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It's a huge mistake to try to store items you ought to get rid of. Before you start organizing, cast off what you don't need. Go through clothes, sheets, blankets, books, papers, tapes, CDs, DVDs, cleaning supplies, kitchen tools, medicine, electronic gadgets and children's toys. Place items that you use regularly in one area and items you haven't used in more than six months in another.
Throw away or recycle anything that's expired, broken or badly worn. Then look through the things you don't use often and decide whether you plan to use them in the near future. If you don't think you'll use that item in the next six months to one year, consider getting rid of it. You can sell the items on eBay or Craigslist or at a garage sale, give them away to a charitable organization such as The Salvation Army or recycle them. -
Look through your closets, drawers, cabinets and shelves for existing storage space that's being wasted. Gather your clutter and place like items together. Find the most convenient place to put the items. For example, allocate the cabinets in the bathroom for medicine, soap, shampoo and toilet paper and the cabinets in the laundry room for household cleaners, bleach, detergent and fabric softener. Use your existing DVD, CD and tape racks to organize your movies and music by genre.
In the kitchen, store pots, pans and baking sheets in a drawer under the range. Nest food storage containers together so that they take up less space. Place the cooking utensils you use often in a high drawer, and the ones you use least often in a lower drawer. In the office, place papers, pens and pencils inside desk drawers and on shelves. In your closet, hang the clothes you wear most often on the rack where they're most accessible, and place clothes you wear less often in the places that are harder to reach. Avoid storing belongings under the bed, on top of the refrigerator, on top of bookshelves or any other place where it will be difficult to access. - Organizing your clutter is as simple as getting the right things to store your belongings. If you have a lot of books and nowhere to put them, look around your home for a place where you could put up an extra bookshelf. Plastic storage bins are useful to store small, odd-shaped items such as toys, cables, kitchen gadgets and tools. You can use a cedar chest to store winter clothing during the summer. Get a filing cabinet with hanging folders and manila folders to hold important papers. Find magazine racks for the places where you regularly read magazines. Place important papers that are more than five years old in a cardboard box and label it clearly with the name and date of the contents. Remove the box to the garage or to a closet shelf where you can retrieve it easily.
