Home Organizing 101: How to Organize Your Home Start To Finish

Ready to get organized? Start here! This post will show you everything you need to know about how to organize your home room by room so you can find what you need, have more space, and save money too.

If you’re just getting started with home organizing, check out this helpful KonMari decluttering checklist first. If you are looking for the most amazing organizing products on Amazon, then check out my must-have list. It is full of stuff that will help you revamp your house!

It’s incredible how great you feel when your home is completely organized. All of a sudden, you can find things. You can breathe! Your free time is actually free again—no more hours of cleaning and chores. And no, you don’t have to hire a professional organizer (although you can if you want – it sure makes everything easier).

In this guide, I’ll show you how to organize your home room by room. Pin this post so you can keep coming back to it. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it’s really difficult to organize your entire house in a day. But, don’t let that stop you. If you keep working at it bit by bit, you’ll have a completely organized home in no time at all.

First Steps For How To Organize Your Home

These are five steps for how to get started organizing your home that will set you up for success every single time.

1. Set up a ‘donation station’ with cardboard boxes so you can easily donate your clutter.
2. Schedule a time to drop off donations so they don’t sit in your home.
3. Have the right supplies. Make sure to have plenty of trash bags on hand, along with a Sharpie marker, label maker, and phone with the Notes app in case you want to jot down a shopping list for organizational supplies to buy when you’re finished. Include cleaning cloths/paper towels and an all-purpose spray cleaner. Put them in a bag or caddy to take with you as you organize.
4. Block off time for larger spaces, leaving time at the end for clean-up. This is often the hardest part, those last few minutes of cleaning up after spending energy organizing.
5. Enlist help! Get your kids to pitch in, as well as your partner. They can help clean, sort, and take donations/trash away. You don’t have to do it alone if you live in a shared space. Even if you live on your own, ask a friend to come help. It makes things more fun!

Quick Tips For Organizing Any Space

Before you begin to organize your first room, read through these tips. They will keep you focused and motivated as you tackle it all.

• Start small. You don’t need to organize entire rooms, you can organize one drawer and it can still make a huge difference. Try a junk drawer, your makeup, or one category of clothing and move on from there.
• Clutter is the enemy of clean. Don’t organize clutter! If you have clutter piling up, it’s stuff that doesn’t have a home (or it’s unmade decisions, which weigh you down.) Find a home for it, and if you don’t need it/use it/love it, then let it go.
• Start with something easy (like coupons or kitchen utensils) and move on to harder categories (such as photos) as you develop your decluttering ‘muscle.’
• Short on time? Organize categories that will give you your time back. These include personal care products or clothing. Once these areas are organized, it will free up time in the morning. Reaching into your closet and finding the perfect outfit instead of digging through unfavored clothes gives you your time back!
• Don’t buy containers before you organize! Wait until you are done with that space to purchase. Otherwise, you end up having the containers dictate what you keep whether you need it or not, instead of having the containers meet your needs.
• Go vertical. Don’t forget to use the wall for organizing, including wall shelves, pegboards, rail systems, and shoe organizers. The latter can also be used on the back of doors for hidden storage of seasonal items, gift wrapping supplies, pantry spices, and so much more.

How To Organize Your Home: Room By Room

Here we go! Let’s go room by room and organize every single one. Remember the tips and steps I told you earlier – we will be repeating them pretty often in each room.

Kitchen Organization

Let’s start in the most-used room in your house – the kitchen. When you get your kitchen organized, you’ll feel like you can conquer anything. Plus, you are in this room so often that it will be a daily reminder of how good it feels to be organized.

The most important change you can make in your kitchen is to only store what you have room for. Go through and get rid of anything that doesn’t have a home.

Then, set up storage for what you still need to keep. These 30 genius kitchen storage hacks will transform every single space in your kitchen – from shelves to drawers to the countertops too.

Also, print out some cute labels for your pantry. The ones in the picture below are free for you. They are lovely and really create unity in your pantry.

Closet Organization

Next, let’s organize those closets. This can include bedroom closets and linen closets. Basically, we are going to make sure our storage is working for us.

The image below is from my linen closet. It’s one of the easiest closets to organize. Follow my linen closet tips, and you’ll have room for all your towels and sheets.

After that is organized, move on to your bedroom closets. These tend to be easily overlooked, but they are so important. These 6 secrets will help you create more room than you knew you had.

As you go through all the closets in your house, try to get rid of anything that you haven’t used in the past year and anything that is broken or unusable.

Bathroom Organization

Bathrooms are usually pretty easy to organize. I like to organize my bathroom when I need a quick confidence boost or jolt of motivation. When you are wondering how to organize your home, you can often start in the bathrooms.

One of the most difficult things to store in bathrooms is the pile of towels. This little towel storage hack will change your life. It takes 5 minutes and gives you more room than you knew you had.

I’ve probably invested in more bathroom storage products than any other room in my house. It’s amazing how much you keep in here – makeup, soaps, cleaners – the list goes on. Use smart organization products that will keep your bathroom toiletries easy to find.

Finally, maintain your bathroom by constantly throwing away anything that is empty or you don’t use. This is the one place where it piles up really quickly.

Home Office Organization

Do you have a dedicated space where you work from home, manage your home, or help your kids with homework? This doesn’t have to be an entire room, it can even be a corner of the kitchen. These tips will help you organize those office supplies in a jiffy.

The first thing you need to do is set up a function for the space. Is this something the parents use only? Or will the kids use this area for homework too? When you know who is going to use it and how they use it, you can set up spaces for those tasks.

You should also establish homes for the office products that you use and get rid of anything that you don’t use.

The photo below is our setup for a homework station for our kids. Here’s how we set up a home learning space for our kids, and you can too.

Kids Room Organization

Before you start to organize your kid’s room, decide whether you want them to help or not. This is a personal choice and will affect how you go about it.

What is one of the worst things to organize in a kid’s room? Probably LEGOs! (If your child doesn’t have a large LEGO collection, you can still use these tips to organize other types of collections.) I created free printable LEGO labels and created a simple LEGO binder.

It’s also very important to look at your child’s room and decide how much stuff it can realistically hold. If your kiddos want to keep more than their room can hold, discuss putting some of the items into storage and creating a toy rotation system.

Laundry Room Organization

The next step in this how to organize your home guide is the laundry room. Even if you only have a laundry corner or closet, there are still things you can do to keep this space organized.

These 11 laundry room hacks are perfect for rooms of any size. One thing to keep in mind with your laundry room is to remember its purpose. Don’t just cram cleaning products in here. Make sure it’s things that you need and use.

Also, if you can’t see in your laundry room, then you need to add more light. Clutter piles up more in dark corners, so light them up!

Mudroom/Entryway Organization

It’s really important to create a wonderful first impression on people when they enter your house. I’m not just talking about guests either! You deserve to walk into a peaceful space.

Do you have a mudroom? This is a room where you take off your boots and coats. Some people call it the area near the “back door.” Organize this space too so that it doesn’t look like a pile of coats and papers.

Set up hooks for hats and coats and some baskets for those hats and gloves. If you need more storage, there are benches that open up so you can place shoes and boots inside.

Create your space around your current habits so that everything you do has a place to store your stuff.

Dining Room Organization

Now let’s organize the place your family eats. If you happen to have a dining room, then make it a welcoming room where guests can spend time together. If you don’t, then use these tips to organize the room where your family eats meals together.

Make sure that your furniture has a purpose. Don’t overstuff the room with cabinets or things that you don’t use. Dining rooms tend to collect ‘stuff’, so work hard to keep the table clear so it can function as it’s intended.

Finally, have fun decorating it! When it is decorated so that you can show it off, you’ll be more likely to keep it organized long term.

Garage Organization

Do you have a garage? If so, let’s get that garage so organized that you can park your car and store your tools all in the same place.

If not, use these tips to organize your shed or basement. Anywhere that has tons of boxes and “I don’t know where this goes” can be fixed with these tips.

This garage organizing guide will give you a ton of ideas. My best tip is to store everything in large matching tubs. If you don’t have shelves, build some. Stacking tubs will create unnecessary pressure on the lids and could damage what you are trying to store.

You might be surprised at how much stuff you have in your garage that you can get rid of. Try to donate as much as you can.

My other favorite garage tip is to hang up a pegboard and attach as much to the walls as you can. This will get stuff where you can see it.

How To Organize Your Home With Kids

Parents, you know the struggle! You can get your house organized, but if you don’t teach these skills to your kids, they will probably undo all your hard work.

Here are some tips just for you! These will help you pass along this new organized lifestyle so they can help you maintain your lovely home.

• Break tasks into smaller pieces so they don’t get overwhelmed.
• Make checklists – a visual reminder can be HUGE in helping kids organize.
• Don’t expect kids to have the proper tools emotionally to let go of items. This is a skill that is built. When they are young, I would ask my kids to donate items that were too ‘baby-ish’ and that helped them choose age-appropriate toys to keep. As they get older, give them a framework of why we declutter and how it can help others. For example, a younger cousin or someone who doesn’t have many toys would appreciate and use it more.
• For younger kids, use visual cues such as clear bins or picture labels to help them clean up. Older kids will appreciate labeled bins. No matter the age, make sure every toy has a ‘home.’ This is an important tenet of organizing, so start them young!
• Model it for kids first, then organize with them, then have them try it on their own in small pieces, and so forth. Building skills this way will help for a lifetime.

How To Make Labels For Organizing

Trust me, label all your plastic bins. As you create storage, you want to know what is in the basket or tub without having to pull it down and open it up. Plus, matching labels really makes the entire space look cohesive and more organized.

These are my best tips about how to make labels when you organize your home.

• Use a label maker like this one (my favorite!)
• Order from Etsy
• Create your own using a Silhouette or Cricut machine
• Use chalkboard tape
• Purchase premade labels
• Label using a chalk or paint marker

Free Printable Labels

Here are some free printable labels that I made for you. Download and print them, and they are ready to go!

• Free Printable Pantry Labels
• Pritnable Labels For Homemade Cleaners
• Free Printable Chalkboard Labels For Toys

How To Organize Your Home: Best Organizing Supplies

You can read all about my favorite supplies for organizing your pantry and laundry room (as well as the 10 products that belong in the Organizing Hall of Fame). But overall, here are my most-used supplies when it comes to organizing your entire home:

There you have it! Room by room, day by day, take it one step at a time. Soon, your entire house (and every storage area) will be completely tidy and organized. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel and how much easier you can think and breathe.

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