Apartment living is common for those living in big cities and even suburban areas. And whether you’re renting a studio in Seattle, WA, or leasing an apartment in Dallas, TX, chances are you’ve been faced with one of the downsides of apartment life – clutter. Unless you’ve been living a minimalist lifestyle for some time now, it can be tough to keep your apartment organized and free from clutter.
To help make apartment living simpler, we’ve reached out to professional organizers for their best apartment organization hacks. Read on to find out what they had to say so you can begin living a clutter-free lifestyle.
Follow the one-in-one-out rule
Have you ever heard of the one-in one-out rule? When you have a smaller home you have to be intentional about everything you have and what you bring in too. The one-in one-out rule means that for every item you bring in, you must remove something. This applies to even small items like mugs or towels and linens that can quickly clog your cabinets and shelves. – Jennifer Martin, Spruce Organizing
Keep these three apartment organization hacks in mind
Moving into a small apartment can be overwhelming, where is all your stuff going to go? How do you make space for all of it to fit? These three tips can help you achieve a cute organized apartment without it feeling too cluttered and overwhelming.
- Don’t bulk it up with furniture. If you need more space for storage or let’s say a home office, I recommend floating shelves and desks.
- Declutter and get rid of anything you haven’t used in the past year or so before you move into the new space, and then do a declutter session every 3 to 6 months to make sure you’re not holding on to things you’re not using.
- Contain, contain, and contain. Finding a home for everything and containing it in containers or baskets will make the space look more organized and spacious. – Alia Adel, The Styled Stories
Look up for more storage space
The first thing I do when assessing storage space in a closet or cabinet is to look up. Typically, I’ll find unused vertical space where stackable bins, risers, or floating shelves can be added to maximize the space. The tops of bookshelves or kitchen cabinets are also a great place for decorative baskets or boxes (just make sure to only store items you don’t need frequent access to in those hard-to-reach places.) – Allison Lindblom, Home Organizing
Always make things easy to find and put away
When fitting big lives into city-sized homes, the items used daily always get prime real estate. Make it intuitive for everyone in the family. Your things should be easy to find, access, and easy to put away. Joining function and aesthetic it’s always a bonus. The better it looks the more likely you are to maintain it. – Sarah DeGrim, Stylish Spaces
Keep decluttering simple by picking one area to clean each day
As counter space and square footage may be limited in an apartment, one of my favorite tidy tips is selecting one area/surface in your apartment to always clear off at the end of your day. This practice gives your apartment an area always free of visual clutter, opening up your space and forming a new habit. Once you have done one area for a few months, it’s a piece of cake adding another spot to tidy up every night. – Mae Edwards Owner, Minimize with Mae Professional Organizer Certified KonMari Consultant
Little steps can make decluttering easier
Starting the decluttering process is always difficult for all of us. Letting go can be painful as it’s a separation from objects we have loved. Tips to consider: 1. Choose a small area to work on to begin with. Work for half an hour, then stop to see what you’ve accomplished. 2. Daily mail: If you touch it, do something productive with it other than just tossing it into a pile. Pay the bill, sort into categories, and dispose of the junk mail you see each day. 3. In, out rule: if you bring something into your home, think about disposing of something you no longer need or want. Little steps can lead to decluttering bigger areas. – Nancy Deutsch, The Empathic Organizer
Consider if you really need certain items
Approach decluttering like a game of make-believe. Look at one item at a time and pretend you don’t own it. Now, imagine yourself out shopping and you saw that item, would you buy it again? If the answer is no, it should go. – Jennifer Du Bois, Pro Organizer, Owner Organized by Jen D.
Everything should have a home
Declutter your space, making decisions on what to keep and not to keep. Have a home for everything in your apartment and use all available space, under the bed, over the door, and any other empty spaces you can find. Keep like things together. – Cynthia Parks, Easy Life Solutions
Follow the 60-second rule
Add a 60-second-or-less-put-it-away routine. When you get home, put your coat in the coat closet. Place junk mail directly into the recycling bin as you walk back from the mailbox. Done crafting, put the supplies away. Do it now instead of adding clutter, which can then turn into a frustrating clean-it-up-later drop zone. – Rebecca Thomas, Revise Organizing
Eliminate clutter using the six months rule
Sentence your clutter to six months’ time served. One of our favorite tricks at 21Oak is the “six months” rule. If you’ve not used an item in the last six months, ask yourself how much you really need it. There are exceptions (heavy coats, tire chains, etc.) but give yourself the freedom to donate or trash those impulse buys you made so long ago. – 21Oak
Create extra space in your small kitchen
Small spaces can tend to overwhelm us when it comes to placement, especially a kitchen! We have so many loved dishes and gadgets that make prepping food fun. Using the side of the refrigerator to hang a magnetic bar for knife storage, adding “under shelf baskets” to account for unused vertical space, and a simple “over the cabinet door organizer” for cutting board storage. – Kim Snodgrass Professional Organizer, Rustic Home Organizing
Items should always have their place
Ouch, Uhhhh, Yikes – sounds from stepping on things, tripping, or plain out frustration from not knowing where things are. Three tips to help you out. 1. Give everything a special place, that way if it moves, it’s easy to put back. 2. If you cannot think of a place to put it right this instant – Do not buy it. (Stay away from “it looks pretty” or “I may be able to use this.” 3. Invest in bins, containers, or baskets to put like items together that can easily be stored away like under the bed or stacked in a closet. – Natasha Holloway, Humble Hands Decor Co
Multi-functional is key for an organized apartment
One of the most important things to keep in mind when furnishing a small space, is to focus on multi-functional items. These items will make organization easy to maintain day-to-day. Examples include: Ottoman with storage, to use as a coffee table, foot rest, or for extra seating. Multi-functional coffee table to use as coffee table, dining table, or desk. Trundle bed to use as an extra bed or storage for linens, off-season clothing, etc. Entryway bench with shoe storage. Instapot to use for slow or pressure cooking, steaming, sautéing, and fermenting foods. The options are endless. – Julie Starke, Professional Organizer and Occupied Home Stager, Keys To Living Light, LLC
Furnishings can go a long way to create an organized apartment
Consider bunk beds or a trundle bed for children sharing a room. Add a folding screen to create a feeling of privacy and personal space in bedrooms or a shared home office. Buy one tall bookcase rather than 2 smaller ones to reduce the wall space taken up by furniture. Add shelving above desks to increase workspace. If dining space is at a premium use a drop-leaf table that can be folded when not in use. If you plan to buy any furniture select items with the greatest storage capacity. More storage = less clutter. – Nancy Peham CPO® – Certified Professional Organizer, Helping Hands Personal Services
Invest in furniture that doubles as storage
Maximize your space possibilities in a small apartment with multi-purpose furniture that doubles as storage like an ottoman that opens up. Also, don’t forget to look up. There are tons of cute options these days for shelving, hooks, and cabinets to mount on those empty walls. The back of cabinets and doors are great for Command hooks and bins as well. – Audrey Jackson Lead Organizer, Society + Co Organizing
Small spaces are easy targets for clutter
You first need to decide if the items in your space are serving a purpose or just taking up space. You’d be surprised how much space is freed up after decluttering. Once this step is complete, then the next step is to find a “home” for each item. The hardest part next is to keep in the habit of putting things back in its designated space. This will keep your small space organized and give you a sense of accomplishment. – Amanda Slyter, Founder of A Little Organized, LLC Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and Nationwide
Have a clear plan of your organization goals
I always tell my clients while it’s nice to schedule a date/time you will start an organizing session for yourself, the most important thing to determine is “I will be finished when…” The trap most people fall into is starting to organize without a clear idea of what the finished product will look like. The question should go something like “I will be finished organizing my closet when all the things I’m keeping are hung up or put on shelves.” I will be finished when all my donations are in the car and I’ve taken them to the donation center.” When you have a clear idea of what being finished is, you will allocate the proper amount of time and won’t end up with things that haven’t been put away or bags of donations waiting by the door for weeks. – Anna Glielmi, Fresh Look Home Professional Organizing Service
Bring items into your space with intention
Always remember, you are in control of everything that comes through your doorway so be intentional about what you allow in. Value your space and energy more than stuff. Your apartment was empty at one point in time. Visualize it. You made the choice to bring stuff in. Remember, you have that same control now to make it leave your apartment. Be intentional about what “rooms with you.” – Tammy Jo Borosky, Clear Organizing
Remember your space is valuable
Value space over bulk savings. Buying in bulk is tempting especially when items are priced to lure us into thinking buying more means saving more. However, bulk items take up valuable real estate in your apartment. You can pay a store a bit more to store items for you until you need them. – Diem M. Duong, Professional Organizer at Tidy Sense
Uniform items make apartment organization easy to maintain
My favorite tip for small space living is to utilize uniform items as much as possible. Let’s consider bath towels as an example. It is so much easier to store and maintain a set of six towels that are all the same in terms of weight, size, and color as opposed to a set of six towels that are all different. Another example would be drinking glasses. Instead of trying to fit 12 different-sized glasses on your shelf, use a matching set that all share the same dimensions. The set will fit on the shelf much easier and visually it will look so much more streamlined and considered. – Jane Corkery Hahn, Like Begets Like
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