Home Organization for Beginners- A Step-by-Step Guide

Adam Bender | March 26, 2021

Over the past year, Americans have spent more time at home than ever before. If you’re feeling the walls creeping in on you, it may be time to invest a little effort in home organization that can bring welcome calm, comfort, and security to you during a difficult time. There’s even evidence to suggest a tidy home offers physical benefits in addition to mental ones.

The key to an organized home includes much more than storage space (although it is important). Along with the physical act of decluttering and sorting, there are some important steps you must take:

Define the purpose of each room
Cut down on items
Keep an eye out for common problem areas
Make sure every item has a home
Involve your family in the cleaning and organizational process

Once you start trying to transform your messy home, you’ll quickly discover that organization is as much mental and behavioral as it is a one-time physical act. If you’re unsure where to start, this article’s for you. Keep reading to get a step-by-step breakdown of how to start enjoying a tidy home that stays that way for many years to come.

Define Each Room’s Purpose

Think the best way to organize your home is to just dig in and get working? You may be surprised to learn the first step in your journey towards home harmony doesn’t even involve cleaning. HGTV recommends starting by first defining the purpose and vision for each room and area of your home.

That includes asking yourself some important questions about the space that will help determine your approach:

How will the room be used?
What available storage does the room have?
What items absolutely must be stored here for the room to function?
Does the current furniture and layout of the room support your vision for it?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you should have a much better idea of what must be done to maximize your space. Now, go apply the same process to every room in your house to develop an overall plan for how you’ll tackle your home’s organization. Taking a step back like this gives you an opportunity to evaluate how you’re currently using your home and find ways to better use your vital space.

Identify Opportunities to Remove Items

According to The Gazette, Americans spend over $38 billion every year to keep extra items in storage units. In fact, more than 45,000 storage facilities can be found throughout the country, despite the average home size and storage capacity dramatically increasing. Take a stroll around your block and you’re bound to see telltale signs that many homes are filled to the brim, including garages that are inaccessible to vehicles because they’re packed floor to ceiling.

Why waste money and valuable square footage in your home on an overabundance of possessions that you probably don’t use? If you’re like the vast majority of Americans, all that extra stuff is the main reason you live in a cluttered home. To retake all of your counter, closet, and drawer space, HGTV offers some solid tips for removing unnecessary items that are eating up space:

Start by eliminating duplicates (or more)
Get rid of items you don’t use regularly
Throw out anything that’s expired, broken, or worn out
If it’s a sentimental item you’re having trouble getting rid of, take a photo to remember it.
Digitize any paper items that are cluttering your home office

The good news is that some items that you no longer need (or never really needed) can net you some extra cash! Look for safe opportunities to sell them online, or simply donate them to others in need.

Zero in on Those Problem Areas in Your Home

for items that you don’t want to sort, organize or put away. It may be a convenient table, counter, or chair. But no matter where you temporarily drop items, they usually overstay their welcome and become an unsightly mess.

According to a recent Washington Post article, there are a few common offending items you should keep an eye out for in each room of your house:

Entryways and Mudrooms: Unpacked purses, bookbags, and satchels with their contents spread throughout the space make for an immediate eyesore as soon as you open the door.
Living Room: You really need to keep an eye on magazines, newspapers, games, and toys in this highly-trafficked space that can quickly become unruly.
Kitchen: Extra mugs, water bottles, and plastic storage containers often suck up your valuable cabinet and drawer space.
Master Bedroom: Unfolded clothing that is laying around and books not currently being read are some of the biggest causes of bedroom clutter.
Bathroom: You’re probably trying to pack in more toiletries, beauty products, and medicine than your tiny vanity can handle.
Dining Room: Because you probably don’t make use of this formal eating spot, the table and any surrounding surfaces often become the dumping ground for mail, packages, newspapers, and magazines.
Children's Room: Clothes, toys, and books are the biggest offenders, though these small spaces can often get overwhelmed because any child-related item may get tossed in there.
Home Office: Paper, paper, and more paper. If you’re like most homeowners, you don’t have the time, patience, or filing system to keep up with the deluge of bills, financial documents, and advertisements that come streaming in.
Garage: Garages have become notorious dumping grounds for anything that can’t be stored inside, including tools, sports equipment, gardening items, and holiday decorations.

The key is to identify these problem areas, ask yourself why they exist, and then form a solution. Maybe you’re not keeping up with filing. Maybe you need furniture that offers a place for you to discreetly tuck away unused items. Maybe it’s overflowing closets that can’t accept a single additional item. Whatever the reason, knowing your home’s problem areas will tell you what to do next.

Give Everything a Home

“A place for everything, and everything in its place.”

Remember this tidying truism? It turns out this simple phrase hides some deceptively profound advice. If following this expression would require you to bend the laws of physics, take a look at both the quantity of possessions and your storage space. Be realistic and brutally honest with yourself here.

What are the main culprits of a chaotic home? Too many items, too little storage space, or both. If you’re struggling with unkempt piles of clothing, overstuffed drawers and tabletops piled high with items, chances are your items simply don’t have a permanent home for when they’re not in use. The University of Illinois Extension notes that when you put away an item without a home, you’re just “stashing it” and probably won’t be able to find it again.

Having trouble picking a home for items? Try following these four easy steps:

Group together related items
Get rid of anything that you don’t need or that’s a duplicate
Place each group of related items in a container
Finally, decide on a home for each container of items

The key to this organization method is the grouping step. The similarities between the items will help you decide the best place for the grouping and how much space they need. You’ll also remember item locations easier. Plus, you won’t have to spend extra time agonizing over where to put each item individually.

Make it a Family Affair

If you have multiple people living under the same roof, it’s important that everyone contributes to the efforts to keep your home neat. When you’re all rowing together, it’s amazing what you can accomplish. However, if you’re coming from a less-than-immaculate dwelling, it may be tough convincing others that they have to change their ways of living, even if it’s your own children or spouse.

Before you embark on your journey to a clean, organized home, get buy-in from those around you before you start barking orders. To start, share your vision of what your home could be. Show them examples online. Tell them exactly what a cleaner, more organized space will do for everyone in the family.

This may include general positives like less stress and a greater sense of calm, or specific, tangible benefits. These may include feeling free to host more visitors and less wasted time getting ready each day or looking for misplaced items. Without sharing your dream and giving them supporting benefits, your family will have no context for the changes you want to make, will resent the extra work, and will most likely not participate in your new lifestyle change.

For children, you may have to work a little harder to encourage them. Fortunately, Scholastic offers some creative ways to incentivize, gamify and simplify the process for your younger, less-eager helpers:

Scatter treats, coins, and other rewards around areas you assign your children to clean.
On a posted list of chores for each child, give them a sticker every time they accomplish a task. At the end of the week, whoever accumulates the most stickers wins.
Have a five-minute scavenger hunt for your kids to find and put away the most stray items. Whoever finds and puts away the most items wins.
Do a “10-minute tidy” after dinner each evening where you all take a different room in the house to put away any accumulated clutter.
Name someone the “Clutter Police” and have them fill a basket with any misplaced items. To free these items from “jail,” the owner must put them in their rightful homes.

For long-term success keeping your home organized, try to incorporate these games into your family’s standard routine to make it a habit. Remember that litter begets litter, so daily tidying will avoid piles of clutter that encourage the mess to spread.

Conclusion

Think a messy home is a superficial eyesore that has little bearing on the rest of your life? Think again. It turns out that mess-induced stress is a real condition. Home organization isn’t just good for your routine. It can actually impact your health, too. Better Homes and Gardens cites a recent study that linked messy homes with an inability to sleep. The anxiety caused by a chaotic home actually makes it harder to drift off at bedtime.

Conversely, a neat, organized space sends the signal that you’re in a safe, orderly environment where it’s safe to let your guard down and rest. The key is to attack this project with a strategy in place because a well-organized home is the direct result of good planning.