How to organize your home with helpful guides and tips.
We will help you organize! We offer two free printables: How to Tidy Your Home Checklist and 4-Week Cleaning Challenge. We’ll also share a free cleaning schedule checklist and all our top tips and tricks for tidying up.
Get started on the path to a cleaner, calmer home.
Here’s how to declutter your home.
1. Start with a checklist of things to organize.
If you’re not sure where to start, print out a checklist to help you get started on your decluttering journey. Break down your processes into categories, like the KonMari method, instead of by room. If you focus on this, it will be much easier to organize a messy room and you won’t feel overwhelmed by an entire room’s worth of work.
Lina from Hip2Save likes to start by throwing away and organizing her kids’ clothes. If you decide to start there, check out Marie Kondo’s folding tips for organizing your clothes. This space-saving folding technique will allow you to see all the clothes in your closet.
2. Take on the 4-week challenge and organize by room.
When cleaning out your pantry, drawers, closets, and cabinets, it’s a good idea to start by taking everything out and seeing what’s inside. Only keep items that you actively use or that truly bring you joy. Discard, recycle, or donate items you no longer need.
We recommend that you first call the location you plan to donate to confirm that they will accept each item. Consider donating old towels, blankets, and clothing to animal shelters. Homeless shelters and women’s shelters may welcome unused toiletries, furniture, canned goods, and gently used clothing.
Helpful tips when cleaning room by room: Kitchen – Week 1 Storage Containers – Store about 3 containers per family member, and a few more if you have a lot of leftovers. Consider purchasing meal prep containers of the same size for easier stacking. Also, check out the warranties of brands like Tupperware. If it breaks, you may be able to receive a replacement set. Water Bottles – Only one reusable water bottle is required per family. If you’re having trouble fitting it neatly into your cabinet, try Amazon’s water bottle organizer. Utensils and drinks – Bring 2-3 settings and glasses and 1-2 mugs per person. Group similar items together. Consider purchasing an adjustable utensil organizer to keep items in place and categorized into designated groups. Seasoning samples – If you have seasoning samples that you never use, throw them away. Cookware and bakeware – Fit each pot and pan with its designated lid. Aim to have one matching set of pots and pans, one or two muffin tins, a large and small baking pan, a set of nesting casserole dishes, and two cutting boards. Stack pots and pans from large to small and put them back in the cabinet or use an organizer. Nest casserole dishes with cutting boards, baking sheets, and muffin tins stacked horizontally or in upright organizers.
Bathroom – Week 2 Cleaning Supplies – Keep one cleaner at home for each purpose. Consolidate duplicate cleaners if possible. Place open containers in front to group similar items. Cosmetics and personal care products – Throw away any items that are empty, expired, or not used within the past 6 months. Consider keeping only one item for each purpose (e.g., one mascara, one face wash). Place makeup brushes in cups and other products neatly in drawers, pull-out shelves, or plastic drawer organizers. Towels – You will need 1-2 bath towels and 1 beach towel per person. Keep two extra for each guest. Fold the towels and place them in an even stack in your linen closet. Hair/Grooming Tools – Make sure you have one of each type of grooming tool. Clean your hairbrush and remove any hair ties that have lost their elasticity. Display with command hook for easy hanging. You can also place a scrunchie on a paper towel holder and a hair tie on a metal ring. Medications and first aid – check expiration dates and throw away expired items. Organize and group items according to purpose and place items in lazy Susans, baskets, or cabinet organizers. When storing, use the smallest volume of bottles and do not mix different medications in one bottle.
Bedroom – Week 3 Closet – Empty the entire closet. Donate, store, or create a trash pile. Only keep things you’ve worn in the past year and items you really like. Consider what you want to hang, fold, and store. Group similar items together and hang them in your closet by color or season. Wide-brimmed hats look great on the wall and can also be used as interior decoration. Use tie & scarf hangers in conjunction with belt hangers to move smaller items back into your closet. Place your handbag on the top shelf or hook. Dresser – empty drawers. Donate, store, or create a trash pile. A minimalist approach is to keep 1-2 weeks worth of underwear, 2-3 bras (one strapless), 3 sets of pajamas, and up to 5 t-shirts and 2 sweatshirts. Return similar items together to their corresponding drawers. Consider using a drawer organizer for smaller items like socks. Shoes – Make sure you have a pair of classic shoes for each season. Pack a pair of sturdy rain boots, heels, or sandals. Throw away, donate, or sell your old and unwanted shoes. If you want to store it, clean it and place it on a shelving unit or shoe rack. Winter attire – Pair with gloves or mittens. Separate your winter items by type (scarves, hats, etc.) and put them in your basket. Please bring one winter coat, rain coat, and dress coat for each person. Blankets and Sheets – Pair each sheet set with coordinating fitted sheets, flat sheets, and pillowcases. Place neatly in your linen closet. Fold the blanket and place it in a basket in your closet or on a high shelf (if you don’t use it frequently). Each bed in your home should have one extra sheet. Please prepare two extra blankets for guests.
Living Room – Week 4 Children’s Toys – Mix educational and fun toys. Donate or recycle anything that’s broken or hasn’t been used in 3-6 months. Group similar toys together, such as Lego blocks, Barbie dolls, and balls. Group the items you keep and place them in boxes or trash by category. Broken items – even sentimental items, should be repaired or disposed of immediately. They weigh you down and serve better as memories. Electronics and Cords – Each household only needs one charging cord per phone or device. Match each cord to its device and properly dispose of or donate excess cords and electronics. Fold the cord neatly and place it in an organizer or clip it to your device. Books – Remove all books from the shelves and dust both the books and the bookshelves. Decide what to keep and donate. Put the keeper back on the shelf. Games – Donate, Save, Make a Trash Pile. When storing, organize the box and make sure all parts are included. In a closet or on a bookshelf, place large boxes toward the bottom and toys you don’t play with often toward the top.
3. Donate, recycle, sell, or throw away anything that is not viable.
I mentioned this tip earlier, but I can’t stress it enough. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Always try to sell, donate, and recycle what you can. If it’s your child’s, this is a great opportunity to teach them the importance of giving back, recycling, and avoiding waste.
Here are some of our favorite options for sales and donations:
[Selling or Giving Away] About Facebook — Understand all the tips and tricks for selling and buying on Facebook Marketplace and Facebook communities like Garage Sale and “Swip Swap” groups. You can also give away products for free in the Do Not Buy group on Facebook.
[Donating] Amazon GiveBackBox — Fill an old Amazon box with all the items you want to donate. Charitable donations allow you to receive a small tax deduction* when filing your taxes.
[Donating] Freecycle – Freecycle is the perfect way to keep things out of landfills. Simply list your item and set a time for your recipient to come and evaluate your new discovery.
[Donating] – Contact local animal shelters, women’s shelters, homeless shelters, veterans organizations, or churches. Many of these locations accept gently used items and can even salvage bedding with holes or missing pieces of games.
Plus, check out our guide on how to recycle everything.
4. Find ways to preserve happy memories.
There are also items that are easy to throw. Others, to a lesser extent… children’s artwork and greeting cards. For your kids, why not make a DIY school paper organizer to store their yearly memories, such as photos, drawings, or their best creations? You can easily store them away, so they won’t take up space around your house, and you can look back on your memories when you’re older.
You can even create a rotating art gallery where little Picasso decides which pieces deserve attention. Keep your old artwork on file or throw it away when you replace it with something new. Have so many masterpieces that it’s hard to choose just one? Why not create a galley of your artwork to hang on your wall or create a photo memory book to keep all your art forever?
5. Reduce consumption and avoid purchasing low-quality household products.
One way to declutter your home is to get rid of bad-quality belongings. We love a bargain, but sometimes cheap household items don’t last forever.
Even if you save a lot of money upfront to buy inexpensive items for your home, you’ll likely end up replacing them in a few years, costing you time and money. Instead, consider whether you can buy something that will last a lifetime, such as well-crafted cookware rather than disposable kitchenware. Plus, I love that I get to pass down quality pieces for generations.
Amber from Hip2Save believes in consuming less…
“I’m an avid reader of the book A Simplified Life, and it’s all about reducing clutter, simplifying your life, and making more room for intentionality in your life. STUFF For me personally, I used to buy things just to have, but over the years I realized that I would end up throwing them away or getting rid of them, and I realized how much money I had. I’m pissed that it was wasted.For me, it’s better to focus on higher quality (for most things) and only buy things I really like and enjoy.” – Amber, Hip. side kick
6. The best way to keep your home tidy is to create a habit to avoid clutter.
Once you’ve finished cleaning your house, it’s time to keep it clean. One of the easiest ways to combat clutter is to avoid leaving it behind. That’s why we’ve created a handy cleaning schedule that you can print out.
This free printable breaks down chores by daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. By consistently performing these small tasks, dirt and clutter will not accumulate.
For more ideas on organizing, cleaning, and more, be sure to check out our tips page.
