Imagine coming home from work to a clean and tidy house, instead of having to clean the dining room table of all the clutter. An organized home doesn’t need to involve a lot of fancy storage and hours of time. Here are some tips and ideas for organizing each room in your house.

General principles:

o Start your organization and storage projects by removing everything (or as much as possible) from the room.

o Next, decide what you really need in that room.

o Donate, recycle, or throw away (last resort) anything you don’t really need. A good rule of thumb is that if you haven’t used it in a year, you probably don’t need it.

o Out of sight is often out of mind. Make sure you don’t put too much in any one space.

Don’t forget to map out your room, measuring and drawing the current layout with accessories and furniture in place. Be sure to include doors and windows, also note the location of all wall sockets, light fixtures, and switches. This way, if you need to buy new shelves, cabinets, or other storage devices, you’ll have the crucial measurements with you.

kitchens

Kitchens are an active space: frequently used appliances and ingredients need to be accessible. Kitchens also stock seldom-used items like pressure cookers and fondue pots, as well as bulk purchases.

o After getting everything out of the kitchen, start by organizing the drawers and cabinets.

o Create departments or activity centers. For example, keep all your baking items like flour, sugar and starches together in one cabinet and keep canned goods in another, breakfast foods in another.

o When you return things to your cabinets, think about where they would be best placed. Pots and pans should be near the stove, as should seasonings and spices. The dishes should be near the dishwasher or sink.

o Install tray dividers in the base cabinet to store trays, cookie sheets, muffin tins and other similar items on the rim.

o Wall or ceiling mounted pot rack for storing pots and pans is a great way to free up base cabinet space. Lids can be stored in brackets that mount to the back of cabinet doors.

o Pull-out slippers or shelves make it easy to access items stored in base cabinets.

o 3-tier tiered shelves provide visibility to condiments, cans, spices and similar items stored in wall cabinets.

o Consider pre-made islands if your kitchen doesn’t already have one. Many have two wheels, making it easy to reconfigure your space for your culinary needs. Your floating island can be the ideal place to hang your pots and pans.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms pose some interesting storage and organization challenges. The environment is usually hot and humid. The bathroom can be your personal sanctuary, or it can be shared among multiple family members or even guests.

o Think about what items you may want to hide from guests (stored behind closed doors) versus what can be displayed (on open shelves or on the counter).

o Identify unused space in the bathroom: the area over the bathtub, over the toilet, behind or over the door, under the sink, or under windows. Does it fit a shelf, a piece of furniture or a bar?

o If more than one person uses the bathroom, choose cabinets that offer separate spaces, ideally one for each person using the bathroom.

garages

Garages are the storage place of last resort. They stock tools and hardware, sporting goods, lawn and garden supplies, trash, and recycling. Sometimes they even store cars.

o Start by grouping everything in the garage by category. When putting everything back, put it by category. This will make it easier to find what you need when you start a project and easier to save it at the end of a project.

o Consider overhead storage for less frequently used items. There are closed and open options. Just remember to make a list of what you put in your top storage, as it’s often hard to check.

o If you have children, make sure dangerous and poisonous items are stored out of reach and, if necessary, in locked cabinets.

o Slat walls (like you see in many clothing stores) are a great way to make an infinitely reconfigurable garage storage center. You can put almost any type of hanger or shelf on a slat wall.

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