Master the Chaos: How to Organize a Room in 8 Simple Steps
There is no shortage of advice in the world about how to organize a room. You can find thousands of how-to guides online, in print, or on TV.
The best approach is simply the one that will work for you. And once you figure that process out, it gets easier and easier to replicate in any room. So instead of showing you a list of products that may or may not help you, or creating an unrealistic timeline for you to follow, I’m just going to show you how I organize a room into a few simple steps.
How to Organize a Room in 8 Steps
STEP 1: PURGE!
Before you do anything else: toss, recycle, donate, or store anything you don’t need any more. I cannot reiterate this enough: don’t even think about reorganizing a room until the stuff that doesn’t need to be there is OUT!!!
You can ask items if they spark joy or you can blindly dump a drawer full of stuff into the trash. Whatever works for you, works for me! My only real words of wisdom here are: don’t keep anything in a room just for nostalgia’s sake. If something is really important to you (or you think it may be important to future generations), but you don’t currently display or use it, put it in a safe long-term storage location.
Be ruthless in this step. When it doubt, get it out. If you can’t decide whether or not you should keep something, put it in a box with the date and move it to storage. If you don’t open that box for a certain amount of time (6 months, 1 year, 5 years, whatever), and the objects inside do not have real sentimental value, GET RID OF THEM!!
STEP 2: INVENTORY YOUR STUFF
Now that the room is a little emptier, it’s easier to see what needs to be organized. Make a list of everything that belongs in the room – even the items that are currently located elsewhere. If you’ve completed the Master Your Stuff worksheet, this step should already be done.
STEP 3: INVENTORY YOUR SPACES
Look at your room and make a list of all possible spaces for your items. Be sure to make this list as complete as possible, including shelves, baskets, closets, walls, or on/in/under furniture.
STEP 4: MATCH YOUR STUFF TO YOUR SPACES
This is pretty intuitive, right? Don’t actually move anything yet. I want to you think through your entire list first! This eliminates the moving and re-moving of stuff when you decide that something else really belongs on that shelf.
STEP 5: THINK OF WAYS TO CREATE NEW SPACES IF NECESSARY
There are tons of ways to create storage spaces where you currently have none. Can you use the walls, behind doors, or floating shelves? Can you reconfigure the shelving in a closet to make it more efficient? Can you put doors on a bookshelf to hide the contents? If you’re having trouble thinking of solutions, check out my post on finding inspiration to Solve an Unsolvable Problem.
STEP 6: START PUTTING STUFF AWAY
Tackle the easy things first. You can cake care of 80% of your items in 20% of the time. That statistic may just be a fairy tale, but it actually seems pretty accurate in most of my projects.
I encourage you to get organized first, and worry about aesthetics later. Sure you may want bins in your closet or pretty baskets in your shelf, but RESIST THE URGE to go to the store or shop online! Don’t slow down your momentum and spend money unnecessarily. Just use cardboard boxes, Tupperware or bags for now. Remember, we want this room to function well for you. Make sure your new system works for you before you spend time and money making it pretty.
STEP 7: REFINE
Once you’ve put everything in its place, live with your new system for a while. How does it work? Is there anything that consistently doesn’t make it to it’s proper home? If so, try to find a better solution for that item. Now that you’ve reorganized, is there any extra space in this room that could take the storage burden off of another room?
Don’t be afraid to experiment and tweak your system as often as necessary until it really works for you and everyone else in the family. Remember your system must be easy to use, or else you’ll be right back here in a year.
STEP 8: MAKE IT PRETTY
Now that everything is working well, go ahead and spruce the space up a bit. Replace those cardboard boxes with super cute decorative baskets. Add some flair around the room to make it look as beautiful as it functions. Take as much time as you need in this phase… the good news is you have a little more time to spare because you’re not constantly cleaning this room or looking for lost things!
Enjoy! Now that know how to organize a room, you can replicate the process in any space. And remember, as your life evolves, your home must evolve with it. Put an appointment on your calendar to come back and revisit your newly organized room in a year. It may need a few tweaks by then. If you keep up with it, those tweaks should be quick and easy rather than completely overwhelming.
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