5 min readWhether you’ve been trying to find ways to organize a smaller-than-normal space or have been looking to spruce up your current organization strategy, you’ve landed on the right page. While organizing a small home might feel overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be. That said, there’s a chance that you might be currently following some organizational “rules” that are actually intended for larger homes and therefore might not be the best to apply when organizing small homes—and might actually end up backfiring.
“While any space requires careful consideration of floor plans and decorative elements, as a professional organizer and interior stylist who has lived comfortably in a 335-square-foot studio for over 15 years, I can attest that creating a home in a small space where you can actually live the life you want to live, means the basic rules just don't apply,” says Laura Cattano, a New York-based professional organizer and interior stylist coach.
In addition to Cattano, we chatted with several other organizing professionals to learn more about the organizing myths you might be following that might actually make a small space feel and look even more overwhelming, cluttered, and sometimes smaller. Our experts also offer some alternative solutions you can follow to make the most of your space.
Placing Everything in Bins
While it might be tempting to place everything you own into bins (which you can sometimes do), Tonia Tomlin, owner and organizer at Sorted Out, notes that having too many bins can lead to excess clutter.
Faith Roberson, author of What Stays and What Goes: Organize With Intention & Create Space for Grace, adds that in addition to the visual stimulation that the physical bins can create around your home, constantly placing items inside bins can contribute to a mess that might not initially be considered, as you might be tempted to keep putting items in the bins without regularly going through them.
Furthermore, you might be inclined to buy more of the items you already have if you don’t feel like sorting through them.
Sorting Items by Category or Color
Audra George, owner and professional organizer at Pretty Neat: An Organizational Solution in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Amber Taggard, M.S., productivity and organization expert and founder of The Organizer Chicks, note that meticulously sorting items by category and color can oftentimes overwhelm and hinder productivity for those in smaller living spaces.
“Color coding may be visually satisfying, but it often forces people to organize around appearance instead of usability,” says Taggard. While organizing by niche or smaller categories can sometimes be more manageable when organizing a larger space, doing so in a smaller home can not only require additional effort but also take up unnecessary space that could otherwise be utilized.
“Breaking down items into very small, specific categories can take up a lot of your precious space,” says George. “In a small home, focus on function first and store things together that make sense, but know you may have to group several categories in one place and make a bin or space multipurpose.”
If you would like to categorize your items, do so more generally. “I would suggest still using containers, but instead using broader categories to hold multiple related things instead of a container for each microcategory,” says Alyssa Trosclair, MBA, CPO, certified professional organizer at Emend.
Stacking Many Items Vertically
Even though vertical storage can be helpful in some small homes when done correctly, Ashley Murphy, NEAT Method cofounder, CEO, and author of The NEAT Method Organizing Recipe Book, notes that too much of it can prevent you from finding items when you need them most.
While you might naturally think that not optimizing every square inch of vertical space in your home would be wasteful, you might be surprised how correctly utilizing the space (instead of overutilizing it) could work to your advantage.
“In small rooms, negative space is what makes them feel bigger than they actually are,” explains Roberson.
Julie Brooks, owner of Peaceful Place Home Organizing & Transitions, recommends selecting storage pieces that don’t exceed the halfway point of your walls.
“This leaves more open wall space for a small piece of artwork or simple décor, which helps create a calmer, more spacious feeling,” she adds.
Taking Advantage of Furniture with Storage Space
Although you might have been advised to incorporate as much convertible furniture or furniture that contains storage space into your home, Cattano and Robyn Reynolds, a certified professional organizer and owner of Organize2Harmonize, note that adding this type of furniture can sometimes be counterproductive.
“Just because you need storage doesn't mean that every inch of wall should be covered with furniture,” says Reynolds. This will make the space feel overcrowded and small.
Furthermore, Cattano notes that this type of furniture can sometimes be unsightly and bulky (despite its ability to convert), creating an overcrowded feel in an already small space. After all, you want your home to feel welcoming. Aside from taking up space, Cattano adds that these pieces of furniture can also be complicated to construct and time-consuming to rearrange regularly.
Keeping Items Off the Countertops
Taggard notes that you shouldn’t keep all items off your countertops despite being told that it’s a good idea when organizing a smaller home. If you’re taking everything you have and putting it on counters instead of dispersing it throughout your home, you will likely create more clutter than you otherwise would.
“Sometimes hiding everything actually creates more chaos than thoughtfully displaying a few everyday essentials,” says Taggard. “Keep only the items you use regularly on the counter, and group them intentionally.”
Keeping your countertops completely clear shouldn’t be your goal. Your goal should be to have a balance between functionality and aesthetics. Jessi Acuña, founder and organizing expert at The Tidy Armadillo, recommends keeping items you use more regularly on counters and items you might use less frequently in cabinets or other storage areas.
Utilizing the “One-In-One-Out” Method
Even though adding one item to your home for every item you get rid of may sound like a sound rule, Sofia Martinez, a cleaning expert and CEO of Sparkly Maid Austin, notes that adhering to this rule in a small home is, in essence, not doing anything but instead keeping your home looking the same.
“The problem is that in a small home, this rule is typically adopted when a space is already at or past its functional capacity,” says Martinez. “Maintaining a one-to-one swap at a volume that is already too high for the space does not actually make things feel less cluttered. It just keeps the clutter at a steady, uncomfortable level.”
Buying Bins Before Doing Anything Else
While this might sound counterintuitive, Ryan Eisland, cofounder of Home + Sort, advises against buying bins before organizing. She notes that buying bins should be a step you take after decluttering when organizing a small home. And Tracy McCubbin, founder of Dclutterfly, adds that doing this will give you a better idea of how many bins you actually need, so you don’t have to worry about where you’ll put any extras.
