One of the best ways to become more organized in your life – whether at work, at home, or both – is to become more minimalist. By removing as much ‘stuff’ as possible from your life, you will be left with only what you need, and, with less around you, it will be much easier to organize and stay organized. 

Yet being minimal is not something that everyone can do. It’s not something that everyone wants to do. Some prefer having lots of things around them as it’s comforting or brings them good memories and positive feelings. So what can you do if you want to be organized but you can’t – or don’t want to – be minimalist? Here are some great ideas. 

Get Creative With Storage 

Looking around your home, you might want to tidy up and put things away to make your space a more organized one, but without enough closets and drawers, this can seem like an impossible task. 

Remember, though, if you can get a little more creative with your storage, you can have a tidier, more organized home (or office) without having to declutter and throw things out – it’s the best of both worlds. 

You might, for example, use a storage chest as a coffee table. You can ‘hide’ things away inside it and have a useful piece of furniture too. You can get stools and chairs that open up to provide you with additional storage. You can choose desks that have deep drawers, or that can hide your keyboard away. You can add shelves to corners or cupboards that don’t currently offer up any space. Try to keep these ideas in mind whenever you shop for furniture; if you can find something that doubles up as storage, that’s a great way to become more organized. 

Write Things Down 

Being organized doesn’t always mean being tidy (although it definitely helps). It also means knowing what you’re meant to be doing and when you’re meant to be doing it. One of the best ways to do this is to write it down. Of course, if you are tidy and have plenty of storage, you will find it much easier to find your calendar, diary, or to-do list once you’ve created it, so the two things do go hand in hand. 

The reason it’s so important to write down your appointment with the dentist or doctor or to write down when bills need to be paid or when important birthdays are coming up, is that it will help you remember. It’s great to use technology and fill in an online calendar, and you can do this as well, of course, but physically writing things down using a pen and paper will make you much less likely to forget. 

Give Everything A Home 

If you can’t add any storage and you don’t want to throw anything out, and you really aren’t into being minimalist, what can you do? There is an option left open to you – you can ensure that everything you own has its own home. That way, nothing will get lost, your home itself will look much tidier, and if you need anything, you’ll know just where to look. 

This might, of course, mean ‘hiding’ your clutter in plain sight since there isn’t enough storage, but if you’re happy with this and you know where everything is, then it’s certainly something to try. Even if your home doesn’t technically look tidier, if everything has a place to be, the organization of that home (or office) will be much better.