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Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide for Caring for Everything in Your Home

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

Good HousekeepingThe Complete Clutter Solution: Organize Your Home for Good

My Home Workbook: The Essential Home Owner's Record-Keeper for Costs, Repairs, Finance Details, Improvements, Renovations, Monthly To-do Lists, Chores, Phone Numbers

Clear your space, clear your mind.

If piles of clutter are driving you out of your house or out of your mind, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get organized. Restore order to your surroundings—and maintain it once and for all—by learning:

Causes of chronic household disorganization and long-term solutions for it
Incentives and tips for discarding or donating rarely used items
Specific, detailed suggestions for organizing every room in your home

Basics of Home Organization

Organizing your home means developing an easy-to-maintain system for storing and accessing everyday items. This is easier said than done: many households are bursting with groceries, mail, newspapers, toys, electronics, and clothes, and a constant influx of new items adds to the mess. In some homes, organizing aids such as boxes and baskets only add to the clutter instead of containing it.

The main problem is that too many people view organizing as an event instead of a process. They set aside a day, or several days, to “get organized,” not realizing that maintaining order requires vigilance over time.

Reasons to Organize Your Home

The best reason to organize your home will become apparent when you finish and marvel at how good and neat everything looks. But there are other reasons as well.

Save money: Disorganization costs households significant sums each year in redundant purchases. Think of the times you’ve rushed out to buy a new item, only to discover later that you already owned one or two comparable items. Or the times that you’ve rung up big takeout or eat-out bills because the clutter in your kitchen keeps you from cooking at home. Or the times you’ve been hit with expensive late fees for items you need to return but that get hidden or lost in the mess of your house. Clutter also prevents you from taking advantage of cost savings when coupons, rebate documents, and gift certificates are misplaced.
Save time: All the time you spend frantically searching for your passport the night before a trip or struggling to find a key piece of an outfit before a big interview can be eliminated by organizing. When your belongings are located in logical and accessible spaces, your productivity is sure to increase.
Protect health: An often-overlooked hazard of disorder is the health risk it can pose to you and your family. Many people have sustained serious injuries from tripping over toys and clutter, and others develop allergies or respiratory problems as a result of the dust that often goes along with household mess.
Reduce stress: Disorganization can increase anxiety and contribute to migraine headaches, ulcers, high blood pressure, and other stress-related problems. A neater, more orderly home can reduce tension and provide more space for you to relax and pursue leisure activities.
Live comfortably: When your home is well-organized, you’re more likely to enjoy being there and to invite friends over to enjoy the welcoming space.

Identify the Cause of Your Disorganization

An essential piece of the organizing process is examining the reasons why you’re so disorganized in the first place. Sometimes the causes are situational: maybe you’ve recently moved to a smaller home and all the furniture and items that fit comfortably in your previous house overwhelm your current space. Other times the roots are deeper and have to do with a physical disability or personality. It’s important to get to the underlying issue, or your organizing efforts will be sabotaged in the long run. Consider:

Personality: Character traits influence an individual’s propensity for organization—and disorganization. Compulsive shoppers often have organization issues because they acquire items at a much faster rate than they can manage or have space to hold. Pack rats and people with an obsessive fear of poverty produce clutter due to an unwillingness to part with anything.
Family history: Sometimes people are disorganized simply because they’ve been used to disorder all their lives. Their parents weren’t neat, so as adults they simply re-create the untidy home of their childhood.
Health: Having a physical disability that inhibits your mobility or keeps you from reaching high or low storage areas is an obvious example of health affecting organization. But health issues such as depression can also affect your ability to maintain a clean household.

Taking time to consider the reasons behind your organization problems and taking steps to address those issues can boost the likelihood that the organizing tactics offered in this guide will work for you.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer