How to Organize your Home: 5 Tips from Personal Organizers

Having an organized home is such a happy thought. Who doesn’t love that reassuring feeling of knowing where everything is, at any time? Funny how, for most of us, this is often not the case. Here’s how to organize your home in a blink—even when it seems like an exhausting effort.

Pro Inputs on How to Organize Your Home

Day-to-day life gets in the way, and organization tends to fall to the back burner. Even a seasoned personal organizer isn’t faced with an easy task when tackling their clients’ homes. And just in case you wonder what that even is: Personal organizers create custom solutions for individuals or families to help create an easier (read: more organized) lifestyle at home. Because even the most clever interior design can’t solve bad storage habits.

However, not all of us are lucky enough to have that second set of hands. That’s where creative storage ideas and practical advice on how to organize your home come in handy. Now the question becomes “Where do I start?”

• Look at how you already use each space before changing anything.
• Keep essentials accessible—never store what you reach for daily in an inconvenient place.
• If you don’t love or need it, it doesn’t deserve a spot in your home.
• Organization happens in layers—surface-level tidying doesn’t solve clutter at its root.
• Always measure carefully before buying storage solutions.

Pro Tip: Looking for how to organize your home with a custom storage but not sure which design to choose? Try our Free Interior Design Style Quiz to discover your ideal style today!

Home Organization Ideas That Work

These five tips are a foolproof way to kick start the organization your home deserves. Need more advice for your interior? Check out our post on how to decorate your small space!

1. First Plan, Then Buy

Storage containers seem like a shortcut to organization, but they won’t fix clutter. Buying bins, baskets, and drawer dividers before sorting through your belongings only creates organized chaos. Before you spend a dime, empty out the space you’re working on and assess what actually needs to stay. Storage solutions should fit your items—not the other way around. Once you know what remains, choose containers that fit and make most of the available space while keeping things accessible.

Pro Tip: Avoid deep storage that buries things you rarely use. If something lives in the back of a bin for over a year, you don’t really need it.

2. Start Small for Big Wins

How to organize your home if everything seems to be in chaos? Overhauling an entire house at once is overwhelming. Instead of tackling everything, start with a single drawer, a nightstand, or a bathroom cabinet. Small areas build momentum. Once you see how much easier life feels with a properly organized space, you’ll want to keep going. Focusing on a small area also lets you refine your approach and gradually create a system that works elsewhere in the house.

Pro Tip: If a space gets messy again within a week, the system isn’t effective. Adjust what’s accessible, remove excess, or simplify the setup.

3. Declutter Without Drama

People hold onto clutter for all the wrong reasons—sentimentality, guilt, or the belief that something might be useful someday. So how to organize your home without unpacking emotional baggage? If an item hasn’t been used in the past six months (aside from seasonal items), it’s just taking up space for something you need more. Instead of sorting things into endless maybe piles, decide quickly: keep, donate, or toss. The longer an item lingers in indecision, the less likely it is to leave.

Pro Tip: Here’s a simple hack to help with the decision: If you wouldn’t buy it again today, you don’t need to keep it.

4. Labeling: The Shortcut to Staying Organized

A good labeling system eliminates confusion. Instead of guessing where things go or digging through drawers, clear labels make it obvious. And you know the trick? Labels need to be specific! A box marked “stuff” is—obviously—not going to help much. “Batteries,” “Charging Cables,” or “Cold Medicine” on the other hand, instantly tell you where to look. Labels also help other people in the house keep things organized—so you’re not the only one maintaining the system.

Pro Tip: Skip complicated label makers (yes, we know they’re oh-so-tempting). Simple, handwritten labels work just as well and are easier to update.

5. Donate, Don’t Hoard

Letting go of things can be hard, but donating reframes it—you’re giving useful items a second life instead of letting them sit unused. Keeping things out of guilt or obligation only creates stress and only sabotage your home organization ideas. If you don’t wear it, use it, or love it, pass it on to someone who will. Set up a donation box in your home so that whenever you come across something unnecessary, you can let it go right away instead of second-guessing.

Pro Tip: Give yourself a strict limit—if a donation box isn’t full within a month, it means you’re hesitating too much.

Need more help, like designing a tailored storage system for every room?

Is all this talk about organizing getting you inspired to refresh your home design? Book your Free Online Interior Design Consultation to get started with one of Decorilla’s top interior designers today!