How to Organize a Home With Little Space

If you live in a small space, you might be under the impression that you will never achieve excellent home organization. The good news is that you're mistaken! Getting organized and maintaining a good system has less to do with the size of your home and more to do with the tactics you use in keeping clutter and disorganization under control.

Whether you're naturally tidy or a bit on the messy side, these tips will help you keep your small home in good order:

• Stay Focused on One Area at a Time
• Know What You Have
• Love It or Leave It
• Keep It Neat and Tidy

Don't despair if you have a small home; you can take charge of the space you have and turn it into the house of your dreams with a little extra home organization help!

If you have a disorganized home, it's easy to get overwhelmed. If you start going from one room to another making little changes here and there, your organizational system is not likely to improve. Instead, take a deep breath, slow down, and tackle one area at a time.

Home organization guru Marla Cilley, better known as the FlyLady, advocates for separating your home into zones. In her system, you would work in one room per week, 15 minutes per day. You might think that you won't make progress this way, but you'd be surprised! Particularly in a small area, spending just a bit of time tackling different parts of the same room will add up to a lot over the course of a week.

So pick an area and focus on that section of your home to start. It doesn't matter which room you pick, and if a whole room is too much, then choose just one area, such as a bookcase. Start going through your items, which leads to the next step.

You can't have proper organization in your home if you aren't sure what is hiding in all of your drawers, cabinets, and closets. If it's been a while since you took a whole-house inventory, it's likely that you have duplicates or triplicates of some items simply because you forgot you had the originals.

As you go through your disorganized spaces, make notes about what you have. For example, as you clean out your closets, put all of your black shirts together & all of your jeans together. How many do you have of each of your regular staple items? How many do you need?

If you are more likely to overbuy kitchen items, then do this when you clean out your pots and pans. You know yourself and what you tend to "stock up" on. Having too many of the same items in a small space leads to disorganization, so it's important to know what you have on hand so you can stop accumulating more.

Now comes the hardest part. You need to think about what you own and what you can part with. In a small space, the rule is "love it or leave it." If you don't love it, use it regularly, or have a strong sentimental attachment (more on this in a minute), let it go. The more stuff you have cluttering up your spaces, the less organized your home will be. The logical conclusion is that you need to purge some of your items, and starting with the things you don't love or use is the least painful way to do it.

Thinking about items that are sentimental in value, you need to be honest with yourself. Do you tend to appreciate the nostalgia of many items? If so, it's possible that you will need to talk yourself out of keeping everything. Get a sensible friend to help you with this task. Taking photos or journaling about the items might give you a tangible memory without having to save each item forever.

What to do with these previously loved items?

• Give Them Away: If they're in good shape and you know someone who could use them, offer up your items. Don't be insulted if your intended recipients say no, though; remember that they too need to decide what goes in their homes.
• Donate Them to a Thrift Shop: You might choose to look for one that donates the funds to a cause you support.
• Have a Garage Sale: Just be sure to have a backup plan for the items that don't sell. And if you get busy and don't end up having the sale, use one of the other suggestions.
• Dispose of Anything Beyond Repair: Call your waste management company if you aren't sure how to get rid of a specific item.

The biggest challenge of getting your small home organized is keeping it that way. Consistency is the key to maintenance. Choose one or two habits you can maintain without much effort, then see what happens.



Making your bed is a popular small habit that can make a big difference. As explained by Michelle Ullman from The Spruce, making your bed encourages you to keep the rest of your bedroom tidy. After all, a pile of clothes on the floor or a messy nightstand looks worse next to a beautifully made bed, so you'll naturally feel inclined to pick it up. In this case, organization spreads. Choose one area in each room to maintain; doing one visible task at a time will keep that space organized and could also prompt you to improve the organization of neighboring areas.

Good home organization is possible no matter how large or small your house is. If you live in a small home, then it's important to purge items you don't need, make the most of the storage areas you do have, and work to maintain the tidiness throughout your home. If you can succeed in these areas, then you will be well on your way to having a lovely, well-organized home that makes you smile every time you walk through the door.