5 Habits Of People Who Always Have An Impressively Organized Home

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People who have impressively organized homes don't just have them by accident. They have daily habits that are ingrained into their routines, making their homes run like a well-oiled machine. Luckily, you can pick up these habits, too! Maybe you've never been an organized person and have no idea where to start. Luckily, keeping your home neat and tidy is really just about revamping how you behave in your day-to-day life. You'll be surprised how little choices and mindset shifts can really snowball into creating a totally new environment for you and your family. 

Sure, you can always do a big overhaul by committing this ultimate guide for home storage and organization to heart. However, after your first massive decluttering effort and big trip to The Container Store, where does that leave you and your organizational goals? How will you maintain your newly organized home for years to come without letting clutter creep its way back into your life? This is where routine comes in and why it's so essential. The great thing about these habits is that they're highly customizable. Just like organization tips are never a one-size-fits-all solution, neither are the habits that get you there. Take these suggestions as a foundation, then tweak them so they work best for you in your home.

If you want your home to be easy to navigate, you have to make time for it to be this way. Yet many people fail to make this a priority. This is what sets highly organized people apart. The task is already on the calendar, and they don't compromise on it. To join the club, pick a day of the week that makes the most sense for you (i.e., not on Friday nights when you always have plans or Sunday morning when you'd rather be sleeping) and stick to it. Whatever comes up, the work still needs to get done. 

If you don't have a full day to dedicate to a huge reset, assign chores to certain days each week. For many people making this habit work, that means not putting all of these resets on the same day, as that can feel overwhelming. For example, start a load of laundry every Thursday right when you get home from work and keep pushing through until it's all done. Then, set aside other times for similar organizational tasks, like clearing leftovers out of the refrigerator or getting rid of the paper clutter on your desk. Take the night before your grocery run to purge and reorganize the fridge so it doesn't get cluttered. Each Monday, take a moment to organize your paperwork, filing anything important away and shredding confidential documents to start your week off right.

Checking things off a list is incredibly motivating, and a lot of people with highly organized homes use this strategy every day. Instead of mentally carrying dozens of tasks and responsibilities around with them all day, they simply write them down. As they finish each task, they can physically cross it off their list, making them feel very proud of what they've done at the end of each day. This is a favorite of Marie Kondo, a master of decluttering and organization.

To recreate this habit in your own home, tweak it so it will actually work for you. If writing out a list of daily tasks feels too overwhelming to get started, try arming yourself with a pre-made option that you can commit to. The Passionate Penny Pincher Home Planner has daily tasks like putting away dishes and tidying living spaces already written out for you. It also has extra space for you to add your own action items each day. For something a little less detailed, the Sweetzer & Orange Daily Planner Notepad allows you to write in your own options but still offers enough structure to help keep you on track.

People with highly organized homes pay attention to how they use their spaces and adjust their habits accordingly, not the other way around. Instead of making it difficult to keep your home tidy, set your space up to simplify it. For example, if you struggle with trash accumulation where there isn't a bin available, like at your desk or on your bedside table, you probably aren't lazy. It's likely that constantly taking trash to the can interrupts the flow of what you're working on. So, bring the trash can to you instead. It doesn't need to be a massive addition; often something little like the SITAKE Mini Wastebasket is just enough to keep it contained.

The same thing goes for things like paper clutter, which often builds up on your desk or kitchen table. A great home organization project to tackle is adding a solution that sorts the clutter as it comes in, rather than leaving it in one pile to rot until a later date. You aren't going to stop dumping mail, doctor's paperwork, or even school reports in one spot. But to have better organized habits, use a small container with sections labeled "to file," "to toss," or "to action" so you'll know what you need to do with the papers and reduce visual clutter in one quick fix. 

People who have impressively organized homes also have a place for everything and keep everything in its place. Part of this process can also mean decanting items. That way, they can more easily take stock of what they have on hand and make sure that everything always fits in its allocated space. 

In the world of organizing, decanting is simply a fancy term for taking things out of their original packaging and putting them into something else. This might be pouring orange juice into glass pitchers in your fridge. Select pitchers that fit perfectly in the door instead of the bulky containers the juice comes in that don't. It might be taking the eggs out of the carton and keeping them in an organizer like the WACOI Auto Rolling Fridge Egg Holder. You'll always know how many eggs you have left at a glance and don't have to move anything or open any packaging to get to them when you need them.

In other rooms in the house, organized folks might throw away the boxes that laundry essentials come in, favoring glass jars for laundry pods or wooden boxes for dryer sheets, among other laundry room storage and organization ideas. Purchasing extra containers might seem counterintuitive (isn't it just more clutter?), but in reality, keeping things stored this way makes putting them away and keeping inventory of what you have much easier.

Laundry can be a big source of clutter in the average home, simply because there always seems to be so much of it. People who have organized homes keep them that way, not because they are superhuman, but because they know a few shortcuts for chores like laundry. These habits make the task more manageable, so they are always more likely to complete it. For example, folding and putting away laundry may feel like too much of a time suck. Instead of letting the linen languish in a pile, simply toss things like underwear, socks, and even shorts and t-shirts into bins. This way, everything is still technically put away, and the bins help reduce visual (and literal) clutter.

Even something as simple as the storage bin having a lid might present itself as a block to you using it effectively. To put laundry away in an organized way and really stay on top of it, you want to remove as many steps as possible. This includes removing lids or unstacking bins to get to the ones underneath. Try something like the YIHONG Clear Pantry Organizer Bins, so you can easily toss things inside. If you need multiple levels and your closet doesn't have built-in shelves, you can add the Simple Houseware 3-Tier Metal Utility Cart to the mix. It even has wheels, so you can bring it to the laundry room to load it up.