I LOVE a good organizing project! It honestly is therapeutic for me to take something that is chaotic and disorganized and turn it into something beautiful and orderly.

I also know that a lot of people want organized spaces but aren’t sure how to achieve it. Most of us want our closets, drawers, and cabinets organized and our belongs easily accessible. But life happens, kids happen, sports happen, work happens and before we know it we are overwhelmed and don’t ever know where half of the things in those spaces even came from. We are unsure of exactly what we have, or if we have items that we “may use someday” we struggle to let go of them.

Whether you struggle to keep to an organized house and feel overwhelmed by all the places you have let go over the years, or you mostly stay on top of organizing your spaces, I’d like to share with you some tricks I’ve learned to help me make the most of my organizing efforts.

Let’s just start with some myths about organizing. 

Myth #1- My space has to look Pinterest worthy.

WRONG!!! While everyone enjoys a beautifully organized “Home-Edit” type space, for the average person (and budget), this is often unrealistic.  The truth is that your space should be FUNCTIONAL, not photo worthy.  If it happens to be both, then great, but that doesn’t have to be your goal.  You need to organize a space in a way that makes sense for your family’s needs and that works for you. 

Myth #2- My space will stay organized forever once I organize it. 

Again, not true! Organization takes maintenance, up-keep and most importantly buy-in from every member of your household. While getting things to fit into the perfect places is definitely a key piece of an organized space, all spaces need to be decluttered and reworked regularly to keep them functioning the way they can be used best. It is all about regularly assessing if the items you have make sense where you have them and if you even need them in the first place. 

Myth #3- Organizing takes a lot of time and money. 

While organizing does take more time than shoving everything in a drawer or closet, over the long run it will without a doubt save time and money because you will actually be able to see what you have.  You will feel better in your home when you know where everything goes and when you are able to add and purge things regularly.

It does not have to cost a lot either! Beautiful containers are amazing but not necessary at all to keep items contained and well organized. 

Now that we addressed some common organizing myths, let’s get on to the most important part…

How to organize almost anything! 

1. Pick a space to organize

While at first mention this may seem super simple and rather obvious, I assure you, when you feel overwhelmed, starting somewhere you can easily accomplish the task is key. Taking on too big of a project will likely only cause more stress and can lead to feelings of frustration. A pantry for instance is not usually an easy to do. Start small like a drawer or a small cabinet. 

Make a list of all the places that are not meeting my family’s needs (i.e. driving me crazy) and pick the smallest space off of that list. Why? Because if you are successful at accomplishing the first organizing task, you will be motivated to continue on to the next one. 

2. Take everything out 

Once you know where you’re going to organize, you’re ready to begin.  A lot of people make the mistake of moving things around or just taking out a few items that don’t belong but to really organize and see what you have, it is essential to start with a blank slate.

Taking everything out of the space will help you see how much space you have to work with but most importantly what items you have and if they even make sense in that space. Remove everything from the space you are organizing, but I recommend doing so with purpose (see step #3)

3. Categorize and Sort items

Rather than just randomly pulling everything out of your space and ending up with a jumbled mess that is worse than what you had in the first place, I recommend taking things out of the space with purpose. 

This step is by far the biggest one but it will feel a lot less daunting if you go through the items as you take them out of the space you are organizing. Go through each item as you remove it and start making piles of similar things (i.e. categories). If you know something doesn’t belong, put it in its own pile (ex. If you are organizing a kitchen drawer and you find a kid’s toy or a tool that belongs in the garage, make a pile for “kid’s room” or “garage”). 

You will end up with a bunch of piles and it is important to keep mental note of what they are (jot a sticky note with a temporary label if necessary to remind you!).  Don’t spend time taking the items to the places they are actually supposed to go!  Making piles saves a lot of trips back and forth to different places around your house. 

During this step, I also recommend having a trashcan available.  If something is broken, throw it away! Do it! Don’t feel bad!  If something is expired or unusable, purge it!! Don’t keep things that don’t serve a purpose in your home and that can’t be used by anyone else either. 

Likewise, creating a donate/re-home pile of things you want to get rid of.  If you have not used something in the past year, LET IT GO!  Hanging on to things you might use some day tends to add to the clutter in our lives. 

4. Contain your items

At this point a lot of people just start putting things back into the space by moving the piles they created into their space BUT RESIST THIS TEMPTATION because in order to maintain the organization, keeping the categories together is key.

You will need to get containers for the space you are organizing but don’t let this scare you. You can use little plastic baskets/separators, jars, containers, bottles, boxes or Tupperware that will fit in your space.

If you are on a budget, you can go to the dollar store and find a lot of organizing containers for all types of projects. You can also use baskets/containers you already have.  You can repurpose plastic containers or cardboard boxes you have to contain items. Your containers don’t have to all match perfectly, they just need to be functional. 

I personally use organizing containers from Amazon, Target and Ikea depending on the space I am organizing. But again, you do not have to spend a ton of money to achieve organizing success. 

Put your piles purposely into organizing containers that will fit in your space. (double check that they will fit first) There are two ways to do this.

Method #1: Put everything into containers by eye-balling how much you have and seeing what will fit appropriately (no different than you do with deciding which Tupperware to use for leftovers after dinner)

Method #2: Put the empty containers into the space first and then place items into the space that it will fit. This method is especially helpful when trying to accomplish a more esthetically pleasing space.

I personally prefer the first method because I like my items to fit my space, not my space to fit my items. Both methods work well. Pick one that works for you. 

5. Put your organized items back in your space

If you’ve followed all the other steps, this one should be the easiest. Like I mentioned before, don’t just loosely/randomly put all the items back or you will likely have the exact same disorganized mess all over again sooner than you’d like.

By this point you have gone through all your items and put them in containers so all you have to do is put them in their new home.

Put the containers that house your items back in the space in away that makes sense. Put the things you use the most (and want easiest access to) in the front or at eye level. 

6. Take care of the other random items

Don’t forget this step! You just spent all that time and effort organizing the things in your space but you likely realized you have things that didn’t “make the cut” of items that go back into the space.

Now is the time to take the piles you created to the places they actually belong. And this includes donation piles.  If you have a pile you make in the garage or basement before you get rid of it, take it there (but I recommend just taking it directly to your car to take to a donation drop off next time you are running errands). 

I love to get my kids involved in this step since a lot of the times the remaining piles often belong to them.  You can even make it into a race to see who can get their things put away the fastest.  (If the mention of your kids getting involved in this organizing task just gave you anxiety, forget I ever mentioned it).

7. Maintain and Reorganize as necessary 

The biggest part of keeping things organized is getting your family on board with knowing where things go and putting them back in their homes when they finish with something.  If your family knows where things are supposed to go, maintaining organized spaces is very manageable. You will definitely have to spend a little time here and there freshening up the organization.  It will not stay perfect. Don’t think you’ve failed just because it doesn’t continue to look like it did right after you organized. 

By following these easy steps you can organize just about any space in your home. Start small. Be realistic. Know that you don’t not have to achieve organizing perfection, just create more functional spaces that work for you family.  You can feel more on top of your home and achieve a world where you are an expert at Mostly Organizing. You can do it one space at time.  You’ve got this!