Love or Hate? 16 Home Organising Tips That Always Split Opinion…
Organising your home is a really personal project, and advice that works wonders for one person might lead another to frustration. Here are 16 commonly followed tips that always seem to divide opinions. Which would be good for you?
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When it comes to sorting out your house, it’s important to remember that nothing is “one size fits all”.
What works for someone else brilliantly may turn out to be totally wrong for you and your specific home life setup.
As such, you need to shop around a bit.
Get ideas and inspiration from people you trust, and then make a decision on what you think will work best for you – and try it.
Only then will you know whether it will work or not.
And while some tips seem to be universally accepted, others leave people well and truly divided.
Let’s look at 16 of these offenders, so you can make up your own mind…
16 divisive Home Organising Tips – Where Do You Stand?
Tip #1 – When decluttering, pull out all items in a category At Once
Marie Kondo’s advice to gather every item of a specific category (like clothes or books) into one place is a main part of her decluttering method.
💛 Love It: Some find immense satisfaction in gathering all items of a category and tackling the entire pile in one go.
It allows you to see exactly how much you have of one thing, and identify duplicates quickly.
❌ Loathe It: For larger homes, this method can be really overwhelming and impractical, leaving people drowning in piles of items before they can even begin to sort them out.
It can actually drain motivation if you’re not ready for such a large job.
Tip #2 – Avoid Buying New Storage Solutions
Many experts advise against purchasing new storage containers, encouraging the use of what you already have.
💛 Love It: This advice helps prevent the accumulation of unnecessary containers and encourages using what you already have. A lot of the time you can create more clutter when you buy new storage items – and that only makes the issues worse.
❌ Loathe It: For those with limited or awkward spaces, investing in new storage solutions can be crucial to maximising what you have. You won’t be truly organised if you’re ‘making do’ with solutions that are less than great.
TIP: Find a middle ground with the rule of only buying new storage AFTER you’ve decluttered and worked out where you want to store something. That way you know the dimensions and sort of item(s) you need. You can also shop your house before buying new – which can save lots of time and energy!
Tip #3 – The ‘One Year Rule’ For Decluttering
This popular rule states that if you haven’t used an item in a year, it’s time to let it go.
💛 Love It: If you haven’t used it in a year, it’s probably not essential. This rule helps to reduce clutter quickly as there’s a clear answer every time.
❌ Loathe It: Many argue that this rule is too rigid, especially for items used seasonally or for hobbies that might be dormant for more than a year. It may end up getting rid of items that are actually really useful.
Also, although a year feels like a long time – for people who have lots of possessions or are really busy – how likely is it that they will be able to use every single item in their house that they need, that often?
Tip #4 – Decanting Pantry Items into Containers
Decanting is the process of transferring pantry items (such as cereal, pasta and rice) from their original packaging into uniform containers for more stylish organisation.
💛 Love It: Decanting can make pantries look neat and uniform, and easily allows you to see what you have more clearly (if you use clear storage).
❌ Loathe It: The mismatch in container sizes and the hassle of storing partial packages can make this practice more trouble than it’s worth.
Tip #5 – Get Rid of Clothes That Don’t Fit
The advice here is to discard clothing that doesn’t currently fit you to streamline your wardrobe.
💛 Love It: Keeping only clothes that fit can streamline your wardrobe and ensure you’re always wearing something that looks good on you.
❌ Loathe It: For those whose weight fluctuates, this advice can lead to repeatedly buying and discarding clothes, which is impractical and costly.
Tip #6 – The Minimalism Game
This decluttering game involves getting rid of a certain number of items each day, increasing incrementally.
For example – a 30 day challenge that gets rid of 1 item on day 1, through to 30 items on day 30.
💛 Love It: Decluttering incrementally by increasing the number of items discarded each day can make the process manageable and fun.
❌ Loathe It: The initial days are too easy, while later days can become overwhelming, defeating the purpose of manageable decluttering.
TIP: Why not turn the tables on this and get rid of more on the first day (when it’s arguably easier to find things), and then you have to find less and less as the days go on…
Tip #7 – Let It Go – You Can Just Buy Again If Needed
This tip suggests discarding items and replacing them later if necessary.
💛 Love It: This can reduce clutter quickly and make space for what truly matters.
❌ Loathe It: For those on a budget, this advice is impractical. It’s better to keep items that might be needed later to avoid unnecessary expenses.
TIP: Find a middle ground by setting a value limit on what you let go with this rule. For example, you’d be happy to allow a few items to leave that you have to re-buy at a later date, as long as they would cost under £10 to do so.
Tip #8 – Keep Only What Sparks Joy
Marie Kondo’s famous advice to keep only items that bring you joy. Each item needs to be touched and you then will ‘feel’ whether it sparks joy or not.
💛 Love It: This can lead to a home filled only with the things you love – which can only be a good thing really…
❌ Loathe It: Some items are necessary even if they don’t “spark joy,” making this rule hard to follow universally. It also feels quite an alien concept to go with feelings more than thinking…
Tip #9 – The “One In, One Out” Rule
For every new item you bring into your home, you should get rid of one existing item.
💛 Love It: This helps maintain a balance and prevents new clutter from accumulating.
❌ Loathe It: For many, this strict rule can be unrealistic, especially when it comes to books, clothing, or other collections that naturally should increase in volume over time.
It also assumes that you have the right number of items at the start – whereas you may need to declutter MORE than there is…
Tip #10 – Sorting by Colour
Some organising methods suggest sorting items, such as books or clothes, by colour for visual appeal.
This is especially popular on social media, where the visuals look gorgeous with everything arranged in rainbow colours.
💛 Love It: Visually appealing and can make items easier to find for some people.
❌ Loathe It: Impractical for functional organising, where usability will always trump aesthetics.
For example – when you play with Lego you want to look for specific shaped pieces. This means that everything merges together as you build things. Just imagine having to put your lego back into coloured sections after you’ve played with it…
Or what about finding a specific book on a bookcase that’s colour coded rather than sorted by author or title? Most people wouldn’t be able to guess the colour of a books spine immediately, and so it would take much longer to find it.
Tip #11 – Don’t Keep Empty Boxes
Simple advice against keeping empty boxes in order to avoid clutter from them.
💛 Love It: Frees up a lot of space (as they’re bulky) and reduces clutter of unused packaging.
❌ Loathe It: Many find empty boxes invaluable for storage, organising, or future use, making this advice counterproductive.
TIP: You could break cardboard boxes down flat and store in less space if you want to use them in the future.
Tip #12 – Take Digital Photos Instead of Keeping The Physical Keepsakes
Taking photos of sentimental items instead of keeping the physical objects.
💛 Love It: Reduces physical clutter and keeps memories in a compact digital format. You get to enjoy the item without it degrading over time (fading etc…).
❌ Loathe It: For a lot of people, digital photos don’t hold the same emotional value, and managing digital clutter can be a challenge in itself. You need to be organised to be able to find the pictures when you want them…
TIP: Create a new keepsake that takes up less room by creating a photo book for the coffee table of all the pictures of items you’ve loved. You can also write a few words about them etc… and make it a real treasure.
Tip #13 – Declutter Daily for Five Minutes
Spend just five minutes each day decluttering to keep clutter at bay.
💛 Love It: Small, consistent efforts can lead to big results over time without feeling overwhelming.
❌ Loathe It: Some people find this advice impractical with busy schedules and prefer more significant decluttering sessions less frequently.
Decluttering can get messy very quickly, and who wants to live with a mess every day until you’ve done enough 5 minute sessions to sort it all out?
Tip #14 – Donate Clutter Immediately
The idea is to donate items immediately after deciding to discard them to prevent them from staying as clutter in your house.
💛 Love It: Keeps the decluttering process efficient and ensures items don’t linger in your home once they’ve been deemed unnecessary.
It also makes sure you don’t have a chance to second guess the decision to let something go, as you can’t retrieve it once it’s out of the house.
❌ Loathe It: Immediate donation can be challenging logistically, and some prefer to accumulate items before making a donation trip.
It’s also time consuming unless you’re heading that way anyway…
Tip #15 – Label Everything
Putting labels on containers and shelves to help with easily identifying what goes where.
💛 Love It: Labels can make it easier for everyone in the house to find things and put them away. It also looks neat.
❌ Loathe It: Some find labels visually unappealing or unnecessary, especially in smaller households where everything’s location is already well-known.
Tip #16 – Have A Capsule Wardrobe
Maintaining a minimal wardrobe with a limited number of essential items.
💛 Love It: Simplifies daily choices and can make wardrobe management much more straightforward.
❌ Loathe It: Too restrictive for many, as personal style and lifestyle needs vary greatly and might require more variety than a capsule wardrobe allows.
There you have it – the most divisive advice out there at the moment.
As you can see, there’s a lot of ambiguity when deciding what will work for you the best.
Ultimately, the right approach is what fits your lifestyle, reduces stress, and helps you create a home environment that you love.
You can work that out over time with trial and error, and knowing what you need from each space. It can be fun!
So, what’s your stance on these tips?
I’d love to see what you love and what you loathe , or if you can think of any others to add to the list – so please leave a comment below…
Read Next: When It Goes Too Far: Discover Why Being Too Organised Might Hurt You!
