8 Tips To Help You Organize Your Home From Professional Organizers

June 4th, 2021 by Jean Cardentey

With everything that life has to throw at you, especially with the woes of 2020 still following us around, organizing your home might be the last thing on your mind. Unfortunately, a symptom of our busy schedules and hectic home life is clutter and mess, but according to Professional Organizers, it doesn’t have to be that way! If you follow these organizational tips, your home is going to look and stay organized for months to come! According to professional organizers in Long Island, NY, here are eight tips to get and keep your home clutter free:

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Purge Purge Purge

When organizing your home, it can be extremely difficult and overwhelming figuring out where to start,

but this can be remedied by a purge. Professional Organizer Jane Abrahams from Jane's Addiction Organization preaches, “When organizing, always start with a purge! Why store things that you know you won’t ever use again? You could donate those items or toss anything that is damaged, and make room in your closet, attic, or basement now!” Having trouble figuring out what items to purge? Laura and Eva, founders of Professional Organizers of the Hamptons find this to be an all too common issue, and have even come up with common items by room that should be purged:

Bathroom

Old makeup and toiletries

Most toiletries have a shelf life of no longer than 18 months, so if you don’t remember how long you have had something... it’s probably expired.

Kitchen

Plasticware with missing lids
Chipped plates and glasses

Bedroom

Clothing that no longer fits or you no longer enjoy wearing
Lonely socks

Office

Old chargers and cables
Dried up pens and markers

Garage

Old paint (Make sure it’s dried to dispose of in an environmentally friendly manner!)
Broken sports equipment

The list goes on, but Laura and Eve have seen these items all too many times! Colleen Davis, owner of

Rearrange Repeat agrees, “The best tip for home organization starts with decluttering your home. You

have to be willing to donate and purge items that no longer serve you.” Sometimes that can feel like a lot of work with your hefty schedule, but that’s where the Junkluggers come in! Also, you don’t have to feel the guilt of having your items end up in the landfill as we recycle and donate everything we can!

Start Small if Overwhelmed

When beginning a large organizational project, it can become a mess that makes your home look more cluttered in the process than when you started, so how do you avoid this halt in motivation? Donna Furino of Quality Cleanouts says, “Start small!” Furino recommends that you reserve a small chunk of time for your project; whether it’s half an hour or an hour and a half, set a timer with your time goal, and start to work on the area that’s causing you the most grief! She continues, “Is it the piles of clothing at the bottom or your closet? The cluster of toys not touched in years? The mounds of paper on your desk? The never-can-close junk drawer in the kitchen?” No matter what the case, when you start small you’re giving yourself little psychological victories that’ll lead you to further organizational success!

Organize By Category Instead of Location

Jana Adkins, a professional organizer and Certified KonMari Consultant, believes strongly in one of the KonMari golden rules: tidy by category, not by location. When tackling a location in your home, Adkins says, “It is impossible to know what you own when different categories are spread out through your home. Collect everything that fits into the category. This is essential in seeing exactly how much you have.” Keeping like items with like is far easier on the brain and makes it simple when figuring out what to purge. It can also be misleading when you have tidied up a room, only to realize you’ve really just shuffled around items from one room to another and now items of the same category are scattered. Donna Furino agrees, and takes this approach when performing the purging process. During her appointments, Furino is quick to start clutter designation into three broad categories: keep, donate, and toss. “This defines a framework for you to follow,” Furino asserted, “and if you must, you can have another pile for ‘I just don’t know’.” She does warn you though to not let that pile get too big!

Ask Yourself: Does It Spark Joy or Bring You Happiness?

This tip is brought to you by Jana Adkins, and it’s a major question to ask yourself especially when completing the purging process! Parting with items can be a hard and confusing process so when Adkins finds her client is having a difficult time deciding what to do with clutter, she has them hold an item that they absolutely love and observe the emotions they feel. If the questionable object isn’t invoking those joyful feelings, it’s time to toss! Ultimately, Adkin notes, “Sometimes the purpose of an item is to bring the joy factor, not the original intentional function of the item itself.” Don’t let your stuff control you if it doesn’t bring you joy!

Storage Solutions Are a Great Investment

One of the key steps to creating an organized and easy to clean home, according to Donna Furino, is investing in storage solutions! While recycling and reusing items is great and cost effective, it can be highly beneficial to purchase new tools to help you not only get organized but keep it that way. One of the main struggles we all have is maintaining an organized space, but this can be avoided with organizational supplies that work with you and that you truly love. Furino says, “Do you favor baskets, bins or containers? Would flat new hangers or hanging shoe organizers with designated pockets increase your closet space? Can you even picture walking into your kitchen with little left on the counter? These are very personal questions with no right answer. Remember - it’s your space and you have to feel comfortable!” Overall, investing in storage solutions can save time and frustrations now and in the future!

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File Fold Clothing

We see it all over Instagram, those perfectly folded drawers with shirts all neatly folded vertically so you can see every item. Most believe it’s difficult to maintain this type of order in your home, and they couldn’t be more wrong! File folding clothing is the pinnacle of organization and conforms to the two major topics you need to grasp to keep your home tidy: knowing what you own and knowing where to find it. Not to forget to mention, it also creates more space! Jane Abrahams is a huge proponent of file folding clothing and asserts, “File folding our clothes has helped us to keep our drawers organized and uncluttered so that we can always find the clothing items we need without searching through stacks of messy shirts and pants!” When you don’t have to search through a stack, it makes everything so much easier and saves us time from having to refold the mess we made!

Monitor and Celebrate Your Progress

“As our lives and our ability to adapt continues to change, the unique way we organize and manage our homes, offices, and lives may need to be reassessed and reconfigured as well. Don’t dwell on not getting it “all done” in one sweeping swoop! Instead make it a consistent choice to keep things neat and findable,” Donna Furino says. It is so important to monitor how your organizational solutions are working in your home, and make sure you create habits to keep up with them. Notice that the system in your kitchen drawer just isn’t for you? Change it to fit your needs! Notice the paperwork on your desk is piling up just a bit after the deep clean? Make sure to put them where they belong! Upkeep is necessary and building those habits will save you time and frustrations in the long run. Don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back too when all is said and done, building these habits can be challenging, and you deserve some praise!

Hire a Professional Organizer!

The initial stages of organizing your home can be a huge project, and it can be overwhelming to go through it alone. When you need your car fixed you go to a mechanic, when you need your hair done you see a stylist, so why not when you need your home organized, you go to a professional organizer! At the Junkluggers we work with quite a few experienced and professional home organizers with multiple specialties that can assist with any of your needs, whether it’s going through a loved one’s estate or just trying to get your closet sorted out. No project is too big or too small and these lovely ladies have got you covered! For more information, we have included all participants' contact info and social media below!

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Now that you have the tools to successfully organize your home, what are you waiting for? Get to organizing, and don’t forget to call the Junkluggers of Queens and Long Island to help you with your next home declutter or cleanout project - big or small!

We want to give a huge thanks to all of the amazing professional organizers that helped us with this topic, we truly could not have completed this without you! Interested in their work or have any more questions? Show them some love!

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