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10 Organizing Tips That'll Change Your Life

We'd all love to get organized. But where to begin? These easy tips will help you spend less time re-sorting—and re-storing—things later.

By Cass Colin

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Minimize What You Store

Ask yourself, “How can I make it smaller?” ClutterDiet.com founder Lorie Morero suggests asking yourself this question before deciding to purge keepsakes, but the axiom works for any situation.

1. Remove excess packaging before storing your items (ie: remove shoes from shoeboxes or save pages from magazines rather than storing the whole issue)
2. Scan photos and store them on your computer instead of keeping hard copies (most copy shops and drugstores offer usage of a scanner).

Takeaway: Instead of only asking yourself if you can keep or toss something, ask yourself if you can minimize it – so keeping it won’t be such a hassle.

Matthew Petty/flickr

In a Bind

Binder clips are your friends. There’s not much you can’t do with these inexpensive office-supply wonders. Besides clipping like items together, you use them for almost anything, including:

sealing bags of chips and other packaged foods
clasping together paperwork you need to deal with later
holding larger items, like unit shelves, temporarily in place (see example)
standing a sponge up to let it drain (see example)
minding cords on your desk (see example)
preventing things from rolling around in your fridge (pictured, left)

These handy clamps are an organizer’s favorite friend, so stock up!

Tashina/flickr

Kitchen Aides

Use kitchen storage tools outside of the kitchen.

That Lazy Susan you’re barely using on the dinner table – pop it under the bathroom sink to corral products and make them easier to find
Add a silverware holder to your desk drawer to organize your odds and ends.
Install a hanging fruit basket in your shower to hold bath products (or even kids toys).

The trick to organizing is finding tools that help do the work for you, and kitchen contraptions can provide structure to some of your most troubling spots around the house.

Jellaluna/flickr

A Show of Hands

Small clean-ups make light work. Look around the room — is there anything there that should be elsewhere, perhaps? We thought so. Instead of letting magazines, leftover glasses, shoes, and more pile up, integrate small clean-ups into your usual routine.

By taking one thing to its proper place while you go about your day, you’ll prevent the clutter pile-ups that can make organizing such a chore.

michpc26/flickr

Stop Trash at the Door

Put junk mail in its place. According to the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), the average American receives 49,060 pieces of mail in her lifetime — and 1/3 of it is junk mail.

Save yourself from stacks of coupons, circulars, and the like by placing a recycling bin near where you open mail. Then go the extra mile by setting up a small filing system for mail, such as a simple in-and-out tray or a more sophisticated desktop file with designated slots for mail that needs action versus things you just want to keep.

Want to go even further? Sign up for paperless billing when possible.

Set a Schedule

Organize your time with a calendar. At first blush, retirement might seem like a carefree, calendar-less time when you can do as you please. But as you might have found, an unscheduled lifestyle makes it more difficult to remember when you actually have something to do.

Whether you prefer the classic hang-it-where-you'll-see-it calendar method or modern electronic calendars (such as Google’s free service, pictured) that let you and your family update one agenda, your life will feel more organized if you make plans and maintain a schedule.

Jessica Lucia/flickr

Set a Date

Toss products that are past their prime. That layer of dust slowly settling on your spices and bath products — that’s not a good thing. Pantry items like herbs and extracts have shelf lives of roughly one to four years, while makeup only lasts a year.

Prevent build-up of ineffective products by labeling items as you buy them. (Hint: Garage sale-style dot stickers are durable and cheap). By simply writing the purchase date on items, you’ll never hesitate to toss something because you're wondering if it's past its prime.

Alison Headley/flickr

Keep Surfaces Clear

Start an organization system that ensures you have the workspace (and tidy appearance) you desire. Choose tools and systems that hang items, giving you additional surface storage and usable countertops and desk surfaces. Hooks inside of your cabinet doors, a wall-mounted inbox system, or even a pegboard system in your basement or garage creates additional storage without eating up too much of your space.

But use caution when hanging items — if a storage system is too high for you to reach easily, you won’t use it, leaving items to end up wherever you can conveniently toss them.

Brenna Cade/flickr

Like with Like

Store items by category. It might sound like common sense, but NAPO’s tenet, “things that work together should be stored together," is the basis of great organization. As you’re finding places to stash items, be sure you group them accordingly.

Junk drawers and miscellaneous closets become nightmares when they are filled with items of mixed use. Corral items by purpose and store them where you’ll need them — such as putting bathroom cleaning supplies in the bathroom instead of in the hall closet, for example — to simplify your life.

Purge Often

Employ the one-in, one-out system. According to NAPO, we use only 20 percent of the things we keep. Instead of conserving your energy for a big, whole-household purge, shed items from your closets and cabinets as you're getting dressed each day.

Apply a one-in, one-out system to your home, by donating or handing down one item of clothing for every new one you receive. The key to organizing is often having fewer items to organize.