How to Organize: Five Creative Hacks to Maximize Your Space

Have you ever wondered how to maximize storage in your space? Sometimes you have to get creative! I’m sharing five of my tried and true organization hacks to ensure you’re making the most of your space- whether in a small apartment or a big house. Keep reading for tips on how to organize different spaces in your home.

Anytime you move into a new space, it’s always a challenge to figure out where all your things will go, even if you are up-sizing (but especially if you are down-sizing). If I’ve learned anything from watching and listening to organizational gurus like Marie Kondo, it’s how important reducing visual clutter is. This is done by making sure everything has a “home”. Let me give you my tried and true space saving ideas to keep your house tidy and efficient.

HOW TO ORGANIZE HACK 1: Use Hooks

Command hooks aren’t just for college dorm rooms! Think past your college days, and open your mind to new ways to use these cheap and easy hooks.

My favorite command hook hack is in our master bath. We don’t have any storage other than the cabinets below the vanity, and mirrored medicine cabinets. (I know, I know, this is a controversial topic.

Although not very aesthetically pleasing, they are a great way to keep daily toiletry and hair items organized and out of sight. Ours aren’t going anywhere!).

Due to limited storage space, I couldn’t get my hair dryer, straightener or curling wand to fit out of sight. Enter: Command hooks! I stuck three onto the far side of our vanity and voila, easy, cheap and accessible hair tool storage.

While we are on the topic of hooks, make sure you have plenty at any point of entry into your home. These entryways are notorious “drop zones”, and if you don’t provide a place to put keys, bags, and jackets up in an organized fashion, they will lead to significant visual clutter. See how I built these DIY custom entryway hooks by our front door here. It’s a great beginner friendly project and helps to make your space not only feel custom, but also organized.

HACK 2: Temporary Drying Rack

I have used this system since my small apartment days. Everyone does dishes differently, but I personally don’t like to spend time drying dishes. Air drying it is! But sometimes the drying racks that fit inside the sink are bulky or dated. Or perhaps you don’t have a double sink, so you don’t want a drying rack taking up that valuable real estate.

This over the sink, roll up silicon covered stainless steel rack is the perfect solution. I have used mine for nearly four years and it still looks brand new. The material doesn’t rust, and wipes clean of any food or paint stains (yes, I DIY and put my washed paint brushes here to dry). It’s perfect for not only dish drying, but also for fruit or veggie washing and drying.

I have used it in the past in a single sink, double sink, and now it stays up on one side of our large farmhouse sink except for when we are hosting company. When I have an event, I simple roll it up and store it under the counter. This is a must for keeping your sink area clean and learning how to organize your drying dish space.

HACK 3: Heel Rod

How do you organize your heels? I love this closet storage solution. Although we almost doubled the size of our closet before we moved in, shoe storage can still be a challenge.

In our house, we have a workshop area in the back where the homeowner left lots of scrap wood pieces. While I was sifting through them, I found thin wooden dowels I thought would be perfect for… shoe storage! Hear me out on this one.

I measured the dowels to fit on two of the walls in the closet, cut them down to size to fit snugly on each wall, and painted them Alabaster to match the walls. Then, I nailed them into the walls using long finishing nails. Perfect storage for high heels! Maximizing your vertical space is so important in efficiently managing storage, and this dowel heel rod is perfect to use up otherwise wasted wall space. These dowels running across two perpendicular walls right above shoulder height hold 7 pairs of heels, and frees up floor space for flats, tennis shoes, and laundry baskets.

HOW TO ORGANIZE HACK 4: Mail pouch

Organizing paper has to be one of my least favorite tasks. And it gets even more complicated when you have a 2+ person household. When we first moved, my husband was the mail retriever and would absentmindedly drop piles of mail in every corner of the house, some to be discovered literally months later. I knew we needed a better system.

I got these two products from Target, and they have been game changers in organizing our mail game. When my husband gets the mail, he drops it straight into the pouch. It is then up to us individually to open our own pieces of mail, but at least I can count of everything coming in to be put in the same place.

If we open something (lets say a bill) that we don’t want to immediately pay, we can put it in our “post” holder on the entryway countertop. Something about leaving it in line of sight in an organized way helps me to not forget it’s there, but doesn’t add to visual clutter because it’s stored in an organized manner. Who knew figuring out how to organize mail could be so complicated, yet rewarding? These two products are simple, aesthetically pleasing and have helped us create a system that is both cute and organized- win, win!

HACK 5: Lazy susans

I utilize lazy susans in multiple places around the house and love them. They help make under the sink storage more accessible. I have two next to each other under our kitchen sink to store cleaning supplies, dishwasher pods, extra paper towels, etc.

I have a wooden one next to the stove to store all of our most used cooking items including oil, salt and pepper. Having these things on the counter optimizes accessibility, while keeping visual clutter to a minimum. I love the wood as well. It’s warm, and plays well off of our wooden cabinets. Want to know why I decided to keep our cabinets wood? Read about my five reasons here.

Lastly, I have another lazy susan in our pantry to store commonly used baking canisters including flour, brown sugar, and white sugar. I also keep other clear canisters storing rice, noodles, and other dried goods. The lazy susan is so helpful to keep everything in eyesight and easily accessible without constantly having to move things, and you don’t have to think about which items to store in front. With a lazy susan, all objects get a front row seat!

So here are my five simple, creative organization hacks to maximize your space. I have been mindful to keep my recommendations cheap, easy and accessible. I think all of these ideas are doable in any space, big or small. It’s amazing how creating a “home” for everything, and establishing systems can help to ease stress and help take the work out of house organization so you can focus on other things. I’d love to know, which one of these ideas is your favorite? Are there any that you are already using and love too? Let’s keep this conversation going in the comments.

Tags: closet, how to, kitchen, organize, pantry, storage, under the sink