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How-To: Keep Your Home (and Your Home Office) Organized
Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin of The Home Edit know that a happy home is an organized one.
It kind of feels like Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin have been in our homes because we can’t get enough of their Netflix show, Get Organized with The Home Edit. But, in taking an actual look around our spaces, it’s pretty clear that Joanna and Clea haven’t stopped by with their clear bins and our lives are just as disorganized as ever—maybe even more since we’re spending an increased amount of time at home. Never fear. The Home Edit experts have given us a ton of tips on keeping our homes organized—even while occupying them 24/7.
If spending a lot more time in your home made you reevaluate the way it functions (or doesn’t function), you’re not alone. There’s been a massive uptick in home organization over this past year. It’s not just that you finally noticed the clutter, but there’s a deep connection between the spaces we inhabit and our mental health. Getting organized not only helps you live more easily in your home, but it also creates a sense of calm and control in a world where so much is uncertain. We’ve seen firsthand how powerful it can be to create a clutter-free space and make it exceptionally functional—whether it’s the kids being able to help themselves to a cereal station in the pantry (we’ll do anything to get thirty more minutes of sleep) or finally being able to see your clothes in the closet after clearing away 20 years’ worth of nostalgia (no, your daughter will not want that shirt one day). Here are some tips to keep in mind while organizing every room in your house—and maintaining the systems you put in place.
- Start with a drawer. Completely empty it out, create groupings of like items so you can see what you’re dealing with, and then edit, edit, edit. Pare down anything you don’t use, have duplicates of, or just don’t like. Then put everything back in, in an organized fashion. Our process is the same whether it’s a big space or a little one, so to avoid getting overwhelmed, start small and work your way up. Remember: Baby steps are small victories.
- It’s okay to get rid of things. If you spot an item that is no longer serving you—physically or emotionally—it’s okay to let it go. It’s not doing you any favors. In fact, it’s hogging precious space in your house and in your brain. And we’re willing to bet that every time you see it, that item makes you feel a little bit guilty for not using it. So, say goodbye to the item and to the guilt trip.
- Give yourself time. Don’t start the editing process an hour before you have to leave to pick up the kids and try to keep moving once you’ve started. Stopping and restarting is a big reason people tend to lose interest and confidence when tackling an organizing project. Think of it like running: If you’re training for a 5K but you let two weeks go by between each run, it’s like you’re starting from scratch every time. We can’t urge you enough to take advantage of the motivation to make a change in your home, harness that momentum, and hang on for dear life.
- ROYGBIV it. One of the reasons we strive to make spaces as aesthetically pleasing as possible is because we know how powerful a motivator that can be for keeping it looking that way. We love sorting items by color and organizing them by the spectrum of the rainbow. Not only is it pleasing to the eye, it’s also an organizational tool. Our brains innately recognize this pattern, making it a natural scheme for making sense of where we put things. It makes it faster to find what you’re looking for and easier for you to know where things should be put away, and it’s certainly easy on the eyes.
- Grab your label maker. Or Sharpie, or paint pen…whatever implement you use, it’s really just a set of instructions for what goes where. Clearly and concretely identifying the contents that belong in a container gives you, your kids, your partner, your houseguests, and anyone else using the space straightforward directions for where items go. And when items stay where they belong, you’re successfully maintaining an organizational system.
How to Separate Home and Work From Home
Laura Vanderkam, author of The New Corner Office: How the Most Successful People Work From Home, shares her tips on making work from home work for you.
Many of us have been working from home for a year now but some of our at-home office spaces still feel temporary. What are some must-haves every home office needs?
If a home office is going to work long-term, it needs a flat surface, a supportive chair, a window, and a door that closes. Yes, I know that last one has been challenging for people who started working at the kitchen table! But hear me out. Life is distracting enough as it is. You don’t want to make yourself look available to everyone else in the household. If there’s no dedicated home office in your current space (and you’re working remotely), you could always move! If that’s not going to happen, don’t write off your bedroom. It probably has a window and a door, and might be more private than any other space. With the smart use of a screen, or renovating a closet, you might be able to hide away your work at the end of the day. If you have kids who are doing in-person school, you might commandeer one of their bedrooms as a during-the-school day office for you. I know it’s tempting to try to make do, but remote work is going to be a bigger part of the equation from now on. It’s time to stop treating it as temporary.
How can you delineate your office space when it also needs to serve as oh, I don’t know…the kitchen table?
Maybe don’t choose your kitchen table! Working from home is no less serious than working from an office, and deserves the same sort of dedicated space where you don’t have to put everything away every single night. Kitchen tables are supposed to be central to a household. It’s where you gather and interact. Your home office…should not be that.
Do you think working from home will continue in a post-pandemic world?
Remote work has been on the rise for years. Yet it was still largely seen as a work/life balance perk that was primarily for people who’d been with a company for a decade or more. Even then, it was reserved for Fridays, since everyone knows that’s the least productive day of the week. I have had business leaders talk to me about remote work as a future trend they were following, and then say “of course it would never work for us.” Thanks to the pandemic, we now know that is not true. Consequently, many people will not be willing to go back to commuting an hour each way, five days a week, just to email and call people in other places. Yes, there are many wonderful things that happen when we gather in person, but five days a week with the exact same people is probably overkill. I envision a future where people have a hybrid model: two to three days per week in the office, two to three days per week at home. Some forward-thinking organizations might try one week in the office and three at home because that allows you to hire from just about anywhere and fly people in.
What are some ways we can make working from home easier? More productive?
I think a year into this experiment, many people have figured out how to make remote work function pretty well. For those who are still struggling, I’d suggest some sort of ritual that helps establish when you are in “work” mode and “not work” mode. While some people orchestrate a fake commute at morning and at night (such as walking the dog, or picking up their kids) this need not be elaborate. Maybe you pour yourself a big cup of coffee, sit at your desk, look at your to-do list, and that’s your “go” signal. Maybe you have a theme song you play. Maybe at the end of the day you make tomorrow’s to-do list and call a colleague to say goodbye. These are all good ways to bookend a day.
One other thing to remember is that working from home has some inherent upsides and downsides. It’s more flexible, so you can often create more of your own schedule. You can work how you work best (no freezing AC…and you can decorate how you wish!). On the other hand, it can feel a little isolating. So, make a point of reaching out to colleagues and to people outside your organization. Often this happens organically with meetings, which should incorporate a little bit of social time at the beginning to compensate for the lack of water cooler conversations. But if you don’t have many meetings, pick up the phone and call people. It will go a long way toward making you feel happier.
