Spending a lot of time at home? Is the “stuff, stacks and piles” all over your house driving you crazy?

I can certainly relate!

My house felt like mountains of stuff, stacks and piles – everywhere from my pantry, to my desk, nightstands, and more. It was so overwhelming, I decided to do something about it, and now that I’m spending most of my time at home – I can tell you this is one of my favorite projects of all time.

But wait…

Before you jump into organizing your entire house to be a picture-perfect, Pinterest-worthy home, there’s another project that you must do first.

There is a first step, a step that you may not even know about.

I’m sharing that step with you today in this week’s episode, and trust me you’ll want to watch this before you buy even one organizing tool. This one tip will save you from a very costly design mistake! I’m also sharing the three must-have organizing tools I used throughout my entire home and cannot live without.

Where to begin before you organize:

First, I recommend:

• you look for three styles of containers to help you organize your home
• and equally as important, match the style of your home and decor

That’s it.

Don’t pull out your pantry, or clean out your drawers or anything like this. Not yet.

This was the first project I did. It required two trips to the Container Store to determine what I wanted to use all throughout my house. And once I did, I had a great game plan.

Here’s the thing about organizing. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel and change your containers all throughout your house, because quite frankly that’s going to create more chaos.

To create a beautifully designed home, you want consistency in style, cohesiveness, and repetition.

Next. Find the right container to match the space AND your decor

The first thing I did was decide:

1. What were the main 3 types of containers that I wanted to use in the different areas of my home
2. What style were those 3 types of containers going to be

Yes, for me that included finding the right type of containers, and then making sure they matched the style of my home.

I found tons of white and clear containers, but they really stuck out in my home and didn’t feel right. With my Farmhouse style decor, they felt unfriendly and cold.

The style of my home is a French Country Farmhouse. Think old worn stones, antiques, mismatched furniture, floral prints, cozy linens, velvets, a soft color palette, and a wall full of plates – ha just teasing, hubby vetoed that. But all of the rest applies.

Many of these containers were going to be visible in different open areas of my home, so I wanted to be sure they had:

• those same soft colors
• gray and linen colors
• warm wood tones
• a warm, cozy feeling to them

So here are the three types of storage containers or organizers I went for, love, and can’t live without now.

Style 1: Farmhouse decor style baskets:

Baskets are a great way to organize all areas of your home and although they serve a purpose, they look like a casual piece of Farmhouse decor all throughout.

I especially love these gray wood linen style Farmhouse baskets that I used in my home.

They had all of the elements I was looking for in a storage solution. A soft color palette, gray, a linen liner, they were small and felt cozy. Check and check!

This style of basket blended absolutely beautifully with my French Country Farmhouse style home, and you will find these all throughout my house in almost every single room, from my mudroom to the pantry, linen closets, and in every single bedroom.

I love these, and they are on my short-list to add into any room needing an organizing fix.

Style 2: Warm farmhouse wood-toned drawer inserts

Next, look for a style of drawer insert. These are a super must-have, and an organizing tool I can’t live without.

If you go online, you’ll find white, you’ll find clear, you’ll find all kinds of options. None of these felt right for my warm French Country style home, and felt more like an office.

I was looking for something with a more Farmhouse vibe to add a natural, warm wood look throughout my home.

I was thrilled when I came across this honey-colored collection of drawer inserts from the Container Store. They were perfect to help me make smaller compartments in the drawers throughout my home, and had that beautiful warmth I was looking for.

These are in the top drawer of every drawer in my home! Even in my furniture drawers! I loved these so much I added them to the top drawer of my nightstands and several other furniture pieces throughout our home. So that’s why these are on the top of my list of organizing items I swear by!

Style 3: Warm Farmhouse style large drawer dividers:

Last but not least, look for a way to keep your big drawers organized.

I followed the same principles I had laid out for my home earlier.

We have a lot of big, meaning tall and or wide drawers throughout my home. I love drawers because you can pull them out and truly maximize your storage space.

But they can become a big mess, fast. Drawer dividers are a perfect solution.

Looking for a Farmhouse decor vibe, and warm wood tones, I used these super handy drawer extensions to create smaller sections in the large drawers all throughout my home. These are in every drawer in my kitchen, my pantry, my dresser drawers, and even in my furniture!

These drawer dividers create beautiful, and manageable, sections that I can then organize whatever is going to go into them. Since I landed on these beautiful honey-colored drawer inserts, I just took the inspiration from that same page and carried that over into my drawers dividers.

I didn’t have to really make another hard decision. I just followed what I already started.

Not only are they super useful, but they also have the warm and cozy qualities that blend beautifully with the Farmhouse style of my home.

So that’s why these are on the top of my list of organizing items I swear by!

To recap, the top 3 organizing items I swear by

1. 1.Farmhouse style baskets
2. 2.Farmhouse wood-tone drawer inserts
3. 3.Farmhouse wood-tone drawer dividers

So where should you start?

Step 1: Measure

Measure the depth of your shelves, upper cabinets, and drawers so you can find a few different sized containers that fit throughout your home.

Look for:

1. 1.Baskets
2. 2.Drawer Inserts
3. 3.Drawer Dividers, the extension or expandable kind

Step 2: Select Your Color Palette,

Next, look at what colors you want to use in these containers. Use the colors throughout your house to guide you.

For example, you can see in my house I have a lot of gray, linen, and white. So I was thrilled to find this particular basket that’s gray with this beautiful linen fabric inside that just blends perfectly with the color scheme and Farmhouse style of my home. 

As you can see it blends into my decor. I would not have opted for a black basket or a red basket because I really wanted it to blend into and disappear into my cabinets and bookshelves, and all the different areas of my home that I was trying to organize.

Another example, my kitchen island, the hub of our home, has this really beautiful rusty, gold, and gray-blue veining.

I took the color direction from the rusty tones in the counter, and wanting to achieve that casual Farmhouse or French country style, I opted for these really beautiful warm honey tone wood color inserts. Once I decided on that everything old top door throughout the entire home, got the same color.

Get the idea? You can do this exact same exercise in your own home.

Just stick to three overall container styles and a max of three colors.

Final Tips

My suggestion to you is, go online, or go to your favorite store, bring home a few different containers, in different finishes and colors that you might be interested in, and could possibly match your home decor.

Try it into an area where you want to get started, and once you find a style you like, then commit to that particular style to use throughout your home.

It will make the next project so much easier because you’re not trying to rethink and reinvent a whole new container system, every time you start a new area of organizing

My next suggestion is to start with a small area. This might be a bathroom vanity or your desk.

I’m a crazy woman, I started with my pantry. That was the area that was driving me the most insane.

Whatever inspires you, but if you can start with something small, so you can get the hang of it, and then as you get time every few weeks keep on organizing to your heart’s content.

My biggest takeaway, be sure to spend as much time selecting the style as you do the actual organizers because they will enhance the beauty of your home! And for that reason, the organizers I showed you this week, are ones I cannot live without!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog.

Leave a comment and let me know your favorite piece or part! And if you have a great organization tool, be sure to let us know.

Till the next time we meet, keep making your house a home with your design gifts.

Most gratefully,

Amitha

P.S. Village Antiques is open daily, Tuesday – Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm for in-store visits, curbside pickup, and shipping.