Organizing Your Home: Making the Best Use of Every Space

Organizing your home isn’t just about picking up the clutter, and naming a sock drawer. If you really want to benefit from an organized space, creating a plan is in order. If you ask yourself a few simple questions, you can get some inspiration for tackling this organization step by step, and space by space.

 

 

 

Organizing Your Home

 

Here are a couple of guidelines on how to make the best use of every space.

 

Take a look around each space, and try to determine if there are changes you could make that would create a more organized space. Is there overhead space that could be corralled in the kitchen, so that you can keep those three full sets of dinnerware you love?  This photo below from Alex Hemer shows the potential in even the smallest kitchen.

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Want to make sure your guest bath feels like a luxury hotel with all the amenities, but can’t figure out where to put it all? Another easy way to find storage when organizing your home-  above a door. From ‘Martha‘.

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What do you need in your home, for you and your loved ones? Maybe you don’t care about a changing table in the baby’s room, but you want to make sure those books are always accessible. Look up, around, and through! (Through things like closets, which happen to offer a lot of options!) Photo by ‘Finnian’s Moon Interiors‘.

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We all feel like we “should” organize our home… and yes, we should! But don’t do it just for the sake of doing it. Does moving all the Costco purchases to the upstairs closet make sense? Or will the kids wake up the household on Saturday night looking for the popcorn stash? This under stair office would work really well in many households… unless you have kids tearing through that space every hour of every day.  Photo from ‘Houzz‘.

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Ok, we all know we cook in the kitchen, get ready in the bathroom and sleep in the bedroom. But do you have designated space for all the the individual things that have to be put away? I drink a lot of tea, so I have a tea drawer. When I buy a new box of herbal joy, it always goes from the grocery bag to my tea drawer. Figure out what items you trip over the most, and designate an organization spot for them. Here are some ideas for developing more designated space, in a small space!

This staircase storage unit was created by ‘Danny Kuo‘. This would be great for a laundry room!

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We love the way this corner shelf from ‘Willam Finney Studio‘ takes advantage of those tight spaces… Organizing your home doesn’t always have to mean cupboards and closets!

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We liked it so much, we found these DIY knock off corner shelf instructions on ‘Instructables‘!

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What it comes down to is that you need to create an organized space that works for you. There is not one size fits all organization plan, although there are guidelines you can follow, like these! Ask yourself these simple questions, get inspired, and make a plan to start adding more control to the chaos! (photo below courtesy of Marc Koehler Architects)

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Organizing your home is sometimes as easy as making the best use of the space you already have! We think you will also love out posts on Organizing Kitchen Drawer Ideas & Projects, and DIY Stair Railing Projects!

Image Credits: MARC KOEHLER ARCHITECTS, Alex Hemer, Martha, Finnian's Moon, Houzz, Danny Kuo, William Finney, Instructables
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Kathy Bates

Kathy Bates is the founder of The Middle Girls, a platform dedicated to empowering women over 50 to embrace their potential and live fulfilling, purpose-driven lives. With a passion for encouraging self-awareness and self-love, Kathy writes about topics like confidence, personal growth, style, and building thriving businesses later in life. When she’s not writing, Kathy enjoys books, nature, and helping women discover their next chapter. Find freebies just for women over 50 at The Middle Girls.

Kathy Bates’ previous writing credits include:

Former home decorating expert for Lifetime TV, Galtime and Country Woman Magazine.

Her book spent time at #1 on Amazon’s Home & Garden Topseller List in 2002.

Published or featured in numerous national publications, including:

Country Sampler’s Decorating Ideas magazine, Woman’s Day magazine, HGTV, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Marketwatch, Decorating Solutions magazine, Decorating Ideas magazine, The Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, Kansas City News, The Oklahoman, Akron Beacon Journal, Pensacola News Journal and The Telegraph.

6 Comments

  1. Chris
    January 5, 2019 / 2:08 pm

    How do you reach the books in the high shelves under the stairs??

    • Kathy Bates
      Author
      February 12, 2019 / 4:31 pm

      A library ladder would do it!

  2. Robin Cramer
    November 30, 2016 / 6:28 am

    Wow I had only looked at some of the Christmas projects. But there is so much more. Thank you again! I love a lot of the ideas and a lot of the ideas I can do with my daughter who is 12 for homeschooling.

  3. Carole Moores
    February 1, 2016 / 10:31 pm

    very interesting ideas – loved the bookcase under the stairs and ditto the home office, but very definitely would not have a shelf over a baby’s cot for fear of something falling on the kid!
    good pics and i’m inspired to sort my hallway out once and for all!

  4. March 1, 2015 / 2:35 am

    there is no empty space in this home, this article is very creative, so that makes me want to take advantage of the empty space in my house

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