How to organise your home – tips & tricks

More tips for organising your home

We’ve given you some decent products that can help with your organisation, but it all starts and ends with you. So let’s go around each room and area in the house and offer some tips on how to make the most of the spaces you have for storing and the best way to achieve that uncluttered environment.

Home office

Every desk should have a set of drawers and drawers are undoubtedly a fantastic place to store things. The dangerous thing about drawers is that, like so many other storage options, they provide you with the whole ‘out of sight, out of mind’ option. Drawers can very quickly become a hidden dumping ground so it is important to give each drawer an individual role to play in your storage mission. Use one drawer for stationery, one for paper clips and on and on.

The top of your desk should contain your PC and enough room for you to write. A pen holder and perhaps a placemat for your coffee should be all that you have on your desk. A clear desk equals a clear mind.

The kitchen

The kitchen is perhaps the hardest place to organise but it is also the most important. It’s also the most satisfying if you can get it right. It is generally suggested that you always think about grouping foods in the same area. A spice rack is very important and can be wall-mounted to save on cupboard space. All pasta should be decanted into glass jars, as should coffee, tea and sugar—it just looks better.

All condiments should be kept in the fridge door (mayo, ketchup etc). Canned goods should also be organised by type. If you know that all your baked beans are stacked together, it makes it easier to recognise when you’re running low.

All your dishes and mugs and glasses should be stacked neatly with plenty of space to avoid any unfortunate collisions and drops. Pots and pans are used every day, so they should be easily accessible and neatly stored.

The lounge

So we know that women think the more pillows, the better but going to overkill on these accessories merely makes the place look messy and, before long, they all get misshapen and are only good for hiding the TV remote control.

Magazines should be stored in a rack rather than dumped on the coffee table. The only thing that should be on there is a cup of coffee and perhaps an attractive flower arrangement (as long as it doesn’t block the TV).

The bedroom

So much storage space exists in the bedroom. Your bedside table, for example, will always have a drawer which you can use for keeping medication and other things that would detract from the look of your room if they were on display. Other than a clock and a lamp, there really isn’t any need for anything else to be on top of this.

Many beds have a lot of space underneath them. This should be utilised with neat storage boxes to keep things that you perhaps don’t use so often. Old photo albums and books could go here, or last season’s clothes that might have a chance of coming back into fashion.

You will be keeping some of your clothes in your chest of drawers. Make sure that every drawer has its own specific type of clothing—one for underwear, one for t-shirts, one for jeans—all nicely folded and ready to be worn..

If you have a dressing table as well, your makeup and hair products should always be neatly arranged in the drawers. The one thing that it is fine to have on display on your dressing table is your selection of perfumes. All jewellery should either be hung on a stand or put in a nice jewellery box.

The dining room

Your dining room is for eating, not for office work or anything else. As such, all that should be in here is a table, four chairs and some placemats. If you have a larger dining room you may have a cabinet with drinks or larger plates and serving dishes. When your dining room stops getting used for dining, that’s when you know you have a problem.

The bathroom

The bathroom is a potential breeding ground for bacteria if you don’t properly store all your items. Plastic toothbrush holders and a soap dish are the bare minimum requirements. All face creams and other skincare products, such as razors and shaving foam, should be kept in a mirrored cabinet to make the bathroom more pleasing on the eye. Shower gel and shampoo should be kept in a rack or on a shelf next to the shower or bath, not left around the side of the tub.

The laundry

The only way to keep on top of this is to take care of your ironing and laundry the moment that it needs doing. Your ironing board should always be folded away and neatly stored in a cupboard until it’s needed. If you can implement a weekly system for laundry, drying, ironing and putting away, you will be able to keep your laundry (or kitchen for some of us) much tidier.

The garage

Using wall-mounted pegs for all of your tools is a no-brainer. All your nails and drill bits, or whatever else you may have, should all be compartmentalised in something like the trays above. Shelves in the garage are a must for paint tins, varnish and WD40. They simply serve to keep them all these products out of the way.

The attic

The attic is not a dumping ground—of that we must make a point. But with the right storage boxes you can use this valuable space to store old clothes and Christmas decorations until such time as they are required again. Think about vacuum packing clothes in airtight storage packs. This reduces the space they take up and keeps them fresh.