Home organization just makes life easier. If your New Year’s resolution is to get organized, spring cleaning has begun, you’ve just binge-watched the Marie Kondo Netflix series or you’ve read her book, etc., and you are now decluttering – I just wanted to share a few “joy-sparking” organizational hacks that I’ve used to organize what’s left after the purging. If you haven’t read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up by Marie Kondo, I highly recommend it. I like it better than the Netflix series. Check the book out here. Though some parts of the book were a little weird for me, there were SO many great takeaways.
Clothing Storage Ideas
The first organizational hack I’m sharing was something I actually learned from the book and that is folding clothes the “Marie Kondo Way”. I love how organized our drawers look and LOVE that I can see all the shirts/pants without digging through piles. Go here to watch her folding technique.
It’s also great when transferring clothes to our suitcases for travel. It keeps my family from digging through all the clothes and unfolding everything to find that one blue shirt – does your family do this too?!
Gift Bag Storage / Organization Idea:
The next hack I saw years ago on Young House Love blog. My gift bags have been in a drawer, in a plastic under-bed container, on a shelf, scattered throughout the house. All of those options were just ok, very disorganized and digging for a bag was annoying. Instead, now I hang them like so:
I love it! I love that I can see them all at once and find quickly what I’m looking for! And the tissue paper and ribbon – it’s stored in a bag that hangs out right next to the bags:
Spice Organization – Spice Up Your Kitchen Drawer:
I tend to accumulate spices. The perfectionist in me can’t improvise on recipes, I typically want ALL of the spices listed. I fell in love with having my spices in a shallow drawer like this. It’s by far my favorite drawer in the kitchen. It actually does “spark joy” for me.
I can organize my spices so I can find what I want quickly, I can see them all at once and I don’t have avalanches trying to sort through stacks in my cabinet. I literally changed the design of our island to include shallow drawers so I could do this in our new house. I also store my measuring spoons in the drawer since spices are what I mainly use them for. If you have tons of spices that need organization, consider using a shallow drawer in your kitchen.
If you don’t have a shallow drawer to use for this purpose – hope is not lost! You can purchase this sliding drawer shelf to install inside your cabinet:
Just like a shallow drawer, the slide out will display all your spices in one layer.
I also used another shallow drawer for teas. They fit perfectly. #teahoarder. I won’t show you the other shallow drawer. #junkdrawer
Water Bottle Storage Idea:
Have you tried to store water bottles and sippy cups in a cabinet? I did. It sparked the opposite of joy because they were constantly falling over and I couldn’t find lids. Using an over-the-door-shoe-organizer Changed. My. Life.
DVD and Video Game Organization
After moving, we struggled to find a place for our zillions of DVD’s. My husband is a huge movie buff and so our DVD cases could fill several sets of shelves. I couldn’t deal anymore so simple solution, put them in cd binders. This solves two problems. One, less storage space used (I threw away all of the cases – don’t tell my husband). Second, ease of putting DVD’s away. My family just cannot put DVD’s back in cases (unless they put them in the wrong cases-they do that well) so they end up piled up everywhere or in the wrong case and it’s a chore to find the case and put them all away and half get scratched in the meantime. The books make cleanup so much faster. Yes it may take longer to find the specific movie you’re looking for but totally worth it to me.
I applied the same concept to video games. All in their own book. Quick cleanup! Less space used.
Coffee Station / Organization
Check out this post for more details on how I used a coffee station to give added storage and counter space while organizing all things coffee.
Shoe Organization:
Check out this post for the details on adding a shoe cabinet to clean up the pile of shoes and backpacks next to the door:
What are your organization hacks that are life-changing? Share the tips we all need to try below in the comments!
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Thank you! We hope you found some of our home organization tips helpful!
Today, I went to the beach front with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it
to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She
put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!
Haha! That’s amazing!