The Ultimate Guide to Spring Organizing

You’ve purged out the clutter, so now what? In this blog, I’m going to take you through the process of transforming your piles into an organized system that will serve YOU! So put on your favorite music, throw your hair in a bun (or not), and get ready for my favorite form of self-care: organizing!

Start Small

As we discussed in the purging blog, motivation comes from small wins, so start small with a linen closet or even just one drawer so you don’t get overwhelmed.

Take everything out of the space

Yes, everything! Spread the items out on a counter or on the floor so you can see everything at once.

Separate out items into categories

While everything is out of the space, separate the items into categories. If the grouping is too large, create smaller categories within the larger category.

Now that you can easily see everything you have – purge!

If you haven’t done so already, now is the best time to purge any clutter from the space you’re working on. See the previous blog on purging for the complete process and tips.

Clean the shelves and drawers in the space

This is your chance while everything is out! If it’s dusty or there are a lot of crumbs and dirt, vacuum first and then wipe down with an all-purpose cleaner.

Measure your shelves and drawers for bins and dividers

Measure twice, buy once. This ensures that you aren’t making additional trips to the store unnecessarily! Measure the depth, width, and height of the shelves and drawers and be sure to take into consideration any hinges that may encroach on the cabinet space you have.

Purchase bins and dividers if necessary

You can use bins you already have, or start fresh if you want to have a uniform aesthetic. Many stores have organization products now, but The Container Store has the widest variety of options to fit any aesthetic, budget, and size. There are storage solutions for virtually anything now!

To select the best product, consider the space that you have, where the items will be stored, what items will be stored, and how you want to access them.

• To reduce visual clutter, choose an opaque bin
• If you prefer to see what’s in the bins from a glance, choose a transparent bin
• If you want to easily access every bin, consider adding shelves so you’re not stacking bins, or choose stacking drawers
• Will it be stored in the garage or basement that could flood but it’s important paperwork or mementos? I recommend a weathertight tote with a seal to keep moisture out of the bins and away from your valuables!

Place each category into its own bin, divider, drawer, or area

• Keep like items together
• By utilizing bins and dividers to store your items, you keep each category from growing out of their ‘zone’ and becoming a massive pile again. It gives you a visual boundary of how much of that category you have the space for. If you have extra space and want to have room to grow for a certain category, go ahead and include extra empty bins in the space so the organizational system is prepared to accept the new items.

Keep frequently used items easily accessible

• If possible, keep these items close to the area you use them in (i.e. spices and oils close to the stove).
• Store less frequently used items in harder-to-reach places.

Label, label, label!

This makes it easy for everyone using the space to know where items belong.

Pro Tips:

Vertical space is commonly overlooked for storage solutions, and vertical space is vital in small spaces:

• The back of doors
• Wall space behind a door
• Under the bed
• Additional shelves
• Cabinet shelves and shoe shelves are great non-permanent solutions to add shelving to smaller spaces

File fold clothes in drawers

this allows you to see everything you have at once and avoids the mess that comes from grabbing whatever is on the bottom of the stack.

Store food storage lids in a bin and nest the containers by shape and size

If you love a clean aesthetic - decant anything and everything possible!

The more you decant, the cleaner your space will look because you won’t have 100 different colors of (sometimes empty) cardboard boxes everywhere.

Food

• Snack bars out of the box and into a bin
• Flour, sugar, brown sugar, etc.
• Tea and Coffee

Bath items

• Hair Ties
• Bobby Pins
• Cotton Swabs
• Q-tip
• Flossers

Keep the minimal amount of items on countertops.

Too many items on countertops, desktops, etc. instantly make it look more cluttered. If it doesn’t need to be out or isn’t used every day – put it away!

Have a dedicated spot in your garage, mudroom, or a closet for a donation bin and a bin for borrowed items.

This will keep these items in one location easy to find and keep them from taking over your house.

Utilize the open space between the open studs in your garage

Utilize the open space between the open studs in your garage to store items like skis, snowboards, camping chairs, fishing poles, etc. You can do this by screwing in cup hooks into the studs and hooking a bungee cord to the cup hooks, or screw in a 2x4 across the studs to contain the items.

Create a system that will work for YOU!

Every organizing system should be tailored to those using the space. There are organizing systems that work perfectly for some and how they think and work, but don’t work for you. Find what works best for you!

# 1 Pro Tip to Staying Organized: Put items away as soon as you’re done using them! The quickest way to ruin a beautifully organized space is to simply not put things back where they belong.

Conclusion:

‘A place for everything and everything in its place’ really is the organizer’s mantra to live by. When items have a home, they’re happy and so are you because you always know where to find them! Bonus: you now have the time you would’ve spent looking for something to spend on what you REALLY want to be doing! Happy organizing!