7 beautiful, colourful ways to stay organised at home
After a few years of minimalist interior trends, colour is back, and in a big way.
A smart strategy to introduce colour into your home is to use it to stay organised. If you have some time on your hands during lockdown and you’re looking for inspiration, here are some tips on how to be organised at home, plus ideas for getting things sorted in a more colourful way.
1. Arrange your bookshelf
Instead of sorting your books alphabetically or by size, switch to ordering them by colour and shade.
Organising books is an activity you can do with kids and if you have a lot of grown-up books, at least this shelf will stay looking good for quite a while.
This is a strategy shared by The Home Edit, one of the USA’s most popular home organising shows. You can do the same for your wardrobe if you like the look and don’t feel too much pressure to keep it up!
2. Choose a colour palette for your containers
Whether you are organising your pantry, bathroom or toy room, choose two or three colours and stick to them. Contrasting or complementary, pastel or bold – it’s up to you.
Buy some containers that match your colours and you can then organise things into categories. For example, red for baking ingredients, grey for pasta and rice packets and white for kids’ treats. You can add labels as well, but if you have small children the colours will be helpful as well as looking good.
This method can apply to any room. Encourage good habits by reminding your family to look for the label or colour before they put something away. Give your children some ownership by allowing them to choose storage container colours for their bedrooms.
3. Colour-coordinate your calendar
If you’re managing a busy family schedule, having a wall calendar still makes life easy.
Choose a post-it or pen colour for each member of your family and you will be able to quickly see who has activities on what day.
4. Colour-code your chargers
Many people who ask how to be organised at home are thinking about bigger items but organising chargers is another way to make life easier.
You can consider purchasing coloured chargers, for example, blue for Apple products, or get some coloured tape and wrap your cords so you can find the one you need more quickly.
If your kids are into LEGO, you may have noticed that charger cables fit perfectly into Minifigure hands. Make a family activity and create some cable stands out of LEGO to add a burst of colour to your charging station and help stop the cables from getting tangled together – YouTube has lots of videos showing you how.
5. Chop by colour
Having separate coloured chopping boards for meat/seafood, bread and fruit will help you to avoid cross-contamination in your kitchen. You can colour the ends of wooden chopping boards or buy boards in different colours. Many sets are now available with a range of colours for this purpose.
6. Organise your mudroom
The mudroom is more of an American concept and refers to the area where your family dumps their belongings when they get home at the end of the day. It doesn’t have to be a room – it could just be the space nearest your front or back door.
A set of colour-coded ‘cubbies’ or pigeon holes will encourage each family member to put their hats, bags and shoes in a place where they can easily be found before it is time to leave for school in the morning. It also makes it easier to identify the messiest person in your family!
7. Add a touch of vintage
An old-fashioned chest of drawers will add charm and hold linen or clothes.
Go sustainable and find some second-hand drawers or storage units on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree to sand down and paint. This will add a pop of fun colour and will look great in your child’s bedroom or playroom.
An old suitcase, trunk or blanket box is another inexpensive storage solution that you can use to limit clutter in bedrooms, hallways and living rooms.
BONUS TIP: Preserve artwork
Childrens’ art brings treasured memories but all that paper can get overwhelming. If you have a scanner at home you can scan paintings and drawings, then turn them into a beautifully presented book.
Choose some favourite pieces to frame and display, and keep the rest in your book on a shelf.
The rule to successfully staying organised at home is not only to have a system but to follow it. Use colours to make it easier for the family to meet your expectations.
Let us know what home organising projects you’ve been up to in the comments!