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Best Organization Tools: My Favorite Home Organizing Products & Some to Avoid

Having organized the homes of hundreds of clients over the years, I know which home organization tools truly work and which ones to avoid. This post highlights the most functional products I consistently use and trust.

One of the most common organizing mistakes I see is a failed effort to get organized because my client bought the wrong products. Some organizing products have stood the test of time, but others I remove when a client has them in place because they don’t work well. I will share those as well so that you know to steer clear of them.

Best organization tools for the kitchen and pantry:

✅Using clear bins and tiered shelves can help you keep your pantry organized. To organize your pantry, group similar items in clear plastic bins to create categories like “snacks” or “baking supplies.” The clear material makes it easy to find what you need at a glance.

✅If you have a pantry with deeper shelving, using extra-long bins will allow you to utilize all of your pantry space without storing food behind other foods, making them hard to reach and more likely to be forgotten about. I have a deeper pantry, and I use these bins.

✅Labeling the bins will also help family members put things back in the right place. Use caution not to over-shop and overfill your pantry, as this is the most common cause of pantry disorganization. Examples of food categories are: Snacks, Side Dishes, Dried Fruit & Nuts, Energy Bars, etc.

✅You can prevent canned food from getting lost in the back of your pantry by using an expandable tiered shelf. This allows you to see everything you have and avoids the need to stack items on top of each other. Doing this makes everything easy to locate and grab.

❌Canned food organizers that store cans lying down so that they roll forward as you use them. These are only helpful if you tend to buy 12 cans of the exact same product.

✅To keep the kitchen organized and to create more space, I love using expandable wire racks to vertically store flatter items like cookie sheets, cutting boards, platters, pizza pans, and even casserole dishes. It often requires less room to stand things up, and they are easier to access.

In my own home, I installed a wire rack above my refrigerator to store all of these things. When you have to lay items down and nest multiple items on top of each other, you inevitably always seem to need to get to the bottom one.

✅Bamboo drawer dividers are great for organizing utensil drawers so you can sort related utensils together and easily find what you are looking for when cooking.

✅In spice cabinets, I often use expandable tiered shelving or lazy Susans to keep everything organized and visible.

❌There are several other spice rack systems out there that I don’t recommend. The kind that you pull down and out of the cabinet is unstable and not user-friendly.

❌I usually also remove the decorative kind that sits out on the countertop because it takes up too much valuable countertop space, requires a lot of maintenance (with all the filling of the little bottles), and makes your kitchen look cluttered.

✅If you struggle with household paper clutter that constantly piles up in your kitchen, I recommend using decorative baskets or bins to hide paperwork in. Sometimes a hanging paperwork organizer on a nearby wall will work well to keep important paperwork separated and organized (don’t forget to label). Use my paperwork management flowchart to set up a simple system for keeping household paperwork organized.

✅Lastly, if you have just moved into a new home and want to beautify and protect your kitchen cabinets and drawers, I recommend using Easy Liner removable shelf liner because it is durable, easy to install, and does not wrinkle or slide around with use.

Best organization tools for the master closet:

✅I recommend using velvet hangers for hanging clothing; they are usually sturdy, well-made, and the velvet coating stops slick or wide-necked clothing from slipping off the hanger.

❌Convoluted multi-item hangers require too much effort to use, so they are too high-maintenance to be functional. Expensive wood hangers work well for men’s suits, but are not practical for women’s clothing because many dresses and wide-necked tops will slip off the wood. They are also space hogs.

❌I usually take down those flimsy canvas hanging shelves that you can purchase to attach to your clothing rod. I find that they are annoying when used frequently, and you have to sacrifice precious hanging rod space to use them.

✅I like to store items like purses, out-of-season attire, and scarves in open-topped storage bins. Storing these items vertically will make things easier to see and retrieve. Belts can be organized using a belt organizer.

✅If your closet does not have ample shelving for your shoes (builders often skimp on this), add a sturdy shoe shelving unit or two.

❌There are a lot of not-so-functional shoe racks out there. Avoid flimsy canvas ones, the kind with only two rods, and those with slanted shelves; shoes just slide off these kinds.

✅Over-the-door shoe organizers can also be a good way to add shoe storage, but they are best for smaller shoes like sandals, flip-flops, and kids’ shoes. They are not quite as user-friendly, but a good option when space is limited.

❌One last item I do not recommend is plastic storage drawers. While they are better than nothing to use as a last resort, the drawers are hard to open, so they are not all that user-friendly.

✅Instead, I recommend using open front cubby systems in your closet. Cubbies are a great place to store your folded jeans, bulky sweatshirts, and sweaters that won’t wrinkle if folded. Open-topped bins can also be placed inside your cubbies to hold smaller items.

✅To keep your closet clutter free and create more space, don’t store keepsake clothing that you don’t wear in your closet.  Get items like college sweatshirts and your prom dress out of your closet and into plastic totes.

Store these items with the rest of your keepsakes in a basement, attic, or storage room. This is a great way to free up space in your closet!

Best organizing products for the bedroom:

✅ I like to use under-the-bed bins for out-of-season storage. This is a great way to utilize the empty space under your bed. You can also store keepsakes and other items you don’t necessarily want to display underneath your bed to keep your bedroom looking clutter-free and organized.

✅ Bamboo drawer dividers work well to keep socks and other undergarments sorted inside of dresser drawers.

My favorite bathroom organization tools:

✅Decorative open bins are a great solution for corralling countertop items and keeping the rest of your counter clutter-free.

✅For small items in your top drawers, use small clear containers to keep them separated and easy to locate.

✅Underneath the sink, you can use large, open-topped containers to group related products together. Adjustable under-the-sink organizers that allow you to utilize vertical space are also a great option.

❌Avoid under-the-sink organizers with pull-out drawers, as they can be a hassle to use and require you to lay down all of your bottles, which is not ideal for bathroom supplies.

Organization tools for the garage and storage room:

✅When choosing a storage shelving system, stick with these sturdy metal storage units that allow you to easily adjust the height of each shelf to ensure that your storage totes will fit on them.

❌There are many types of shelving units available that are cheaply made, not sturdy, not adjustable, and hard to assemble, so choose carefully.

Before you shop:

• • Know what you actually need: Sorting and decluttering first ensures you buy the right products and sizes for your specific spaces.

  • Save money and reuse: Decluttering often frees up containers you already own, preventing unnecessary purchases.

  • Maintain momentum: Use shopping as a reward for finishing the hard work. Shopping first can kill your momentum and leave you with unused products that add to your clutter.

  • Measure First: Don’t forget to measure your spaces before you shop! There is nothing worse than ending up with products that have to be returned because they are 1/4 of an inch too big for the space.

Still Feeling Stuck?

Schedule a coaching call, virtual organizing session, or home assessment with me and get the insight,  education, and inspiration you need to move forward