The condition of a kitchen pantry, closet or garage tells a lot about people. Some people keep the spices alphabetical, separate the clothes by color and season, and some seem to have a power cord wrapped neatly in one place. Then there are others with more junk drawers than regular drawers, and smaller collections of things that have accumulated over time.
If you are a member of the latter group, you may be one of many curious and hearts looking for Google for organising tips – the search term reached a five-year high in 2025 – or you have found yourself at the hypnotist house organizing wormholes in Tiktok.
A confused home can cause anxiety and overwhelm, says Amanda Wiss, founder of Urban Clarity, a professional organizational business based in New York. In her experience, the biggest hurdle to tidying is finding the will to start. Some clients perceive the tasks are too difficult, and the project is too big. Maybe you're on the same boat. Alternatively, the online content seen around home organizations (furthered with expensive bins and colorful labels) puts pressure on products to drop hundreds of dollars. But experts say the secret to organizing is that it relies more on functionality than aesthetics, and organizes it like a real person rather than an influencer.
Start with small, easy-to-manage tasks
Remove some pressure for those who are struggling to get started. You don't need to organize your entire house one weekend. But you should start with a smaller task or area. Ideally, it will cause you what will make the most worse. Do you trip over your shoes or book bags as soon as you walk through the door? Let's start at the entrance. Do you really stack your laundry in an office chair that you want to sit back again? I'll work on that first. Are you having trouble finding a place for your groceries in the fridge? Create a project for the day.
“Understanding is decision making,” Wiss says.
If even these tasks seem too big, Wiss suggests breaking them down into microtasks: clear only vegetable drawers or store winter coats. Robyn Reynolds, CEO of Southern California, promises to drive these small projects into one room and slowly advance over time. “If you're going to corner here and corner of the other rooms in this room, you're not really going to see progress and then you'll feel defeated,” she says. “But if you can actually finish the whole room, you'll really be motivated and proud of yourself because you actually did it.”
That momentum can transport you to another small to-do list item. But be aware of your energy levels. They don't want to empty their pantry and lack the motivation to bring it all back together. “Understanding is decision making,” Wiss says. “And that's exhausting, it's decision-making fatigue. At one point, you just hit a wall and those mountains need to go somewhere.”
Try the 3-second rule for purge
Wiss offers a simple three-step approach to keeping things organized. First, make sure you have everything you want to organize in one place. For example, all chargers must live in one area. All shoes should be stored in the same place. All bowls and plates must be in the kitchen. Next, check the number of chargers, sneakers and bowls you have and palair down if necessary.
If you know it's difficult to let go of unrealistic but sentimental items…
- Remember that you have not abandoned the memories of those you love.
- If the item is not your style and you never use it, let it go.
- Do not hold items that are damaged after being stored for years. “When you clean up your garage with your clients, you'll find yourself multiple times,” says Reynolds. [have] Mold or flood. So, what was the point of holding it when it was just destroyed, and now they're throwing it away anyway? ”
The purge stage can often be challenging as many people attach memories and emotions to objects and find it difficult to let go of them. Kaylene Kelly, a professional organizer in Olympia, Washington, has developed a 3-second rule to help clients cut down on items. After collecting and sorting all categories of items like coffee mugs, move on one at a time to decide which items to hold. It's an automatic keep if you want to keep a specific mug for more than 3 seconds. This technique allows you to make confident decisions about what to remove. “If you can't decide,” Kelly says. “And hesitantly, there is no punishment for indecisiveness.
To further support your decision-making process, ask yourself if the item is actually useful, Reynolds says. Again, not everything needs to be utilitarian, but it's not worth keeping a university poster. But if you can get rare but meaningful use from the family heirloom fondue pot, keep it. Reynolds also recommends taking photos of sentimental but impractical items and collecting them in photo books and digital slideshows. This way you can commemorate your grandma's sofa without having to sacrifice space in the basement.
Once you've reduced your items, you can organize them properly. Now you'll create a system for your closet, garage, pantry, or other areas you're organizing. It's as easy as offering one shelf on a sheet in a linen closet and the other to a towel.
Don't spend money on the organizers when old shoe boxes do
Experts observe too many urges to buy expensive organizers and bins before clients begin disposing of items. Online, influencers push aesthetically pleasing storage containers and label makers, but only add to the pressure that true tidying involves spending money. “It's not about buying more products,” Kelly says. In reality, when you scrape off your makeup brush, you may realize that you don't need a container. Cups will be made from the kitchen.
Kelly said the most important aspect of organizing is that the system of choice is functional. Don't waste your money on an 8-tier hanger. If you need a container, reuse what you already have in your home, such as shoe boxes, Tupperware, an old iPhone box, or cardboard box from an Amazon box, as a drawer organizer. For everything else, local dollar stores have cheap organizers and bins.
Donate things you don't need
The most essential aspect of tidying is removing clutter from the space. Don't get carried away with logistics until you've put aside the items you want to remove, Kelly says. In her experience, most of the client's discarded items are in good condition to be donated. “Find a local place that makes up a large part of everything,” she says. It could be your local goodwill, the Salvation Army, a thrift store, or a women's shelter.
After organizing small spaces, such as linen closets or cabinets under the sink, you may have a more limited collection of items to donate. You can become more targeted with these donations, Kelly says.
Local Buy Facebook Groups are effective in finding yours in a new home.
Check out city and town recycling rules for items that you cannot or cannot give. If everything else fails, throw the item into the trash can.
As life is inevitable, the system can become disrupted and products can accumulate again. Organizing must be a continuous process throughout the year.
To keep clients in a messy state of mind, Reynolds often conveys words of wisdom. “Everything has a price: time, space, money, or energy,” she says. Think about what your clutter is spending on doing things other than tidying up, the cost of using and maintaining your items, and the ability to better spend things other than the atmosphere it brings to your home.
“Is it really worth keeping or buying this particular item?” Reynolds says.
