10 Sneaky Ways to Organize Your Whole House
By: Good Housekeeping Staff
Try these tricks to declutter problem areas both big and small.
1. Create a Kitchen Hangout: Short on cabinet space? Attach a painted pegboard (available at hardware stores) to the wall, then loop in metal hooks for a display that’ll keep your most-used tools neatly in one place.
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2. Explore Under the Stairs: Transform this dead zone into bonus storage with one of these tricks: Install custom shelving with stylish baskets for each family member; hang coat hooks and prefab shelves for a budget-friendly mudroom; or add cabinetry and a countertop, and presto! You have a butler’s pantry dedicated to serving items, wine, and more.
Courtesy of Tatertots & Jello
3. Make a Master Grocery List: Save a few of your old receipts and type up a master list of what you buy often, grouping items by where they are in the store so you can breeze through shopping. Print it out and post it in the kitchen; put a check next to items as you run out.
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4. Use Air Space: Junk drawer jammed with menus, dry cleaner tickets, stamps, and other stray papers you can never find when you need them? Store them at eye level instead: Sort everything into categories and file in Post-it Pockets, which stick on the inside of kitchen cabinet doors. —Leslie Josel
Courtesy of Post-it
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5. Nix Junk Mail: Prevent catalog pileup (and go green!) with 41pounds.org. For $35, they’ll halt 41 pounds of junk mail a year. Plus, a portion of your fee goes to an environmental charity. —Jill Pollack, organizational expert
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6. Keep Kids Clutter at Bay: And do it in style by using affordable and practical furnishings in new ways.
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1. Hang premade kitchen cabinets from IKEA in your playroom: Replace the generic hardware with cute new pulls to create unique architectural storage for a fraction of the cost of built-ins, says interior designer Brian Patrick Flynn. Label each cabinet with a photo of the types of toys that go into it (so pre-readers can understand).
2. Swap out your coffee table: Try a lidded ottoman or a steamer trunk instead. So sturdy, they’re perfect for holding blocks.
3. Wrangle the art projects: Scan photos of the treasures your kids bring home to create a digital folder of memories instead of letting the projects invade every shelf. Save one or two special ones, not every one!
7. Code With Color: Assign each family member his or her own hue and use this as an organizing principle all over the house—each person’s toothbrush, towel, laundry hamper, and even sheets can be coordinated in the designated shade, making it easy for everyone to find their own stuff and (more important) put it away. —Sharon Tindell, chief merchandising officer, The Container Store
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8. Go Digital: Save receipts on the fly with Shoeboxed, an app that lets you photograph store slips or forward e-mail receipts ($9.95 a month, shoeboxed.com). Everything is stored on a searchable server. —Donna Smallin, author of Clear the Clutter, Find Happiness
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9. Control Cords: Stop guessing which cord on your power strip goes with what: Save the plastic tags from loaves of supermarket bread, write the name of each device on a tag and clip it around the relevant cord. Genius!
Courtesy of Out of Chaos
10. Upgrade Your Garage: There’s no rule that says it has to be gross. Trade dingy decor for something functional and cheery, like this graphic garage created by the crew at A Beautiful Mess, a lifestyle company. Wire baskets and hooks keep supplies and tools off the floor and within easy reach.
Courtesy of A Beautiful Mess
(This story originally appeared in the March 2015 issue of Good Housekeeping.)
More from GoodHousekeeping.com:
11 Sneaky Storage Tricks for a Tiny Kitchen
9 Lies You Tell Yourself About Organizing
10 One-Minute Tricks to Get More Organized
