Home Organization Tips inspired by The Home Edit

If you’ve ever watched Get Organized with The Home Edit, you know how satisfying it is to see a cluttered space completely transformed. Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin are known for their colorful organization systems, clear containers, labels, and spaces where everything has a designated home. The good news is that you don’t need a perfectly styled pantry or celebrity-size closet to use their home organization tips and ideas.

These simple home organization tips inspired by The Home Edit can help you tackle every space in your home. Since organization is one of the best ways to reduce household stress, it’s much more than just a Pinterest-worty aesthetic. From a messy junk drawer to your kids’ toys, kitchen cabinets, closets, and more, there’s a solution.

Take Everything Out First

One of the biggest lessons from The Home Edit is that you need to see what you’re working with before you can organize it. Empty the drawer, cabinet, pantry shelf, or closet completely rather than trying to shuffle things around.

Seeing everything together makes it much easier to spot duplicates, things you no longer use, and items that don’t actually belong in that space.

As it does get quite messy, you might choose to do multiple projects at once. For example, you might want to replace your kitchen windows as you reorganize the entire room. When everything is going back into your new cupboards or along your new window sills, it can feel more organized and more beautiful almost immediately. The new windows will add an extreme change that will help you enjoy your newly organized space.

You can click here to read more about Pinehurst Windows. In the meantime, you can also check out Pinterest for some great kitchen cupboard design ideas. Find ideas that you can do relatively quickly from home and on a budget. 

Edit Before You Organize

Before buying bins or deciding where everything should go, get rid of what you don’t need. As you declutter, create separate piles for:

• Keep
• Donate
• Sell
• Recycle
• Trash
• Move somewhere else in the house

This is very Home Edit-ish because their method emphasizes editing first, not just finding prettier containers for clutter. Netflix specifically describes their process as editing, categorizing, and containing clutter.

Group Similar Items Together

In the case of a messy drawer, you should try and sort similar things. If your messy drawer is mostly filled with utensils but has some ‘other’ items in it, then try to eliminate the ‘other’ items. Keep only utensils in that drawer. 

The same goes for any other items, too. By grouping similar items together and eliminating other items, your home will be significantly more organized. This means there is always a single logical place for you to find what you need.

Here are some categories you can start with:

• baking supplies
• breakfast foods
• school supplies
• hair products
• cleaning supplies
• medicines
• kids’ art supplies

Use Bins and Containers Strategically

Plastic container sales have increased incredibly during 2020. And most likely will continue to do so. These are the easiest way to sort things into easy-to-reach categories. For example, if you are cleaning out your food cupboard, you can label a clear plastic box with the word tins and place tins inside it. 

You can take this one step further and separate your tins into categories too. You can have soup cans, vegetable cans, and sauce cans. Buy as many containers as you need, plus a few extra, just in case.

This principle of assigning a dedicated spot for every item applies equally to larger storage areas, where a thoughtfully designed system can truly maximize space and accessibility. For instance, many people find better organization with custom-designed closets built to fit their specific needs and belongings. Investing in tailored solutions can prevent clutter from accumulating, ensuring everything from clothing to accessories has an intuitive, accessible home in your space.

This method works especially well for kids’ toys. Instead of one giant toy box filled with everything, try grouping toys into simple categories like LEGO, dolls, art supplies, cars, or dress-up clothes. When kids know exactly where something belongs, cleanup becomes much easier.

Create Zones and Stations

Think about the things your family regularly does and create small zones around those routines. You might have a coffee station in the kitchen, a snack station for the kids, a homework supply bin, a charging station for electronics, or a basket near the door for hats and gloves.

Keeping everything needed for one activity together means less searching and fewer items scattered throughout the house.

Label Your Categories to Continue Using These Home Organization Tips

Labels aren’t just there to make your pantry look Pinterest-worthy. They make an organization system much easier for everyone in the house to maintain.

Labels will be the saviors of your organization. They will allow you to quickly find what you need. Plus, even better, it will be easier to put things away since everyone will know where it belongs.

When you label something and always put it back in the same space, it makes it quick and straightforward to grab things. There will be no searching around or opening 10 different boxes.

Leave 20% of Your Space Empty

One of The Home Edit’s most useful organization rules is the 80/20 philosophy. Instead of filling every drawer, shelf, and container completely, aim to keep your space around 80% full and leave about 20% open.

That little bit of breathing room gives you space for new items and makes your organization system much easier to maintain. If every bin is already overflowing the moment you finish organizing, it probably won’t stay organized for long.

Organize Around Your Family’s Habits so everyone follows these home organization tips

The best organization system isn’t necessarily the prettiest one. It’s the one your family will actually use.

If your kids always drop their backpacks by the door, create backpack storage there instead of expecting them to carry everything to their bedrooms. If everyone grabs snacks from the same cabinet, create an easy-to-reach snack zone. Pay attention to where clutter naturally collects and create a system around your family’s existing habits.

Prioritize Function Over Pinterest Perfection

A beautifully organized space is great, but a system that your family can actually maintain is even better. The goal isn’t to create a pantry that looks untouched, but to create a functional family home that makes everyday life easier.

Final Thoughts: Home Organization Tips From the Home Edit

You don’t have to completely overhaul your home in one weekend to get organized. Start with one drawer, shelf, closet, or cabinet and work through the process of editing, categorizing, and creating a home for everything. These home organization tips can help you get started, and eventually it’ll become more natural for you.

That’s probably my favorite thing to take away from The Home Edit. Their spaces may look incredibly polished when they’re finished, but the real goal is creating systems that make everyday life easier. When you have kids, work, laundry, school schedules, and everything else happening at once, I’ll take anything that makes the house a little easier to manage.

If you need a little extra motivation to get started, follow The Home Edit on Instagram for plenty of organization inspiration. Their perfectly organized pantries, closets, drawers, and other spaces might be just the push you need to tackle an area of your own home.

Which area of your home needs a Home Edit the most?