4 unconventional organizing methods I use to limit clutter in my small home – embracing ‘chaotic calm’ has mitigated my guilt

I live in a small home with two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a spacious open-plan ground floor – perfect for me and my partner. However, the layout doesn’t lend itself to tidiness, especially with minimal built-in storage. As it's a rental, I can’t add any extra storage solutions, either.

Over time, I’ve relied on what storage furniture I could fit in to help manage our clutter. However, after a year of trying to stick to conventional organizing methods, I gave up and turned to more unconventional approaches – and they have helped me to find calm in the clutter chaos.

Here’s why I approach home organizing ideas a little differently and why you might want to embrace a bit of chaotic calm in your own space.

Unconventional organizing methods that work in my small home

One of the most valuable decluttering lessons I have learned from talking to expert organizers every day is that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to clutter and organizing.

While there are some standard daily tasks professional organizers swear by, how you organize your home and the systems you settle on will differ depending on your home layout, routine, and habits.

When organizing a small house with no storage, I have to make the most of what I have – which means I have broken quite a few of the home organizing golden rules, but my home is all the tidier for it. Think of my home a little like a swan on the water – tidy on the surface, but messy and hard-working beneath.

1. I don't keep like with like

Keeping like with like, otherwise known as the co-worker/cousin, organizing hack, can be a great way to find permanent homes for those weirder items, such as keeping shoe laces near your shoes. However, in a home where each room has limited, tiny storage, it sometimes makes things more difficult.

In my home, for example, coats are stored across three spots, and I have two cabinets that are filled with miscellaneous items that bear little resemblance to one another, such as board games being kept with my household tools and outerwear, namely hats and scarves. It is far from the most aesthetic organizing trick, but it works to keep these items hidden away, rather than them ending up cluttering up surfaces.

Luckily, professional home organizer Frances Greene, founder of Grit & Honey Home Organizing, has forgiven me for this one, saying, ‘I do not believe that "like with like" is always the best solution. Sometimes efficiency is more important. Micro-allowances for function over form will streamline your life and leave you with one less annoyance to process, even subconsciously.’

2. Some items don't have a proper home

One of the best home organizing systems that keeps me sane is having a few items that do not have a designated ‘home’. I.e., they do not have a spot to return to after use.

This may be an organizing ick professional home organizers hate, but keeping items that we use almost every day, such as our laptops, notebooks, and gaming consoles and devices, free means we don’t constantly feel guilty or frustrated that we do not lug them back up to a drawer or cabinet in our home office ideas every night before bed.

Alecia Taylor, designer at CabinetNow agrees that this approach is manageable, but suggests caution before using it for every item in your home. She explains, ‘As for things without a home, it's a question of balance. Laptops or everyday items don't always require a specific place if they're being used all the time, but a casual system – a charging station or tray – prevents them from being deposited everywhere. The trick is ensuring that "flexible storage" doesn't become "stuff everywhere.’

3. Clearing visual clutter, even if it means moving items further away

I would love to be able to organize a kitchen perfectly, organizing cookbooks neatly next to my baking supplies, but my tiny kitchen simply doesn't allow for it. As a result, my cookbooks are stashed on my dining room bookshelves with many of our other books. Yes, it means I have to walk across the house to get a recipe, but it reduces visual clutter in the kitchen for an easier-to-use workspace.

Similarly, I would love to keep all my shoes, accessories, and coats by the front door so I can quickly grab the one I need, but given that my entryway shares space with the dining room, having them all in one spot is overwhelming, to say the least. Splitting them between my entryway hooks (for the ones we use the most), and the backs of doors in our office and bedroom (for fancier coats we only use on occasion or out-of-season coats) keeps our house looking a little tidier.

4. I’ve settled for ‘good enough’

Our Head of Solved, Punteha van Terheyden, recently ditched household perfection for ‘good enough’, and I have jumped on the bandwagon.

A mix of my too-high social media usage and frequently talking to professional organizers has made perfect organizing and easy-to-clean homes feel like the norm. Through it all, I forgot one key fact – these guys are professionals. It is quite literally their job to keep spaces neat. Perhaps I should have taken Marie Kondo ‘giving up’ on tidying as a sign that it’s okay to take a step back.

Giving up on my efforts to try and follow all the rules and expert advice has drastically reduced my mental load and even helped me overcome a decluttering roadblock at a very chaotic time in my life.

Pushing for perfection led me to tidying when feeling overwhelmed. Now, so long as I do little and often, such as the 1% rule, or the no-pile rule I recently tested and fell in love with, that's good enough for me.

Meet the experts

Frances Greene

As a NAPO Residential Organizing Specialist, specializing in ADHD/Executive Function, Frances and her team at Grit & Honey provide expert support in decluttering, inputting systems, and creative storage solutions. 

One of the few decluttering golden rules I have stuck to is letting my space determine my stuff. That means I will very rarely buy something if I cannot think of a place for it to go. I have had to sacrifice a few things for this, for example, the breadmaker I would love to make my own bread each week, but it helps to keep my home a little calmer.