller bathroom. If you’re at a loss as to where to store all the necessities in your teeny tiny bathroom, these 11 hardworking products can help. The Componibili is a great piece for adding a little storage anywhere in the house, but it’s especially nice in the bathroom: the doors mean less visual clutter, and the unit can tuck neatly into a corner or under a pedestal sink.

Wall hooks and pegboards are incredibly handy organizational tools for home, especially small homes where space is at a premium. But while they make previously unused wall space functional and allow you quick access to daily items, they can be magnets for mess if not kept in check. How do you keep an area full of hanging items looking tidy and attractive? Follow these five rules. 1.

Sometimes there is just not enough space – or money! With an upcoming wedding and two blending households of avid readers into a one bedroom condo (plus one curious object collector – me), we’ve got books and baubles coming out of our ears. This office area is one of my least favorite places in our home due its lack of light and wall space restrictions, so it was time for a cheap and quick fixer-upper!

We all know the role that clutter plays in our households. To varying degrees, it’s a nuisance, or it distracts us, and —in the worst cases — totally overtakes our lives. Here are some of the underlying reasons why you’re reluctant to let go of physical objects, and some steps to take towards living a life less burdened by stuff. What if you threw it out and missed it later?

Tired of pulling my shirts, all wrinkled and creased, out of my over-stuffed closet, I decided to come out of the closet completely and create a hanging clothes bar in the corner of my bedroom. Say goodbye to these colorful (but useless) drawers-turned-shelves and hello to my new rope wrapped hanging clothes bar…This is actually a project I’ve had in mind for a couple of months.

Like many other small space dwellers, we have almost no closet or storage space in my home. The tenants before us took the first step to maximize the dead space under the stairs by removing a partition wall to open up the area, and installed a drop down hatch under the stair. Unfortunately they didn’t install a railing and instead only those awkward, sharp rectangular boxes — after several falls down the stairs it was painfully obvious something needed to change!

Audiophiles love their records like bibliophiles love their books, and as anyone who has tried to fit a collection of either into a small space can attest it can take some creative finesse to make it work. In a quest to make space for my own record collection I did a bit of research and came up with these inspiring images of beautifully organized and displayed vinyl collections from our own tours and around the web. 1. A low console is a stylish option and just the right size for a single row.

Think you’re clever using IKEA’s Trofast to round up all your kids’ toys, do ya? Well, okay, it is perfect for that, but that’s so Trofast 1.0. You’ve got to expaaaaand your miiiiind. Think outside the biiiiiin. Like these folks, who show that mere toy storage is just the tip of the Trofast iceberg. Check out these 20 ways to use the use the Trofast. Some are true hacks and reimaginings, others minor tweaks and adjustments.Not familiar with Trofast?

It’s easy to close the door to your closet and forget about what’s in there…until the next time you get changed or put on your coat. Here are a few simple ideas for upgrading your closets’ style and organization so that each look and rummage inside is enjoyable.Go uniform. The easiest way to make your closet look more orderly is to use single-color multiples.

Because life in the bike lane doesn't have to mean scuffed walls.

Host of HGTV's new show “Hot Mess House” Cassandra Aarssen says this can help you get rid of half your closet clutter.

Borrow this idea from the laundry room, and your back will thank you.

If there's ever a time to reduce stress and engage in tasks that give a sense of "calm or release, it's now.

The trick to a stress-free declutter? Break down the process and focus on just the first few things you have to do.

Check out these real makeovers for real inspiration.

It doesn’t look like a traditional walk-in closet, of course, but it does block off space that you can now use for one thing in particular.

Here's how to get that leaning stack under control.

If you’re really lucky, your independently-bought applainces fit perfectly into the already-built room you put them into, without an inch to spare. The rest of us, however, are left to deal with awkward spaces where the oven doesn’t quite fill the space between cabinets and the washer and dryer seem to float in the laundry room. In those spaces, you have no choice but to get creative.

47 types of salt. Yes, really.

Use your note to keep track of exactly how you should declutter your closet, and it will make all the difference in staying on top of clutter in a way that feels sustainable.

Who doesn't love some spring cleaning inspo?

And you already own most of them!

If you’re sick of staring at your countertops and feeling like there’s just too much stuff, here's a fix that takes just two minutes of your day.

This swanky starter set will keep your fridge nice and tidy for a fraction of what it would cost to buy acrylic bins individually.

Get organized in style!

Behind-the-doors ways to make the most of your current kitchen.

You're welcome.

Optimize your shower space, no matter how small it is.

Yesterday I explained the basics of how to care for air plants and then I showed you how certain species’ forms lend themselves best to different types of containers. Today I will walk you through the super simple steps I used to turn a vase sea sponge into an unique vessel in which you can hang your air plant (yes, it’s a natural dried sea sponge that is shaped like a vase!).

Five hours of work and $150 later, this fresh new laundry space was clean and organized, and most importantly, fit her needs.

Declutter for good.

Set a timer and make sure you know where to look and what to look for.

Hint: It's by the window.