Organizing

For those of us with limited kitchen space (or a penchant for minimalism), designer and blogger Melissa Coleman of The Faux Martha has a genius tip: When it’s time to put away holiday decorations, pack your specialty cooking supplies with them. The premise: Why take up valuable real estate in your home with cookware and gadgets that only get used twice a year, at best?

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is usually a quiet one, so it’s the perfect time to go through your things and declutter. Between donating old pantry items and gently worn clothes, recycling gift boxes and catalogs, and tossing out old wine and leftovers, there’s plenty to clear out so you can make your home ready for the new year—and it’ll be conducive to helping you keep your resolutions.

Few things inspire more joy than a collection of beautifully wrapped presents under a Christmas tree! The problem with gift wrap, though, is that it’s often not recyclable. Even though the base of most gift wraps is indeed paper, many have overlays like metallic foil or glitter, have tape stuck to them, are saturated with problematic inks or dye, or are so thin that the fibers aren’t useful for recycling.

A new year is about to start, and with that comes a new set of wardrobe needs with items that tend to be much bulkier and take up far more shelf space. If you’re hurting for storage, take a look around your closet and get rid of these items that you totally do not need anymore. If you haven’t worn that ketchup bottle getup since you bought it 10 years ago for your office Halloween party, it’s probably time to say goodbye.

It's like walking into a little, glamorous jewel box every morning.

We declutter mostly for ourselves. We yearn for the empty space and the room to breathe. So we approach our cupboards, closets, drawers, and garages asking ourselves whatever version of the essential question—do I need this?—that gives us the most clarity. That’s how we decide what to get rid of and what to keep most of the time. But there’s another way to think about it, and there are others to declutter for.

Fun fact: You don’t have to cringe every time you reach for the dishwasher detergent and get a glimpse of what’s going on under your kitchen sink. Just because that’s what happens for most people doesn’t mean that’s the way it has to be for everyone. It’s not how it is for me. I’ve actually got one simple little trick to keep things nice under there. Here’s my secret to keeping the least sexy part of the kitchen looking spiffy.

Spend enough time looking at kitchen designs, and things start to look familiar. You start to see the same trends and products—KitchenAid stand mixers, pot rails from IKEA, and bright-pink rugs, for example—over and again. Sometimes things become popular because of a dedicated marketing team with a lot of ad dollars, but sometimes it happens on its own because a product is just that useful.

By taking a bit of time to go through everything in your bathroom today, you'll be able to shed things that you won't (or by this point, shouldn't) use.

It seems really unfair that we have seasonal wardrobes—tank tops in the summer, jackets and jeans in the winter—but we can’t have seasonal closets. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I need double the space just to stash my thick sweaters. I want to detach my normal closet from my apartment and tack on one twice its size. Until LEGO gets into the architecture business, I think we’re all stuck with the closets we have.

Keeping your home free of clutter is a worthy, if lofty goal. As much as we vow to keep the one-in-one-out policy and only keep what makes us happy or is the best version of itself, there are a few things that we do need to hoard in multiples—and sometimes there’s no way around the fact that they’re just plain clutter-y. That’s where smart organization solutions come into play.

When I told my husband that I was going to write an article about what to get rid of in the dining room, he said without out a breath of hesitation, “How about the dining room?” It’s a bit of “A Subject” at our house because I inherited my grandparents’ entire dining room (the only thing I didn’t keep is the chandelier), and we’ve been shipping it from home to home for a decade.

The kitchen is the de facto command center in most homes. This is where families gather for breakfast and dinner—and homework and work work, too— every day, and it’s the spot to catch your kids or your spouse if there’s something you need to communicate about your day. So no wonder companies and bloggers make a big deal about putting a command center in the kitchen. It sounds so good: a designated spot, bulletin board and all, for controlling your household.

Shower rings aren’t just for your bathroom anymore—the affordable hooks can also be used inside your bedroom as a clever organizing hack for your accessories. If you have a basket of scarves, then you know that the struggle is real when it comes to organizing them. When they’re thrown into a drawer or jumbled on a shelf, it’s hard to remember what you own.

Clutter is just a fact of life. Stuff piles up, messes are made, and dealing with it all becomes one of many things on your to-do list. Easy enough to manage when life is calm and work is steady, but when things get hectic, it’s more and more tempting to let things slide and deal with them later. And eventually, all that procrastinating can turn into what feels like an impossible cleaning challenge. But, of course, that’s not the case.

Wire grids are an organizational basic, which can then be outfitted and customized to suit any space in your house. They are one of the most versatile tools around, and also happen to be pretty affordable. Here are a handful of ways to hang and use them all over the place. There’s a swathe of space inside your kitchen cabinets (or bathroom vanity for that matter) that you’re overlooking, which can be used to store any number of things.

A well-organized living room can be a game-changer for your entire home. Not only do they look sleek and stylish, a thoughtful living room layout can offer up loads of unexpected storage space. Case in point: IKEA’s gallery of streamlined living rooms—which is overflowing with small space-friendly furniture arrangements and storage solutions.

You will not deal with the box later. You’ll pass by that box every single morning and night and feel pangs of anxiety until you hide the box and pretend it doesn’t exist.

Decluttering is not for the faint of heart—it can take some serious self-reflection, a discerning eye, and the type of discipline not made for a world where Target exists. Author and organization expert Marie Kondo often shares her wisdom about the four biggest hurdles that keep us buried in a sea of our own stuff: space, sentimentality, guilt, and money all make the list. Truth be told, she has a point.

It’s not technically considered stalking if it’s a public account, right? I haven’t broken any laws or anything, but I’ve probably spent more than the socially acceptable amount of time on Marie Kondo’s Instagram. I can’t help myself. It’s just all so perfect. The time wasn’t wasted, though, because I learned some serious lessons, which I’m now passing along to you!

There are two kinds of junk drawers. There’s the kind that you open with one hand and, with the other hand, sweep the contents of the kitchen countertop into and shove shut. Then there’s the properly curated, random junk stashing spot. Here’s how to keep your drawer of chaos in check and looking like the latter. There will be things you always find in a junk drawer, like a burnt-out lighter and three sets of old, mysterious keys.

Summer’s over and fall is here, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time to do some major decluttering. (What, you thought that only happened in spring?). The change of seasons is the perfect time to reset by going through your home room-by-room to get rid of all the stuff you didn’t use all season, not to mention all the stuff you know won’t get much use by winter, either.

This one’s dedicated to all of the over-packers out there. It is impossible for me to bring a carry-on for most trips—I’ll even budget for those dreaded checked bag fees when I’m planning my vacations. I’m always looking for ways to cut back—but I also have one trick that maximizes space, without losing any of my stuff (hey, there are worse vices). It’s these travel bags that I always have on hand for trips.

There are just some things you can't get rid of—no matter how unnecessary they are (we all can't be minimalists, Marie Kondo).

In the end, decluttering is generally pretty satisfying. But in the process? It can be an emotional, guilt-ridden and stressful situation. You want your home to be a positive space, but if you’re holding onto things that you really don’t need, or even things that actively make you feel bad, it’s time to let go. It’s time to invest in and focus on the things that do make you happy.

Marie Kondo is known for her ability to take even the trickiest of messes and transform them into folded, controlled spaces that, in her words, “spark joy.” When the bestselling author of the “Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” came into our studios recently to demo how her new organizational boxes work, we challenged her to pack a carry-on suitcase—no problem.

Labor Day weekend isn’t necessarily the time you will (or should) say to yourself “Oh, this is the perfect time for housework!” But between BBQs and general leisure, devoting some of the extra time afforded by a three-day weekend to your home can give you the gift of a cleaner, happier home just in time for the coming busy fall season. Here’s a plan for doing a few strategic tasks a day so you can make some significant progress without sacrificing your entire weekend.

We go to great lengths to get things out of our homes, but there's one popular trope that will always work.

Some of us only get our exercise in when it involves paying a gym membership fee and actually trekking to a space that’s dedicated to nothing but exercise. For others, that exact thing—having to drive to the gym—is a huge hurdle and working out from home is the only way it’ll happen. But what about the workout stuff? Here are a few small-space hacks that will keep your exercise gear in-sight and in-mind but definitely not in the way.

Okay, I admit it: I’d long written off hanging closet organizers as, well, passé. You know the ones—those lightweight foldable things that you used in your college dorm room for storing shoes and sweaters. But truth be told, once you think outside the box, you’ll discover that these inexpensive space savers are actually great for organizing all kinds of things throughout your home. Don’t believe us?

It’s still summer, but make no mistake: fall is right around the corner. Now’s a great time to get your kitchen in shipshape before school starts and life becomes crazy again. Here are seven simple, inexpensive tools and creative methods that’ll make your kitchen easy to use again, and next-level organized. You thought you grabbed a spoon, but it isn’t until you got clear across the room that you realized it was a fork instead.

Despite the trends toward minimalism in recent years, some of us aren’t meant to be KonMari devotees with clutter-free spaces. IKEA, despite being a bastion of Scandinavian starkness, has been coming around to a maximalist way of life. Their latest collection is definitely for people who love their stuff, and want to show it off.

Junk drawers don’t always deserve their bad rap, since they can proffer whatever odds and ends we need at a moment’s notice. But when they’re choked with actual junk? That’s when they fail to achieve their usefulness potential, leaving this humble drawer to be little more than a ticking time bomb that will eventually require a massive and mind-numbing go-through.

One of the greatest gifts the internet ever gave us was fellowship. Your fingertips impulsively tap out a random thought, hit send, and seconds later the entirety of Twitter is liking it and retweeting it in solidarity. Like they’re saying through emoji hearts I know the feeling, too.

Drawers are my organizational kryptonite (OK, fine, that and the “clothes chair,” if I’m really confessing weaknesses). I can get everything folded up and fairly neat looking, but the first time I need to grab a T-shirt on my way out the door to the gym in a rush? It all goes down one big jumbled slippery slope of messiness. No amount of purging—or even, dare I say, Kon-Mari-ing—has helped. But now, the KonMari architect herself, says she can help.

If you want to (affordably) escape to an amazing city, renting a tiny Airbnb might be your best bet to get the perfect location. And one of my favorite things about staying in an Airbnb, especially one that’s someone’s home that they rent out versus one that’s really working as a hotel, is seeing the clever tricks they use to make living in teeny spaces work out. While we don’t usually recommend stealing from Airbnbs (that’s wrong! And illegal!

Living rooms come in all shapes and sizes, and unfortunately, the smaller the apartment, the harder it can be to keep yours organized. Throw in a busy work schedule and a somewhat active social life and suddenly a tiny living room can turn into a cluttered disaster zone, especially when you don’t have a lot of extra room for storage. But fret not my busy, unorganized friends; we’re here to help.

You may have only heard of decanting when it comes to wine, but this technique is a game-changer for organizing your home. By moving everyday products into containers, you’re eliminating the visual clutter created by clunky shelf packaging—which was never meant to fit neatly on your shelves. This is also great for those who buy—or want to buy—in bulk. No need to store the extra-large box on your shelves, instead, decant into a usable jar and refill as needed.

I’m always searching for ways to make organization look like it’s part of my decor (an inescapable reality of small apartments with no closets). Flimsy plastic bins just don’t cut it. Lately, I’ve been turning to basic wire baskets to use all around the house. Once you start thinking of them less like boxes, and more like flexible storage or shelves that don’t require brackets or a saw, you open up new organizational possibilities.

Closets come in all shapes and sizes—and often, with not enough storage space. Thankfully, with a little imagination (and research), you can turn your cramped closet into a stylish storage hub, no matter how tiny it may be. To prove our point, we rounded up some of the easiest—and not to mention, affordable—ways to carve out more storage for your wardrobe.

If you think packing is stressful, it’s probably because you don’t have the tools to make it easy. Take it from me, a converted messy person. I was a slob to the nth degree; where chaos reigned in any room I stepped in. But I quickly learned the only reason that most of my messes happened was because I refused to invest in actual organizing tools, which are literally designed to keep your life tidy. When every item has a home, it’s hard to be messy.

It’s an unfortunate truth of small space living that the tinier the kitchen, the harder it is to find storage space—and worse, stay organized. While some of us invest in new ways to carve out storage space and keep our kitchens tidy, others are forced to forgo their non-essential (and clutter-causing) kitchen wares, especially plastic Tupperware. But fret not my lunch-packing (and leftover-loving) friends, there’s hope for your messy Tupperware cabinet.

Magnets are little gravity-defying miracles, and mighty in their myriad uses. One of the best places to put their small-yet-powerful selves to work is in the bathroom. Use one or two or 10 there, and keep everything in its proper place. No more hunting around for loose bobby pins, nail clippers, or your favorite eye shadow.

I’m expecting a baby in late August and I’m in major nesting mode. It’s a wave I really like to ride to get things cleared out and in order in our home before we welcome a new baby. Lately, as I’ve been combing through cupboards, closets, and boxes of things I was sure I’d want to keep (but now just want to toss wholesale), I’ve been remembering a three-word phrase that’s become an extremely helpful decluttering mantra.

You’d rather eat glass than put your great aunt’s ugly statue on your living room shelf. But Jacquie Denny, co-founder of online estate sale company Everything But the House, says you may be making a serious (and costly) mistake. Denny declares that the most common misstep people face when cleaning is assuming that things they don’t like have no resale value.

While house hunting, you sometimes fall in love with a place so quickly you don’t notice what’s not there. When I realized my first apartment had no closet, I made do with a cheap, pop-up wardrobe that looked liked I never really, truly settled in. I wish I had seen some better ideas first (searches for open closets are up 126% on Pinterest) because so many clever people have fully embraced the open storage trend.

I’m prepared to say that 85% of U.S. citizens have one of these magnetic knife holders hanging somewhere in their kitchen (that’s a totally made up number btw), and the other 15% should get on board. And then 100% of us should look for other places to mount them in our homes, because these simple little strips are good for so much more than just knives. Here’s a whole bunch of ways they make organizing easy.

Getting your sh*t together isn’t easy. Staying organized is especially hard when you’re a self-proclaimed “messy” person. Luckily, we know some amazing professional organizers to call upon for help. We hit up five of our favorite pro-organizers for the number one piece of advice they’d give “messy people” looking to get their homes—and lives—in order and here’s what they had to share.

When it comes to storage, there are things we want conveniently within reach, and easy to grab at a moment’s notice. And then there are things we have to keep out of necessity, but only use occasionally (and sometimes, face it, never at all). Hanging some storage up near the ceiling is a great way to make the most of your square footage. These floor-freeing solutions that give us very high hopes.

Is your kitchen bursting at the seams? If you’re going a little crazy trying to fit all your stuff in your space, this is the hack for you. It’s a great quick (and temporary) way to up your storage game with an affordable, DIY solution that makes better use of your cabinets and shelving. Each of these hacks start with inexpensive PVC strips , which you can buy very cheaply at Home Depot, or for a little bit more on Amazon.

When we found out we’d be adding another girl to our family, it didn’t take long before we began to consider future bedroom layout arrangements. My older daughter’s closet, though pretty well-purged, is full on one half with clothes hanging on a rod, and on the other half with built-in shelving. How could we make room for a new little one’s clothes? Then I remembered a genius storage solution I’d seen in a friend’s closet: a hanging closet rod.

I’ve had my fair share of IKEA items over the years. There was a KARLSTAD sofa in my first apartment (which I sold to a friend), a BESTA wall cabinet that got left behind when I moved from Boston, and countless little items I’ve bought then used up or purged along the way. Few things, however, have stuck around over time and made it through multiple moves over the years. But there’s one thing that I bought perhaps 15 years ago (maybe?

In any home, large or small, storage tends to be one of the top gripes. There’s a good chance that your basement — if you even have a basement — is filled with needless items that you’ve collected over the years. You’ve probably lived through the experience of donating several coats in your closet, so you can, um… make room for new coats. And let’s not even discuss that clutter that currently resides under your bed.

There’s something so cozy about a small bedroom, but there’s also something pretty maddening about trying to figure out how to put all your stuff in one. And the fact that tiny bedrooms often come with tiny closets often makes things worse. What’s a cash-strapped small-space dweller to do? We’ve rounded up a few solutions that will make a little extra room for your stuff without breaking the bank. No space for shelves in the bedroom?

IKEA’s VITTSJO shelving line boasts clean, modern lines, and an attractively reasonably price, but one DIYer found it to be lacking a bit of flair. The shelf unit is now chic and unique—and hopefully a little bit more kitten-proof! Tonya Sutfin of Happy Go Home Vittsjo created this makeover, and the results are so great!

A tale as old as time: you find yourself with the luxury of space—a shelf, a closet, a garage, a basement—and then you observe yourself slowly but surely filling it. Suddenly, there are piles and heaps and plenty of shame. One hardy soul managed to turn things around, creating a garage that’s a joy rather than embarrassment. Let’s all get inspired to clean up our own messes!

My husband and I recently replaced our dresser, which spurred an event which I’ll be referring to in the confines of our relationship history as “The Great T-Shirt Eradication of 2018.” You see, between us, we own many, many tees. We could, as a couple, each wear a different shirt every day and maybe make it until Independence Day without doing laundry. At least, that was the case before “The Great T-Shirt Eradication of 2018.

I don't have a fortune to customize the cabinets from top to bottom — just a few dollars here and there to maximize my kitchen's storage potential.

Even if you're not so sure the tiny life is for you, you can borrow these smart organizing strategies.

Back in the day (maybe sometime in the ’90s, depending on where you lived) you used to have to separate all your recycling. Paper in one bin, glass and plastic in another. Then single-stream recycling, as it’s called, came along and helped even reluctant residents jump on the recycling bandwagon. So today, without a thought, we can toss all our recyclables into a single bin.

If you’re dealing with organizing a small space, it’s highly likely that at some point, you’ll be hitting up your nearest IKEA. And thankfully, the Swedish retailer recently released a real workhorse of a system for diminutive dwellings. We’re expecting to see this one thing in many a cramped kitchen very soon. The sage advice when you’re short on floor space is to maximize your walls. And the new KUNGSFORS series is definitely here to help with that.

This year, we’re on a mission to help you tackle spring cleaning on your time. Each weekday until April 13, we’ll guide you through a plan to clean and organize different areas of your home, but you’ll have the flexibility to choose exactly what to work on and how long you have to dedicate to the job. Sign up with your email so you don’t miss a spot!

We all know the benefits of making the bed every morning. Along with tidying up your bedroom in a pinch, this neat ritual helps set an orderly tone for the rest of your day. Clearing off your coffee table every day can be similar. As one Apartment Therapy reader put it: “Clearing off the coffee table is the making-the-bed of the living room!” Take a few minutes to clean up your coffee table each day, and you’ll enjoy a clearer mind and set the tone for a cleaner living room.

Also: why you should never call it a "junk drawer."

We’ve all been there. It’s almost springtime and after a long winter spent indoors, you’re ready to get your home nice and clutter-free for the warm weather season. Unfortunately, sometimes instead of successfully clearing out the clutter in our homes, we simply wind up organizing stuff we shouldn’t keep in the first place. While catchall storages bins and closet organizers might seem space-savvy, they often end up helping us hoard things we should be getting rid of.

What’s the easiest target when decluttering fever hits you? The closet, of course. It’s probably overflowing with clothes you haven’t worn since college or things you’re not sure why you even bought in the first place. And sure, there are plenty of cliches out there about when to get rid of clothes.

It's smart — before you dig in on your spring clean — to minimize the stuff that needs to be cleaned and cleaned around.

As if the stylish and affordable home furnishings weren’t enough of a reason to love IKEA, the store made it their mission to create a streamlined recycling process for their customers. Along with their chic assortment of recycling bins for sale, the Swedish super-retailer offers several convenient ways for customers to recycle their old stuff—think: glass, batteries, furniture, and more—while they’re shopping. Don’t believe us?

If you have a disastrous closet, but are bound and determined to get it in shape this spring, let the following four transformations be major inspiration. Whether it’s a sliver of space, or a full on walk-in closet, there’s an organizing solution out there for you. See how these four people (with very different set ups) maximized their storage and made their lives more efficient. Katy’s issue definitely wasn’t space.

“I have so much closet space I don’t even know what to do with it,” said nobody ever. I mean, even president Obama has a closet-space shortage, so for those of us wishing for just one more little nook to stuff our things in—we’re not alone.

Sometimes your stuff gets in the way of, well, life. Whether it’s not being able to find your keys when you’re already running late for work or missing a train because you took too long digging through your purse for your transit card, searching for everyday essentials can have a major impact on your daily routine.

Do you have too many pairs of shoes? It was a trick question! Of course you don’t! You just have to get a little more creative with how you store them. Part of this creative process is deciding whether you want to hide or display your footwear. For example, I have some amazing pairs of shoes that I love showing off, but then there are the dirty sneakers, the old Teva sandals, and the “too-loved” everyday flats that don’t need to be celebrated.