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Home Organization & Decluttering Tips

Neil Rohrbacker • Feb 18, 2021

You want control over your home and stop letting items have power over you. Where your sanctuary from the world started off organized and clutter-free, it has now become a breeding ground for chaos. You no longer have a place for everything. It’s starting to stress you out. So how do you organize and declutter your Far Hills, NJ home?


There are numerous home organization and decluttering tips found on the internet. The best way to start getting a handle on things is to do it room by room. Start with the kitchen and then move on to the bedroom, living room, bathroom, and office. Focusing on one area allows you to feel a sense of completion before moving on to the next.


Eager to start decluttering and organizing your home? Of course you are! Read on to learn more tips on how to organize each room. Stick around to the end and find out a few things you shouldn’t do as you begin the task of gaining control over your items.


Kitchen

Kitchen Pantry

The kitchen is one of the places where you probably spend a lot of time. Because of this, your counters are probably cluttered with vast amounts of junk that doesn’t belong in there. To organize effectively, start by focusing on these problem areas.

Clear Counters

Go through your kitchen and remove everything off the counters and tables. Relocate items back to their appropriate places. By removing misplaced items, you can regain control over the room and make it feel more organized.

Make Room in Cabinets and Pantries

Once the counters are cleared, you can start emptying and reorganizing your cabinets and pantry. Organizers such as a door rack for the back of the door and lazy susans can make finding stuff easier. Rollout racks in lower cabinets help you to organize your pots and pans.



In the pantry, organize your dried goods such as flour and oatmeal by putting them into containers. Plastic or glass containers help to keep the contents fresh and keep out pests. The see-through canisters make it easy for you to see what you have as well.

Don’t Forget the Wall Space

Frequently used items need storage that is easily accessible. Use the wall to store and display your oven mitts and potholders. Putting them out makes them easy to grab when you need them and adds homey décor to your kitchen when the day is done.


Pots and pans can also take up valuable space in your cabinets. Pot racks or even a pegboard with S hooks can give you much-needed storage and keep all of your pots within reach while cooking.



Some hanging storage space isn’t technically on the wall, but still an excellent way to free up cabinet and counter space. You can use the under cabinet spaces for storage. By putting hooks underneath your cabinets, you can hang your favorite coffee mugs beside your coffee pot.  Attach a magnetic rack, as suggested by Home Beautiful, to your refrigerator to hang paper towels, serving utensils, and more.


Bedroom

Bedroom

Decluttering the bedroom is a little different than working in the kitchen. While items from around the house might find their way into your private sanctuary, it is not as common as more public spaces like the kitchen or the living room. Once the foreign objects return to their homes, it’s time to bring order to your world.

Under the Bed

Bedrooms, like any room in a house, have finite space. You’ve planned the layout of your room to be easy to navigate and maintain. If you’re like most people, your detailed plan works for a while, and then things get out of control because your room isn’t as big as you need it to be. Instead of cramming things into the corners, look down below for some added space.


Many people forget that under the bed is a spacious place to store items that you don’t use regularly. Using containers designed for under the bed, you can rotate your wardrobe from summer to winter and not have an overcrowded closet. It’s also an excellent place to store extra blankets and pillows. Don’t have a lot of space on your closet floor? Add shoes to the containers to keep them clean and out of sight until you need them.


Store containers of holiday decorations under your bed. There are durable container options for ornaments, wallpaper, ribbons, and bows, so you can put these things away after the holidays are done.

In the Closet

Bedroom closets are often overlooked when it comes time to declutter and organize. It is the one space in the house where many throw things inside and close the door. There is no thought to what to do when it comes time to find anything.


Rotate your wardrobe to free up space in your drawers and on the hanging rods. You’ll be better able to find the top you’re looking for if there is room to slide garments away from one another. You can use bins to put them under the bed if you need an extra place to store them.


When rotating clothes, take time to donate or toss anything that doesn’t fit, that you don’t wear anymore, or is damaged beyond repair. It’ll give you the excuse to buy some new clothes and keep your wardrobe up to date.



Kids’ closets can be especially difficult to organize. Not only are they growing constantly, but their tastes also seem to change almost daily. To conquer the kids’ mess, check out How Do I Keep My Kids’ Clothes Organized?


Living Room

Living Room

The living room is the spot where your family comes together to watch TV, play games, and just relax. As a result, it becomes cluttered and disorganized reasonably quickly. End tables and coffee tables become a magnet for items that don’t belong in the living room. Movies and toys don’t get put away as they should. So, instead of being a nice place to relax as a family, it becomes a living nightmare.

Double Purpose Furniture

One way to help tame the clutter is to use dual-purpose furniture. Ottomans and benches that have hidden storage inside can give you a place to put lap blankets and magazines, so they don’t get left all over the room.



Cubby storage can double as an entertainment unit and a place for the kids to put their toys. Each child can have one or two bins with their names on them so they can pick up their things at the end of the evening. You can put a DVD player and video game machines on top and hang your television on the wall above.

Back to Home Bin

In space near the entrance to your living room, keep a basket. When you’re straightening, toss items that don’t belong in the living room in the bin. Take it with you as you leave the room and return the items to their proper spots. The basket helps keep down on the clutter from other rooms and gives you an easy-to-carry container, so you don’t have to make multiple trips.


Bathroom

Bathroom

Most bathrooms don’t have the storage space necessary to keep the room clutter-free and organized. Start decluttering by going through your bath products and get rid of anything that is expired. Then move on to organizing your counters and drawers to make things easy to find.

Don’t Be Afraid of Under the Sink

Under the bathroom sink is usually the designated spot for bathroom cleaning supplies. However, that space has so many more storage uses. If you have traditional cabinets, add bins to hold cleaning supplies away from other items. You can then store hair styling tools such as hair dryers and curling irons in containers of their own. This way, they stay neat and cords don’t get tangled. It also frees up some space in your drawers.


For open under sink areas, still use containers to help organize larger items and bathroom cleaners. Then use any remaining space to keep towels or cosmetics.

Move Towels Into the Bathroom

Some homes don’t have a linen closet within easy reach of the bathroom. For better efficiency, bring the towels into the bathroom. You can use baskets for storage and add a little décor to the room.


Office

Office

Having a home office is something many people require. They need a space to spread out and do their work without taking up the kitchen table. But like all places that you spend a lot of time, it can quickly become cluttered.

The Rule of Three

Bookcases are for more than just storing your books. They work as a way to display your favorite decorations. Remember though, when showing items around your room, adhere to the rule of three -no more than three non-book items on a shelf. It keeps the case from becoming over-cluttered. It also reduces the number of things to clean and relocate should you need the shelf for books.

Space to Grow

To keep your office from looking cluttered, leave some space to grow. Don’t jam every bookcase and cover every surface with decorations. Keep your work surface sparsely decorated so that you can work without things getting in the way.


Bonus Tip: Do’s & Don’ts When Decluttering & Organizing

Decluttering and organizing is a great way to make your home feel like a calming sanctuary. You don’t want to get in over your head when starting the process. Apartmenttherapy.com suggests a few things you should not do when you start decluttering.


  • Buying Storage Before Beginning: Clean out your space and then determine which containers you need. You can always buy more, but you don’t want to declutter only to have empty boxes cluttering things up yet again. 
  • Doing Too Much at Once: Don’t try to tackle the entire house in one day. Choose a room and start there. It will be less frustrating this way.
  • Not Finishing Every Task: Sorting items into keep, dump, and donate is a great way to start. Once you have things sorted, follow through. Put the tossed items in the trash and take donation items to the charity organization of your choice. Don’t let them linger.

Conclusion

When decluttering and organizing, make sure you go through each room one at a time. It will take more than a day to organize your home from start to finish. In the kitchen, don’t be afraid to go up and in the bedroom, remember under the bed is an excellent place to start. Give your closets some breathing room by rotating out your seasonal clothing. In the bathroom, utilize under the sink for large items. In your home office, remember to give yourself space to grow.

Sources

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