5 Budget-Friendly Home Organization Hacks You Can Easily Start Doing Today
Not every single aspect of your life needs to be organized. If that’s the way you live a productive and stress-free day, that’s fine. But sometimes people need a few things organized in order to live a fulfilling life. I'm one of those people who uses organization in every aspect of my life. But today I wanted to share with you some simple and quick home organization hacks.
These are perfect if you’re finding your home in a little disarray and just want to put a few things in order. You don’t need to do all of them, but each will bring a little order to the chaos. Not to mention they’re so quick and easy you can do them today.
Here are 5 home organization hacks you can start today
#1 — Contain like items together
One of the top-ranked home organization hacks is simply grouping like items together. Apply this method to any area of your home. Office supplies, personal hygiene products, cleaning supplies, kitchenware, etc.
By grouping like items together, you’re cutting the time it takes to look for something in half. Take your pantry for example. If you shove random things where there's room, you're going to waste time looking for it later. But if you store canned goods together, condiments together, and grains together, you'll know where everything is.
Many professional organizers swear by this approach. Besides it keeping things in order, it also lets you see how much of a certain item you have. It eliminates over-buying. It may also encourage you to declutter if you notice a lot of duplicate items.
#2 — Don’t put it down, put it away
This is a mantra I want you to start living by. My sister sent me a Reels video in which the creator repeated this to herself. Once this motto becomes ingrained, you'll never put something out of place again.
Let’s say you finished lunch. You bring your dishes to the kitchen. Rather than putting them down in the sink, tell yourself to put them away in the dishwasher. Or let’s say you want to do a little cleaning. You take out your cleaner to do the job. Instead of putting it down on a random surface, tell yourself to put it away once you’re done.
Get the idea? I’m telling you if you repeat this to yourself every time you use something, your life is going to change. “Don’t put it down, put it away.” Repeat this and watch how you adapt to keeping things organized and tidy.
#3 — Organize by color
Full disclaimer: I am not an organize by color kind of person. The rainbow aesthetic is pretty in pictures, but it’s not my preferred organizational approach. However, visual people should definitely give this method a try.
When you organize by color, you’re telling your eyes where to look when you need something. For example, I’m a writer and one of the things I use quite often is a red pen for editing. If you like to organize your stuff by color, you can put all your red pens together. Even if they’re different brands, just keep all the red is together.
You can use this method to organize books, writing instruments, and even kitchen utensils. Organizing by color is one of those home organization hacks that will only appeal to a certain type of person. And the only way to know for sure is to try.
Start small. Organize your pen collection by color and see if that works for you. If it doesn’t, then group them by kind (pens, pencils, highlighters, etc). Sometimes, we don’t know what type of organizer we are until we try different methods.
#4 — Make every day used items accessible
Take a minute to think about what you use on a daily basis. Most of us use the same common items every day. Toothbrush, mugs, phones, etc. Every single thing you use on a daily basis should be easily accessible.
Outside of common-use items, the rest of your daily items will vary from person to person. For example, if you have a strict skincare routine, you should make sure those products are easy to grab when you need them. Don’t bury them in the back of a cabinet or drawer. If you use them twice a day or more, keep them somewhere handy.
As a minimalist, I prefer my products off my bathroom counter. I like a clean space. However, I do have all my everyday products within easy reach. My toothbrush is in my top right drawer where I can easily grab it. My face wash and moisturizers are on the top shelf of my cabinet. And I always keep a phone charger near my workstation.
Having these everyday items accessible just makes sense. If you don’t use it all the time, put it away somewhere. Let’s use my desk as an example. Every day there are five things on it:
My laptop
My bullet journal
A pen
Coffee mug
Glass of water
This is everything I use on a daily basis when working. All my other office supplies are organized in a cabinet to my right. If I need a pencil, I open the drawer and pull one out. If I need a paperclip, sticky note, etc, I get what I need. I use it and then I put it away.
Focus on keeping those immediate items handy and store the every now and again products elsewhere. It’s going to save you so much room and hassle of trying to find the things you need when you need them.
#5 — Get cords under control
I love learning new home organization hacks and this one I picked up from Ashlynne Eaton. She is adamant about keeping cords under control and after watching how she does it, I can now say I agree with her.
Cords are a necessity with all the technology we have today. But they are such an eyesore and create unwanted physical clutter. Not to mention they’re ugly. One of the best tricks to keeping cords under control is storing them away when they’re not in use. Ashlynne’s suggestion is rolling them up and using a binder clip or hair clip to keep them from unraveling.
What about power strips? Either hide them behind furniture or place something like a plant or basket in front of them. For example, I keep a basket of blankets in front of the power strip in my bedroom. When I charge my phone or other devices, I try to keep the cord hidden behind pillows or the couch. My laptop charger I can’t do much about so to avoid that eyesore, I charge my laptop at the end of the day.
It seems like a lot of work for something so small, but cords can quickly add up if we’re not careful. The last thing you want is for your home to look like a central charging station.
There are so many home organization hacks you can try. These five are the easiest and fastest to achieve. They’ve certainly made my home more organized and tidy. They don’t require you to spend any money unless you need baskets to group like items together. I’ve found using old shoe boxes works wonders. Instead of dropping hundreds of dollars on Amazon, look to see what you have in your home. You’ll be surprised to find you have a lot to work with.
What are some of your favorite home organization hacks? Do you do any of the ones I listed here? What are the ones you swear by?
And if you’re in the market for some new products to spruce up your organizing game, be sure to check out this blog post where I share my top ten favorite organizing products.
