10 Tips to Help You Reorganize Your Home Before the New Year

You can’t properly clean out your space if you don’t have somewhere to put everything you’ve decluttered, so start by freeing up space in your storage areas. This includes your closets, basement, garage, attic and self-storage units.

To get things rolling, start by picking up trash and throwing them away (or recycling them) immediately. As pro organizer Nikki Bell tells the AARP: 

“I always suggest starting with removing the trash first. Grab a trash bag and just walk through the space throwing away anything broken, damaged or actual trash.”

Then use the three-pile method — we’ll explain this shortly — and don’t be too precious about your items. If you struggle to get rid of things, think about the last time you used or looked at an item. If it’s been more than two years, chances are you don’t depend on them or need them in your home space, whether it’s a box of receipts or clothes you haven’t worn since college. 

Once that space is freed up, reorganize your storage areas by keeping similar items together and arranging objects in order of accessibility. In other words, the more commonly used an item is, the more accessible it should be.

The Three-Pile Method

After tossing your trash and combing through your storage areas, form the following three piles to help you sort your belongings:

• A keep pile
• A donate/sell pile
• A discard pile

If you have a bigger space or a lot of reorganizing to do, use the tried-and-true three-pile system in various areas around the home (i.e., three piles in the garage, three in the living room and so on).

Remember — while it’s easy to focus on the obvious areas like closets and countertops, some of the most cluttered and neglected spaces are often hidden in plain sight. Take the time to work your way through overlooked zones such as:

• The refrigerator and freezer
• Under the kitchen sink
• Bathroom cabinets and drawers
• The junk drawer
• Garage and attic
• Under the bed
• Behind furniture

Now, it’s time to tackle each pile. It may sound cliché at this point, but following Marie Kondo’s popular advice — holding objects in your hand and asking whether or not they spark joy — is an easy way to let go of items you find yourself struggling to part with.

Some objects will be even easier to purge. Before getting philosophical, get utilitarian. Look for items that lack value or usability, such as: 

• Expired pantry goods, medications and makeup
• Old bills and receipts
• Clothes that no longer fit
• Outdated magazines and newspapers
• Broken electronics
• Cords and chargers you rarely use

Think beyond paper when it comes to decluttering — many items in your home can be digitized to save space and reduce clutter. Start with the piles of paperwork you’ve been meaning to sort through: old tax documents, school projects or even greeting cards from years past. Use a scanner or an app like Adobe Scan to digitize these items and save them to a secure cloud service or an external drive, and don’t forget to back up your files in multiple places.

Sentimental items like photos or children’s artwork can also be preserved digitally. Consider creating digital albums or slideshows that you can revisit without the physical clutter. As for the originals, decide what truly needs to be kept — sometimes, a single framed piece can hold more meaning than a box full of forgotten papers.

Now that you have your “keep” pile (or piles) sorted, it’s time to put everything in its right place. Professional NYC organizer Andrew Mellen suggests following these three rules for home organizing:

• Every object should have a spot where it lives
• All like objects should live together
• When you get something new, something else should go out (whether donated, sold, given away or trashed)

As far as your “donate” pile, head to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army to drop them off, or consider working with organizations in your community that rely on donated goods to put together care packages for the homeless. 

If you have items that are more valuable, like furniture, appliances, jewelry or electronics, sell them on secondhand sites like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or Poshmark to pocket some holiday gift cash, then make your donation rounds. Don’t forget to collect donation receipts for tax season. 

Once you’ve trashed, sorted, donated and sold, there’s a good chance you’ll still have plenty of items you’d like to hold on to — including vital documents, seasonal clothes, family heirlooms or holiday decor — but that don’t need to occupy a permanent space in your home.

This is where self storage can be a convenient option. At SmartStop, climate-controlled units keep all of the above and more well-preserved, safe, and out of sight until you need them next, with no long-term contracts to worry about. It all starts with finding a storage unit near you.

Now it’s time to have fun with all the space you’ve created. Reimagining your living space can be a great way to start the new year fresh. As you tidy up your home, think about any small pain points you’ve experienced in your living space in the past year. By pain points, we mean moments where you found yourself disliking something about your home. This can be a sharp coffee table corner that you kept bumping into, a lack of cabinet space in the kitchen or a dark nook that could benefit from a lamp. 

Find ways to optimize your layout with items you already have, and play with the configuration of your furniture just to see how they feel. Consider taping down lines representing how you usually move through a room and reorganizing furniture to accommodate that. 

Speaking to HouseBeautiful, DIY guru Jo Behari reminds us that rethinking a room’s geography is an opportunity to start fresh: 

“To plan the room effectively, you need to detach yourself from its current use. List all the functions you need it to accommodate – be it lounging, entertaining, office space, kids' den, adult living area – literally anything that you want it to be.”

Reorganizing your home is a huge accomplishment. But without a plan to maintain it, you might find yourself back at square one by spring. The key to lasting organization is consistency. Build simple habits, like doing a quick decluttering session at the end of each week. This might mean clearing out your mail pile, putting away stray items or simply assessing any new clutter that has crept in.

Set reminders for monthly or quarterly check-ins, where you revisit areas that tend to collect clutter — think kitchen counters, closets or the junk drawer. Use these check-ins to re-home items that have wandered from their designated spots or to evaluate if any new items need to be removed from your space.

According to the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers, about 82% of people experience “mess stress,” with about 44% feeling it at least once a week. 

There’s a legitimate mental health component to tidying up and reorganizing, which makes it especially important to put it on your list of things to do before the new year. It also emphasizes how important it is to make the process easy, enjoyable and — as much as possible — something that feels like your own.

Some ideas to make cleaning more enjoyable: 

• Invite a friend over to help you clean.
• Take (and share) before and after pictures of the process.
• Involve your kids (and reward them).
• Treat yourself to something small for every area you clean.

Like Nikki Bell says, “The clutter didn’t arrive in one day, so don’t expect it to vacate in a day.” Don’t be too hard on yourself when it comes to getting everything done at once or even before January 1st. 

Take a breath. Try dividing your clutter areas into a few different categories and starting with one. Remind yourself that taking just one step is a huge improvement over staying in place. And don’t forget to take lots of cocoa breaks along the way.

For more home organization and storage tips, visit the SmartStop blog.