WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2025
65 Best Organizing Tips and Ideas From Professional Organizers
organizing Professional Organizers storage
By Molli Carlson
The benefits of getting organized are endless: There’s less housework. Goals become clearer. There’s more space for things you love. You may even sleep better.
There’s just one hurdle: The journey from Clutterville to Tidy Town can be bumpy.
To make your ride as smooth as possible, we asked 24 top professional organizers to share their best organizing tips and ideas.
All aboard!
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5 Benefits of Staying Organized
Increases Productivity: When every item is in its place, you spend less time looking for things and more time getting things done. An organized space helps you to concentrate and work more effectively.
Reduces Stress: Clutter often leads to overwhelm. A tidy space gives you a sense of control, helping to reduce anxiety and create a calming environment.
Saves Time: Time spent in the search to find those ‘missing’ items adds up fast. With being organized, time is saved when looking for what you need, so there will be more time available for pursuits of greater importance.
It increases creativity: A clutter-free space encourages a clear mind, allowing you to think freely and come up with new ideas without the mental distractions that clutter brings.
Promote a healthy lifestyle: Proper organization brings about healthy lifestyles, a place that stays clean, and personal habits lead to healthier physical and mental lifestyles.
65 Best Organizing Tips and Ideas From Professional Organizers:
How to Organize Your Stuff Before It Goes Into Storage
An open white cupboard with square shelves
1. Pare down
This step might be a little painful depending on what you’re storing, but it can be one of the most effective—not just in managing the load but in going through your things and understanding what you have in front of you. You can go with the classic choice of figuring out what sparks joy or you can simply go based on what you actually need and use. Especially if you happen to be moving, getting rid of a few things can reduce a lot of the stress involved.
2. Disinfect
While you’re cleaning out, you may want to make sure you’re literally cleaning out. Things can get dirty when you store them for a while, and if you find yourself moving during COVID, you can never be too careful. This can even help you be more thorough as you organize your things.
3. Create a system
When it comes to the meat of the organization process, finding a system that works for your process and your belongings will lead you toward a successful move. Everyone is different, which means that someone with lots of clothes will likely have different needs from someone with an abundance of comic books. Maybe you need to organize things by year or by material. Look up the needs of your possessions and plan accordingly.
4. Label
When you pack things away, keeping track of what goes where can sometimes be a bit of a challenge, and it becomes even more important when some items are fragile or require specific storage conditions. Use a label maker to label boxes and bins specifically based on their contents so when you move things to the storage facility, you can keep things moving smoothly with minimal mistakes.
5. Use coordinating boxes
While this might not always be possible, using boxes and bins that can easily stack on top of one another, fit into one another, or store easily together is one of the best ways to stay organized when moving things into storage, both in the moment and when you need to find things again at a later date. If you can find matching or coordinating boxes for your things, you should definitely do it.
6. Organizing before you store
While getting organized may not always seem worth it, but when you organize your stuff before it goes into storage it can make your life so much easier.
How to Organize Your Kitchen
housewife tidying up kitchen cupboard
7. Tidy up while cooking
Wash or put items in the dishwasher as you go. Put things away as you go. For example, if you’re done with the flour, put it away. If you’re done with a condiment, put it away.
When possible, prep food items ahead of time.
Determine when you need dishes to be ready and work backward, time-wise.
8. Use produce drawers as time capsules in your fridge
Most refrigerators have two produce drawers. Instead of dividing produce by category into the drawers, try this trick:
When you are checking the fridge before you shop, toss out the unusable things in the drawers. Move everything to the right drawer which you have labeled with a sticky note. Eat these produce items first. Once you have new produce, put it all into the left drawer.
9. Use clear (preferably glass) storage containers for food
Regular plastic storage containers are cloudy and hard to see into. Take-out containers are even worse!
Put your leftover food and ingredients into sturdy containers with safe-sealing tops (I love the Pyrex ones) to clearly see what there is to eat in the fridge and freezer. I often store these containers full of food upside down for even greater visibility. Crazy!
10. Use a Lazy Susan for overlooked olives
Who can remember what condiments are hiding in the back of the refrigerator? Not me! I gotta see it to believe it. So, I use two Lazy Susans in the fridge. One is for pickles and olives. The other is for rarely used condiments. No more buying what you already have.
11. Tackle the black hole in your freezer
Most freezers are extremely hard to keep organized. The main problem is the things we store in there are all weird shapes and sizes. Hello turkey carcass for making soup!
Use a small cookie sheet to freeze your liquids into nice flat solids right in Ziploc bags. Then you can stack the solid bags. (Write the contents on the bag before filling it.)
Stack clear, glass storage containers for non-liquids in the freezer. Label them with a little piece of paper that sticks out of the lid.
An organized home doesn’t just happen – it is the result of specific habits and routines that help one maintain a clutter-free environment long-term. Here are some habits that professional organizers, and organized people in general, use every day that help keep their homes neat and organized:
12. Declutter your kitchen cabinets
Start by emptying out everything on your counters or table. Sort like with like. Get rid of everything you will not use or eat: donate still-good food to a local food bank, and discard anything that’s no longer consumable.
Zone the cabinets before you put things back: baking, cooking, storage, utensils, sharp items, dish towels, dishes, serving pieces, canned goods, spices, and sauces. Wipe and clean the cabinets thoroughly. Use Lazy Susans, bamboo drawer dividers, or wire shelves to corral smaller items such as spices, herbs, utensils, and hand tools.
Load everything back in, according to the zones you’ve created. Label the drawers/doors if needed for the first week or so, until you remember where things live now.
Bedroom
a woman organizing her bedroom
13. Make your bed every morning
Since your bed is the dominant feature in your bedroom, a made bed will make your whole room feel orderly. Bonus: This task takes less than two minutes.
14.Respect, don’t neglect, your bedroom
It’s tempting to store suitcases in a corner “just for now,” to pile up clothes that need to go to the cleaner or tailor or to leave unfinished projects and papers strewn all over the dresser.
Banish anything that isn’t related to dressing, sleeping, relaxation, or romance. Relocate items to other rooms or closets – or let them go. Add fresh flowers or a candle.
15. Prime your bedroom for relaxation
Many people decide to eliminate TVs and other electronic equipment from the bedroom. Placing a desk somewhere other than the bedroom might be a good idea. Work, bills, paperwork, and other clutter leads to poor sleep and an unsexy environment.
Make your bed every day to ward off the piling of books, magazines, and other stuff.
Check-in with yourself and your partner about how you feel in your space frequently.
Learn more: 9 Creative Book Storage Hacks For Small Apartments
16. Limit your nightstand contents to vital objects
Items like eyeglasses, hand cream, ChapStick, a phone charger, and a nightly read (e.g., book, magazine, or e-reader) are the standard for this storage spot. If your necessities list is longer, by all means, don’t stop yourself from having the items within arms’ reach.
If you depend on your nightstand for extra storage, just make sure you are strategic about what goes inside. It’s easy for an empty drawer to turn into a junk catch-all, so in order to prevent that from happening, give it a purpose before you start storing. Stick with one or two categories (e.g., sunglasses and jewelry) so that you know exactly what’s stored inside when you need it.
17. Make your wardrobe space-efficient
Keep only clothing in your bedroom in the current season. Have the right amount of drawer and hanging space. If you create a routine of hanging up your daily clothes when you come home, this habit will keep clutter at bay.
18. Tackle any closet build-up with these basic starts
Remove all extra hangers. Recycle, give away, or reroute hangers that don’t belong.
Pick up your clothes from the closet floor. Hang them up or reroute to laundry, dry cleaners, or giveaway.
Set the timer for 10 minutes, and quickly remove clothes that you absolutely no longer want. Reroute them to give away.
Voilà! This is a great beginning. Your closet feels more spacious and is on its way to being clutter-free.
19. Maximize what’s available in your closet
If you can see the back wall of your closet, you are not utilizing all its space.
Instead of piling hats on a shelf, install some hooks and hang your hats on the walls inside your closet. Hang clothes on the same type of hanger by style, and then by color. Make sure they are all facing the same direction.
20. Keep a donation bag in each of your clothes closets
You now have a place to keep clothes you no longer like or that no longer fit until you have the time to take them to a resale shop.
Bathroom
woman organizing bathroom
21. Dispose and reassess toiletries
Purge any expired products. Both over-the-counter medications and prescriptions have expiration dates. And makeup, once the package is open, is a breeding ground for bacteria. Check dates and dispose of old products every six months.
Use acrylic makeup organizers that will hold your toiletries upright in your vanity.
Use drawer organizers inside shallow bathroom drawers to separate cosmetics.
Use apothecary jars to store small items like hair elastics, chapstick, q-tips, and makeup applicators.
Use vanity accessories like a soap dispenser, soap dish, and tissue box holder for a polished look in your bathroom.
Learn more: 11 Beautifully Easy Makeup Storage And Organizing Ideas
22. Go paperless when you can
Set up automatic payments for monthly bills and make sure companies don’t send paper mail – all the information you need will be available online.
Send junk mail straight to the recycling. Don’t even let garbage mail hit your counter or tabletop – pull it out of the pile as soon as you can and send it to the trash. Only keep important mail that involves items you have to address.
File important papers in an accordion folder. Its size will keep your papers down to a minimum. And remember: There are very few that you actually need to hold on to.
23. Let your space define how much you can own
To prevent your stuff from taking over your home, decide how much space you want to allocate to a particular item, and then stick with that.
Here’s an example: I have one drawer in my dresser that I’ve allocated to sweaters. I don’t allow myself to own any more sweaters than can fit in that drawer. If I buy a new sweater but the drawer is full, I have to get rid of a sweater. I can’t put it in another drawer or on a shelf in the closet.
It’s the same with my shoes. If my shoe bag is full, I can’t buy a new pair of shoes unless I give one away. By creating limits for myself, I ensure that I continue to live comfortably in a small space.
Living Room
a woman organizing living room
24. Accept that you probably do need to declutter
You may think you don’t have anything you want to get rid of but believe me, you probably do. Even if you’ve carefully pruned before a move, you will likely still pull items out of a box and think, “Why did I bring this?”
Life tends to bring new items into our space each day, and we frequently fail to recognize the pace at which we are accumulating things.
25. Let yourself let go
Ownership is overrated. Often we feel that we need to own something to enjoy it. In reality, we may get more pleasure out of borrowing or renting something. Anything we own requires that we clean it, move it, store it, maintain it, and maybe insure it. This all takes energy. Be open to alternative ways to access and enjoy physical objects.
26. Put items away now, rather than later
It is very tempting to put something down rather than away. We tell ourselves we will put it away later, but then life gets in the way and it never happens. If you can, push yourself to get the item to its final destination in the moment.
27. Recommended organizing and decluttering books
Peter Walsh’s It’s All Too Much gives a rip-the-Band-Aid-off approach to decluttering, and most importantly, on making space for the things that are important to your life.
Julie Morgenstern’s Organizing From the Inside Out helps people figure out what some of their blocks are to organizing. She also provides a reusable formula for tackling any organizing project, whether it’s a wallet or your garage. I use that formula when working with my clients, and in my own life.
Getting Things Done by David Allen is great for productivity and time management. Even if you use just his core methodology, you’ll live a much more peaceful and productive life, with fewer things slipping through the cracks.
Once I get my client’s space organized, it’s up to them to maintain the systems we put in place. I love the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It teaches us that if we don’t put habits in place, we get frustrated when getting and staying organized. It’s full of anecdotes and science, but presented in an interesting and intriguing read.
28. Don’t be too hard on yourself when decluttering
Oftentimes, I hear my clients criticize, judge, and condemn themselves for the way they have let things become.
Decluttering and organizing take time and can be hard work. So definitely don’t beat yourself up and tear yourself apart as you go. Keep your focus on where you are headed, not on where you have been.
29. Use decor to make your home organized and happy
Surround yourself with things you love. This could be a color scheme, a certain style of art on the walls, furniture from a special era, a particular brand of cookware/dishes/glasses, or photographs of your loved ones.
Incorporate nature, as plants bring the outside in and infuse life into your space. The same goes for natural light, which can improve your mood.
Lastly, label as much as you can. With items continuously going back into the same place, you’ll create a sense of order that will keep household members on board as well.
Home Office
office desk mess
30. Think of your desk as a command center
All of the items that you need to do your job must be within arm’s reach when you are sitting at your desk. The tools that you keep in this space should be customized so that they support your daily activities and tasks.
By doing this, you will be much more effective and more productive.
31. File, don’t pile
Paperwork is always better stored vertically than horizontally. Piles are difficult to sort through, and typically only provide a reminder of the page that is on the top. Even in a mostly paperless environment, there will still be some paper, so have either a file drawer or box where this paper belongs.
Separate the action space from the storeroom. Often we buy office products in bulk (e.g., a box of pens and a 20-pack of sticky notes). Don’t keep all of them on your desk. Keep one or two of each supply at your desk, but set up a separate supply space for the bulk packages. When a pen runs dry, throw it away and go get another from your storage area.
32. Be constantly aware of your limits
When it comes to organizing and living with less clutter, something that we can all do very easily is to be more conscientious consumers and live within our spatial means.
By asking ourselves a few questions before we bring something home, we can easily help stop the clutter before it enters our house. A few example questions are, “Do I have space for this item?” “Do I need this item?” and “What am I willing to donate so that I do have room for this new item?”
33. Maximize vertical space
Maximize your vertical space at home to capture every usable inch.
Install shelves to hold books and decor, and add baskets to store miscellaneous items. Double hang your clothes in your closet to double your hanging space. Hang kitchen cabinets all the way to the ceiling to maximize vertical space, and put a shelf below to easily access frequently used dishes.
The large area on the back of a door is almost always overlooked as a way to claim vertical space. Use an over-the-door shoe hanger to store much more than just shoes. Try one out with toys in a child’s room, or hats, gloves, and scarves in a hall closet. You could even use it to store cleaning supplies in a laundry room.
34. Keep sentimental papers in check
Don’t hold onto every card just because it was once special. I advise having one plastic container for sentimental items and don’t let it overflow – if something new comes in, reconsider what you’re holding onto.
35. Keep a trash bin as close to the mailbox as possible
The vast majority of the mail you receive will be junk. Throw it away [or recycle!] before it clutters your main living space.
36. Attain inbox zero
Sign up for Unroll.me to get rid of all unwanted subscriptions. Create a separate email address just for subscriptions and online shopping, and migrate everything to that address so your personal one is reserved exclusively for actual correspondence.
Use your app’s rules or filters to pre-sort emails into clearly labeled subfolders.
Schedule appointments with yourself for any action items, and delete emails instead of allowing them to stack up in your inbox as a “tickler” or reminder.
37. Locate any paper – in under one minute
There are only three decisions when it comes to paperwork: Act on it, trash it, or file it.
File your paperwork weekly so it doesn’t accumulate into a mountain of filing that you dread addressing and ultimately ignore. Before you start filing, separate the pile into categories to easily view and assess each category as a whole.
A good filing system has a category and subcategory for every paper you need to store, keeps necessary papers easily retrievable, and keeps you on top of bills and other important documents.
38. Customize your journals and notebooks to your needs
The beauty of a blank journal and notebook is that you can create and organize information however you like.
First, think about how you’d like to use your notebook, be it for personal use, work, or school. What information are you going to store/organize/retrieve in your journal?
The next step is to sketch out the journal/notebook contents. Some ideas include dating pages and entries, and creating sections for a table of contents, index, and charts.
Once you’ve finalized your plans, you can start customizing your notebook according to your plans.
8 Best DIY Organizing Ideas
Art composition with watercolors
39. Tips for staying on top of a move
Make a “moving” notebook, and make sure it never leaves your side. Kee
Posted 2:11 PM