Category Archives: Organization Tips

Clutter hotspots abound throughout our homes, attracting all types of miscellaneous items like bees to honey.

Essentially, they’re the dumping grounds in our living spaces.

Junk drawers, closets, front entryways, and garages are just a few of the common clutter hotspots that restrict your home from functioning at peak efficiency.

A Professional Organizers of Canada study found that 83% of Canadians described themselves as “extremely disorganized”. 91% of Canadians believe that their life is negatively impacted by clutter.

Photo by Curtis Adams from Pexels

The causes of our clutter hotspots

Those numbers are alarmingly high. It’s no wonder we’re drowning in so much stuff – and unhappy about it.

We live in a time where you can’t drive more than a minute or two without seeing a Walmart, Costco, or dollar store dotting our suburban landscape, luring shoppers with aisle after aisle of cheaply priced merchandise.

The massive growth of online shopping makes it easier than ever to buy almost anything. Jeez, who knew that being able to purchase something in only a few seconds by tapping a phone screen (without even needing to get out of bed) and having it delivered to our front door might be too much of a good thing?

Clutter starts to multiply in our homes because, let’s face it, the vast majority of us dislike spending our cherished free time doing tasks as admittedly tedious as decluttering. We also let clutter accumulate because we get too attached to things and have a hard time letting go of them.

But you can’t ignore clutter forever.

Why your home clutter shouldn’t have a home

Allowing too much clutter set up permanent residency in your home affects your life negatively in a number of ways that are costly (literally and figuratively).

Clutter costs you wasted time searching for things. When things get misplaced, they get purchased again…only to have the misplaced item mysteriously turn up shortly thereafter with frustrating frequency.

Clutter is costly to your mental health and can cause stress and contribute to poor sleeping habits.

A home’s ability to run efficiently is limited when there’s too much clutter around. Trying to function in a messy garage, laundry room, or bathroom simply isn’t as easy as it is to function in the same spaces if they’re organized.

Tackle these clutter hotspots

Target the areas of your home where clutter always seems to end up.

Dealing with these clutter hotspots is only half the battle. They’re the most sensible places to start, though, as you work your way towards organizing your home once and for all.

Here are 9 common clutter hotspots in your house or condo to focus on fixing.

1. Garages

Garages are perhaps the most popular go-to space in a house for stashing clutter. Ironically, clutter often ends up in the garage because it’s such a large space, but that extra space is there because the garage is designed to accommodate vehicles for parking.

Instead, junk that collectively isn’t worth more than probably a few hundred or a few thousand dollars (at the most) occupies prime real estate in many garages.

Meanwhile, vehicles that are worth tens of thousands of dollars sit parked in the driveway or on the street where they’re far more vulnerable to theft and vandalism.

Garage remodel experts Garage Living have a number of helpful articles on their blog that can help you get the room more organized and functional.

Get started by following their guide listing 15 different things you can toss from your garage that you won’t miss.

25% of people with 2-car garages don’t park in them at all. A third can only park one car. (U.S. Dept. of Energy study)

2. Junk drawers

Anyone living in a country in the Western world who disputes that we’re a wasteful, consumerist society has to defend the junk drawer. We’re pretty sure they’re a foreign concept in countries like Japan, where they wouldn’t even think to attach a name with the word “junk” in it to an area of their home.

Junk drawers may not take up a lot of space (unless you have a few of them spread throughout your home), but there’s no reason these notorious clutter hotspots are even a thing. Most of the stuff in a junk drawer is, by definition, junk.

Turn your junk drawers into odds and ends drawers

Spend an hour or two tossing out or recycling all those grease-covered delivery and take-out menus. Bookmark the websites of your favourite restaurants on your phone or computer.

Those menus will probably be faster to find online compared to hunting through your junk drawers for a particular menu. Some of those businesses likely have a phone app available to make ordering from them even easier, too.

Clear out that collection of junk drawer pens (soooo many pens) and figure out which ones still even work. The same goes for the assorted batteries that most junk drawers contain. All of those plastic cutlery packages, condiment packets, outdated cables and cords for your electronics, and loose change can take a hike, too.

Now you’ve gotten your odds and ends drawers (which has a nicer ring, doesn’t it?) down to a manageable number of items. To keep your drawers more organized, add dividers and keep the items you’ll use most at the front.

3. Closets

The National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professional’s (NAPO) Public Survey of Residential Organizing Attitudes found that closets ranked first as the most disorganized storage area in homes.

55% of the 1,005 people polled in the NAPO’s revealing 2019 survey gave that response. Garages, cabinets and shelves, and attics/basements also took the top spots in this category.

Cultural shifts like the aforementioned online shopping boom and the rise of fast fashion (when high-fashion clothing is mass-produced and sold for low prices) has led to our closets becoming overstuffed.

A different NAPO survey found that about 80% of your clothes are only worn 20% of the time. To streamline your home’s closets, edit their contents at least once a year to prevent them from becoming clutter hotspots.

Maximize the storage space in your closets by having a closet design expert like Organized Interiors give them a makeover. Closet organization systems and accessories for added functionality will help make your wardrobe and other items stored in your home’s closets easier to manage.

Closets were the most disorganized storage area in homes, according to a survey conducted by home organizing professionals.

4. Kitchen cupboards

Kitchen cupboards and pantries tend to harbour a lot of clutter. Some examples include:

• expired condiments
• appliances you never use (we’re looking at you juicer, slow cooker, and waffle maker)
• plastic food storage containers
• more glasses, mugs, bowls, and dishes than you ever use
• tote bags
• stale dry food and old canned goods
• expired spices

You can only use so many food storage containers, so recycle what you can and only hold onto your favourite items. To cut down on the amount of plastic in your home, consider investing in some microwave-safe glass food storage containers.

Thin out your kitchen pantry by getting rid of spices you never use and spices you’ve had for a while. Ground spices have a shelf life of about three years and whole spices are good for around four years before they lose a lot of their flavour.

Tote away those extra tote bags

Reusable shopping bags are a fantastic concept that are so ultra-practical, it’s a wonder it took us so long to embrace using them without a second thought, as most of us do nowadays.

They’re way more reliable than using paper or plastic shopping bags and can hold more groceries. And most importantly, of course, tote bags keep billions of plastic bags from ending up in recycling facilities, landfills, and nature every year.

That being said, the rise in the usage of tote bags has resulted in virtually every company on the planet giving away bags with their logos on them willy nilly. Now our kitchen cupboards, closets, and cars are filled with more bags than we’ll ever need.

Clear out the bag clutter by donating them, using them when giving things to friends, having the tote bags recycled, or tossing them out when all else fails.

5. Entryways

It’s logical that our entryways accumulate clutter because they’re the first point of contact when anyone enters the home.

Your front entryway, in particular, should always look organized because it’s the area visitors to your home see first.

First impressions count

A survey by The Independent Network powered by VEKA (a UK organization representing window and door manufacturers) found that guests judge your home within 38 seconds of entering it.

Your home’s entryways shouldn’t just be kept tidy for the benefit of visitors, however. Anyone living under your roof should appreciate entering their living space and being greeted by a clean, organized doorway that gives them that home sweet home feeling.

Assign homes for your kids’ school bags, sports equipment, apparel, and footwear. Wall hooks and cubby storage systems are ideal for keeping the space tidy. If necessary, use labels with your kids’ names to encourage them to put things away properly.

Ensure out-of-season clothing is stored anywhere besides your high-traffic entryway areas. Set up a doorway spot for placing car keys, house keys, and mail.

To keep your home’e entryways tidy, ask Organized Interiors about our mudroom design and storage ideas.

6. Home offices

The 2019 NAPO survey shows that home offices were the second-most disorganized living area in our homes, just slightly below the kitchen.

More people are working from home and numerous studies over the years consistently find that one of the biggest factors that lowers workplace productivity is clutter. Messy desks and workspaces impede our ability to focus and slow down our productivity.

Set up a paper management system

Excess paper is one of the main things that clogs up your work area and makes an office look untidy. Set up a practical paper management system that includes a shredder and filing system. To simplify things even more, make your paper management system one that involves handling barely any paper at all!

It’s the 2020s, so most of the statements you receive that outline your monthly expenses, due payments, and financial portfolio should be getting to you via cyberspace, not your mail carrier’s truck.

Desktop computer screens and monitors also come in large sizes like the latest iMac’s 24″ display. That lets you have multiple documents and windows open on your computer desktop at once, instead of having paper documents spread out on your desk.

If you’re working full-time from a home office now, you have every reason to optimize your work setup to encourage better productivity.

Create an efficient paper filing system in your home office.

7. Bathrooms

It’s no surprise that bathrooms, one of the busiest rooms in our homes, end up as a clutter hotspot.

We use a lot of different products to clean and groom ourselves and most of them are kept in the bathroom.

Go through your medicine cabinets and bathroom storage cabinets to get rid of expired medications, first-aid products, and beauty products. Your skin can have a bad reaction to expired makeup that is applied to it. Most makeup products have a shelf life of about three months to two years.

Also get rid of any mini-sized shampoos, soaps, or other toiletries you’ve accumulated that never get used. Call a local homeless shelter or charity to find out if they will accept them.

Avoid storing extra bath towels and linens in the bathroom

If you’re coming up short on bathroom storage space for all of your toiletries, you may wish to reconsider keeping your extra bath towels and other linens stored in the room. The reasons for why you shouldn’t store linens in the bathroom may surprise you.

Old bath towels lose their softness and absorbency over time and can start to fray. Get them out of the bathroom and use them as rags. Some veterinarian clinics and animal shelters will welcome your old bath towel donations, which can be repurposed as bedding for their furry patients and residents.

There are lots of practical reasons to have a linen closet in your home that is located in a hallway or somewhere else outside of a bathroom.

8. Nightstands and dressers

The tops of nightstands (or bedside tables if you prefer) don’t have much space, so whatever items are put there can make them look cluttered in a hurry.

Most nightstands have at least one drawer, which should be used whenever possible to keep the surface organized. Prioritize keeping only essential things on top of a bedside table, such as an alarm clock, sleep mask, reading glasses, and lamp. It’s also nice to have a little room beside the bed to place a hot beverage or glass of water.

Things like magazines, night creams, tablets, and phones should be put away in the nightstand drawer(s). This makes extra sense for your phone, so alerts or late calls don’t disturb you as you fall asleep.

Professional organizers recommend keeping any flat surface beside the bed as clutter-free as possible, which can help you get a better night’s sleep.

Another area of the bedroom to look at is the top of your dresser. This space is another clutter hotspot that can become an eyesore that is covered in things like:

• spare change
• jewellery
• car keys
• watches
• wallets and purses
• sunglasses

By all means, make use of this handy space. All it takes to keep things tidier is to use some drawer dividers or a few organizing trays and mini storage bins on the top of the dresser.

The tops of nightstands don’t offer much room, so only use the surface for keeping essentials. (Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels)

9. Kids’ bedrooms and playrooms

A list of home clutter hotspots wouldn’t be complete without including our kids’ bedrooms and playrooms.

Try as they might, most youngsters don’t have it in them quite yet to keep their spaces tidy on a consistent basis.

If you’re frustrated that your kids’ rooms can’t stay clean, see if there are any ways to make it easier for them to keep their rooms more organized. Adding better storage systems and making the storage they use for their toys, craft supplies, clothing, and other things more accessible can help.

For their bedroom closets, parents should be working with their growing kids by going through their closets and dresser drawers together at least once a year to remove outgrown clothing.

Conquer your clutter hotspots. Need some help?

Identifying the clutter hotspots in your house or condo is a positive first steps towards ridding your home of the unnecessary things that cause you to feel weighed down.

One of the questions from that NAPO survey was “What prevents you from effectively addressing the clutter in your home?”. The top reason people gave for not dealing with their home clutter is, “Dealing with clutter is overwhelming.”

Yes, it is. But that’s why professionals with home organizing solutions like Organizing Interiors exist.

We specialize in helping our clients feel a lot less “whelmed” when they’re making the effort to get their homes organized.

Schedule a free design consultation with us to get your home on the path to becoming a tidy, clutter-free space you can enjoy more.

Please share this post if you found it useful.

See also:

• 35 Surprising Home Organization Statistics That’ll Inspire You to Tidy Up
• The High Cost of Clutter: 5 Effects You Can’t Afford to Ignore
• Top 7 Decluttering Myths and Misconceptions Debunked

So many things have changed in the last year and a half, to the point where we’re not sure if we’re coming or going.

When will we be going back to the office or be able to start travelling again?

Do we still need all the clothes that are currently in our closets? How do we assess what might be needed in the future and determine what clothes we can get rid of?

As life slowly returns to normal, doing a wardrobe refresh will be one of the tasks calling for your attention.

Take it slow and easy with your wardrobe refresh

Some of us are a little worse for wear after more than a year of pandemic life. A lack of natural light and fresh air has us craving outdoor activities. However, our lack of physical movement may hinder some of those ambitions.

Make sure to take it slow and easy with your wardrobe fresh and other activities. If gardening or exercising, do so in short spurts. Give your body a chance to recover so you don’t end up back on the couch with back spasms.

As a result of the enforced cocooning and new-fangled cooking aspirations while on lockdown, certain items in your wardrobe may not fit quite like they did pre-pandemic.

We’ve been living under a false sense of reality, where elastic waistbands, stretchy fabrics, and kick-off slippers became the uniform of the day.

We won’t even go down the road of unattended hair growth. It’s likely that the sales of soaps and shampoos were down from 2019. As for razor blades, chances are that they are going to benefit from a summertime buying spree.

Reconsider the Marie Kondo wardrobe refresh approach

Marie Kondo suggests that we discard everything in the house that does not spark joy.

There’s no doubt that she’s a master organizer and Organized Interiors can get behind her philosophy of designating a space for each item. If you can see what you have, you can appreciate all that you have.

At this time, we’re going through a transitional phase and don’t quite know what the future holds yet. That makes it difficult to make final decisions on whether some wardrobe items should stay or go.

Until the fog of uncertainty with the future lifts a little more and your needs become clearer, take a more conservative approach to curating your wardrobe.

There is still uncertainty about what a post-pandemic world will look like. Taking a conservative approach to curating your wardrobe right now is a good idea.

Throw out the “one-year rule”

When organizing your closet, many professional organizers recommend using the “one-year rule”. That means getting rid of a piece of clothing if you haven’t worn it in the last year.

But hold on – we haven’t even had the opportunity to wear most of what we own for well over a year. Our business attire has sat untouched and we haven’t dressed up to go to a party or worn select pieces that we’ve saved for special occasions.

What we have to do now is a “test-of-time assessment” and ask ourselves the following questions about what is in our closet:

1. Does it still fit?
2. Is it still in style?
3. Do I still like it?
4. Have my tastes changed?
5. Are there any moth holes in the clothing after sitting in the closet for so long?
6. Do I have a friend who would be better served by this garment, purse, or shoes?
7. Has my job changed?
8. Will I ever be going back to an office? If so, has the dress code changed?
9. What is practical and will I need this item moving forward?
10. Do I have space to hang on to things that I’m not sure about?

This litmus test will help you to prioritize and reassess, rather than doing a full purge of what you haven’t worn in ages.

As a result, you may have to re-organize your possessions in a new way, so that you can reconsider their importance. Also, it will give you a renewed sense of appreciation for items that you haven’t paid attention to in a very long time.

Some of the usual methods of deciding what clothes to keep or get rid of aren’t ideal in this unusual time. Ask yourself a few new questions when assessing your wardrobe needs.

Refresh to impress

We’re heading into uncharted territory with our closets and “excavating” for the best possible outcome.

Even though we haven’t worn a large percentage of our wardrobe in many months, certain things may require cleaning since they were last hung up.

Better yet, go through your closet and determine what should be sent to the dry cleaners so that the items that need it receive a refreshing boost.

You’ll feel better when you put them back on and leave a much better impression with others when socializing returns to normal.

Back to front, front to back

Did you even switch up your winter and summer clothes last year? Or are the pale shades of summer still hiding in the back?

It is time to rearrange what you have. Pull out forgotten pieces and coordinate them with unsuspecting pairings.

When you have distance from something (and we’ve had lots of distance from some things) we tend to see them in a new and positive light.

Clothes shopping as part of a wardrobe refresh

As part of your wardrobe refresh plans, you might be planning on enjoying a shopping spree at some of your favourite clothing retailers that have been closed for much of the last year and a half.

You’re not alone. 65% of Canadians plan to buy new clothing as pandemic restrictions become more relaxed, according to a recent NPD Group survey.

28% of the Canadian adults surveyed between the ages of 28 and 34 said they planned to buy and wear only new clothing.

This enthusiastic attitude from consumers is welcome news to the retail and clothing industries, who have experienced their most challenging period ever.

There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself to a few new wardrobe items after such a difficult year and a half. Hold off on that spending spree until you’ve taken the time to properly assess your wardrobe needs, however.

Reorganizing your closets first can lead to discoveries of misplaced or lost items that have barely been worn. Once you have a better idea of what items have passed the “keep or toss?” test, then you can make a more informed decision when buying new clothes.

Organize your closets and get rid of things you no longer need before buying any new clothes. (Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels)

Get your wardrobe refresh started

In many ways, the pandemic was a wake-up call to re-examine our lives. Our priorities were measured against life and death scenarios, in some instances.

Our mindset was required to regroup and to rearrange into a new way of thinking – and a new way of doing. With a renewed gratitude for the belongings that you’ve decided to hang on to, it will also help you to re-evaluate what’s important in life when moving forward.

At this point, you may require pros like Organized Interiors to give you help with a wardrobe refresh by transforming your closet system.

From concept to completion, we can reconfigure your wardrobe storage spaces for maximum efficiency. Schedule a free design consultation with us to get your wardrobe refresh started.

Please share this post if you found it useful.

See also:

• Update the Storage Space in Your Home and Get Organized
• Working From Home Is the New Normal. Are You Ready?
• 3 Simple Tips to Ensure Success With Your Closet Purge

You know that it’s long overdue – it’s time to update the storage space in your home and get organized. If the pandemic did one thing, it heightened all the areas in your home that just weren’t working.

On a typical day (pre-pandemic), you’d be rushing to get ready in the morning and encouraging everyone else to get their skates on, as you tossed breakfast dishes into the sink or dishwasher, lined up lunch boxes, and helped child number two find suitable footwear for the day ahead. Once home, after work and school, dinner, homework and nighttime routines took over, and you continued on as you did the day before, and the day before that.

Even if things weren’t working, you didn’t have time to think about making changes, let alone actually doing it.

Now you’re able to reassess how you’ve set up your house, and if it’s really working for you and your family. Are there obstacles in the way? Are there things that you do by rote when there might be a better way?

An organized home creates a feeling of calm and efficiency

Tripping over shoes when you enter your home isn’t welcoming. Tossing your coat on the back of the couch infringes on your seating area, and turning a blind eye to things that never got put away only ups the frustration level and leads to a chaotic atmosphere.

There’s a feeling of calm and sensibility that is derived from an organized home. Similar to the feeling that you have after cleaning, you want to maintain that status quo for as long as you can. Family members and pets are banned from traipsing in from the outside on a recently washed kitchen floor, and heaven help the person who makes the first spill on a freshly shampooed carpet.

Nate Berkus, a favourite designer of Oprah Winfrey, says, “Your home should rise up to greet you. And, at the end of the day, it should ground you in a sense of peace.”

Consider every inch of valuable storage space

Floor surfaces aren’t the only place where you can arrange things. Look up – way up. All that wall space affords many options and alternatives when it comes to storage, shelving, and wall units.

You may be too close to visualize the breadth of possibilities, or even know what options are available. For this reason, you’ll benefit from a design consultation from Organized Interiors.

One of our design consultants can analyze your space, to understand how it is that you live and what specific requirements are applicable to your family’s needs. You’ll be amazed with the design solution we come up with, and you’ll begin to see your surroundings in a more manageable way.

5 steps to creating an organized home environment

1. Edit: Pare back your belongings. Go through clothes that your children have out-grown, and items that you haven’t worn in years. Get rid of paper – magazines, newspapers, and outdated bills. When’s the last time that Johnny played with that train? Donate items to charity and recycle toys with other families. Be ruthless. If you don’t use it – get rid of it.
2. Space planning: The layout of a room should support its function, as well as have a natural flow. Reclaim space that isn’t being used to its full potential.
3. Proper lighting: This is so important to the function of any room or storage space. If you can’t adequately see the contents, then you’ll become frustrated in your search, and all that you’ve organized will be for naught.
4. Zone designation: If room permits, have designated areas for playing games, crafts or personal collections, and then have display cases made, and storage designed to accommodate specific items.
5. Comfort and compatibility: Ultimately, this is what you’re going for. You want your home to be comfortable and well-organized – a space that is tailor-made to its occupants and everyday living.

Update the outdated

Editing your belongings does not mean that your home has been decluttered. It’s how you organize what you have left that ultimately provides a feeling of living in a cohesive environment.

It could be as simple as using hooks, instead of hangers, for everyday outerwear, so that family members actually hang up their coats. And using the ‘right’ hangers for specific closets also helps to maintain order.

Depending upon the age of the house that you live in, closet space might be at a premium, and what little you do have doesn’t accommodate all that you own. What’s behind those closet and cabinet doors is what’s important.

Each grouping of items needs to be defined and accounted for. A simple shelf isn’t adequate. Instead, drawers, dividers, rods, shelving, and angled shoe shelves, as well as belt, tie, scarf and jewelry racks are just the tip of the iceberg. Once you’ve redesigned your closet space, and moved on to the laundry room, the office, and the mudroom, the need for order will become a condition of the household.

The possibilities are limitless in terms of how a space in your home can be reconfigured and re-adapted. Start anew with a fresh perspective on a better way of living.

Request a free design consultation

Organized Interiors can transform any living space to adapt to your specific requirements. If you are considering a closet makeover or a bigger-scale project in your home, contact Organized Interiors for a free design consultation today.

From concept to completion we can reconfigure your space for maximum efficiency.