Essential Items for Every Room in the House

If you want your home to stay organized, you need to know a few things: Namely how you can stay organized in an effective and sustained manner. This is why we outline various personality types in our book, which is available on Amazon. We then use those personality types to come up with customized plans of action that will allow each type to declutter and refurbish in the way that best suits their lifestyle. In order to implement these organizational techniques and changes, you’ll need specific tools to help you. That’s where this article comes in handy. Below, we’ll go over essential items you’ll need to organize every room in your house.

Entryway

1. Mounted wall hooks: You’ll need these for your keys and your regularly-worn coats.
2. Small, shallow bowl: You’ll need this for your keys, spare change, and anything else that’s made it into your pockets at the end of the day.
3. An umbrella stand: Because who wants a bunch of wet umbrellas in a pile on the floor (and the consequent muddy puddle that results?).
4. A rug (or two): This gives the entryway the feel of a real room — and also is a perfect place to collect dirt and dust that comes in the door with you.
5. A wastebasket: for any unwanted receipts, chewing gum wrappers, etc. that Funs and Smarts will have to get rid of immediately (if they are to be gotten rid of at all).
6. Clear bins for closet shelf storage and floor shoe storage: These are particularly helpful when you’ve got a bunch of kiddos. Label the bins with their names and designate one bin per child. Have them throw coats, boots and backpacks into their bin to retrieve when it’s homework time.
7. Matching coat hangers: make sure these are sturdy enough for winter coats and jackets.
8. A console table: You’ll need this to rest that ‘miscellaneous’ bowl on. Just make sure that the keys go into the bowl and not just onto the table!

Home Office

1. Clear inboxes, labeled: These will help organize and maximize desk space as well as keep your paperwork in order.
2. A label maker: Just in case you acquire new storage sources that need to be labeled.
3. Clear glass jars for pens and pencils.
4. A document storage system: Depending on your type, this could mean a clear accordion type file (Funs) or a full on filing cabinet (Classics), but just make sure you have some sort of classification technique in place for your paperwork.
   
5. Shredder: This is something that any type can use when purging old paperwork (bills from two to three years ago, and any official paperwork that is at least 7 years old can go straight into this).
6. An oversized wall calendar: This can be useful for visual memory people (Funs, Organics, Smarts) when placed directly over the desk.
7. Bookshelves: Smarts especially will need these to store their books. Other types might want to keep (a few!) sentimental pictures or tchotchkes on them.
8. Junk drawer: This is only meant for Organic and Smart types, and they only get one. Perfect for mislaid scissors, or random things that they don’t know what to do with in the moment.

Kitchen

1. Cabinet risers: These will prove indispensable to all types, particularly those who need to see everything in their cabinet clearly upon opening the doors. It also makes stacking and retrieval of plates and dishes a whole lot easier, as it separates a pile of 12 or more into piles of 4 or 5.
2. Cabinet dividers: These play the same role as the risers, in that they just make organizing the kitchen things you do have a lot easier. As retrieval is one of our main principles (and the key to being truly organized), it is paramount that you know exactly where the kitchen tools that you need are in the moment, without thinking about it. No more hunting for the matching pot lid for that pan!
3. Lazy Susans: Again, just another way to organize the contents of your kitchen shelves and make retrieval that much simpler. Use these for spices storage or any other small item you won’t want to dig around to find.
4. Matching glass leftover containers: Use these so a) you can see what is in each container and b) so you don’t have to use plastic carcinogenic containers that carry germs (blech!).
5. A To Do Calendar: For those of you who like to be organized as opposed to creative in the kitchen (here’s looking at you, Classics), keep a wall calendar in this area with a grocery list attached so that you can easily add things as you notice they’re missing (Funs, Organics).
6. Flatware organizer: This should fit into one of your kitchen drawers and make searching for forks and knives a lot easier.

Dining Room

1. Table, chairs and console/hutch: These are the building blocks to any proper dining room area. If you need to see things to retrieve them, make sure your console or hutch has glass doors. If not, (Classics), feel free to use one with doors that hide the contents of the cabinet.
2. Dimmer switch: Have we mentioned that ambience is kind of cool? Kitchens should be bright and cheerful. Dining rooms are for drama (and we don’t mean familial drama!).
   
3. Silver chest: To store silver or flatware, Classics ought to own at least one silver chest, which they should store in their hutch.
4. Open shelving: For Fun personality types, this is essential, as open shelving allows them to see exactly what they have and where it is. We’re talking bowls and plates, napkins, placemats, the whole shebang.
5. What a dining room SHOULDN’T have? Anything related to a home office. In other words, if you decide to do your taxes on the dining room table, pick up after yourself and make sure no trace is left behind. Dining rooms are for DINING.

Living Room

1. Furniture with built-in storage: This type of furniture is helpful to stash random toys and other miscellaneous things.
2. Media console that hides cords: This is obvious to anyone who wants things to look clean and tidy.
3. Two side tables with matching lamps: Not only does this lend a certain symmetry to a living room, it also adds an air of functionality to the space (a functionality that is, well, actually very functional).

Bedroom

1. Matching hangers: These make it easier to see what you have in your closet and focus on the clothing and not the hanger.
2. Mounted hooks: These are perfect for types who would normally come into the bedroom after a long day and throw a shirt or a pair of pants onto a chair — it’s just as easy to toss them onto a hook!
3. Adequate shelving and shoe storage: Because you can never have enough shoes.
   
4. Two bedside tables: Just like with the living room, these are both functional and feng shui.
5. Two separate hampers: One for delicates and one for regular clothing.
6. Jewelry containers: Depending on your type, these will look different; however everyone should have some sort of storage for their jewelry.

Bathroom

1. Clear bins for under-sink storage: This does not mean ‘throw everything you use in the bathroom into these bins’. This means an opportunity to label the bins and organize your toiletries.
2. Mounted or built in shelving or caddies for the shower.
3. Mounted hooks: For robes, towels, or anything else.
4. Hamper: for wet and dirty towels.

Start with these. Read our book, take our quiz, determine which type you are, and gather your tools from there. Guaranteed, they’ll help you get and stay organized in the way that works for you.