With spring officially here, now’s a great time to get organising our homes. From making the most of household objects we already own to how to combat overbuying, experts share their tips
When it comes to our homes, it’s easy for things to pile up. From wardrobes filled with clothes that were never returned to kitchen cupboards bursting with tins and cans, there’s plenty of areas in our homes that aren’t as organised as we’d quite like.
This is where Hayley Harrison and Gemma Abraham come in. Having always loved all things organisation, and after finding themselves being asked by friends to give a helping hand, the duo set up Organise-d (organise-d.com) in 2020 to help transform people’s spaces. Since then Hayley and Gemma have amassed more than 36,000 followers on Instagram and have worked with high-profile clients including Kate Ferdinand and Billie Shepherd.
With spring officially here, they’ve shared their top tips for keeping things in your home organised too – and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. “People always think it costs a lot of money to do this. It really doesn’t,” says Hayley. “People can do it on a shoestring and use items they’ve got at home. There’s so many household items that you can use to achieve the same effect.”
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With that in mind, here’s some of their top tips…
Give things structure
When tackling a drawer or cupboard the plan is the same, according to Gemma and Hayley. In order to help keep the space organised, it’s important to ensure that it has the structure needed to keep everything in its place.
“We always say to contain, so that’s one of the most important things, if you’re doing a drawer or a cupboard always give it structure because that’s what makes it work. We have favourite things that we use, like felt boxes and drawer dividers,” says Gemma.
“But as Hayley said, equally, if you’re working with little or no budget things like shoe boxes, phone boxes or old laptop boxes work too. We’ve used sweet tubs before too. If you look in your cupboard, you can always usually find things to repurpose.”
Categorise items
Once a structure is in place, finding categories to sort items into is a great way of keeping tabs on everything you have. The good thing about this, is pretty much anything in the home can be categorised, so it applies to every room.
“We’ve stacked sweet boxes for additional storage before. Whilst that’s not what we put in every house, if you’re on a budget it keeps everything into one category and it stops mixing. It’s mixing that causes the stress,” explains Gemma.
“Candle jars are amazing actually, so repurpose old candle jars for things like makeup brushes, hair brushes, pens, pencils and all stuff like that. That’s a really good little win.”
Decant for visibility
Whether it’s your kitchen or your laundry area, Hayley and Gemma are big fans of decanting products. From pouring pasta into jars or cereal into tubs, giving each thing a specified place can give you a visual reminder of just what exactly is lurking in your cupboards.
“Decanting is all about visibility. It’s an amazing way to stop overbuying, so if it’s food goods like pastas, rice, cereals, then you know exactly what you’ve got and you can see when it’s running out. Containing and decanting other things like pens and pencils is visually stimulating too and it makes you feel calmer and more composed,” says Gemma.
Hayley adds: “Especially items like make-up and art and crafts. Visibility would be our key to keeping everything organised. It stops you from over buying and it means that you can find what you need when you need it, which saves you time.
“Time is precious to everyone and I think that once we leave a job, people always like we always get messages like, ‘it took me half the time to get dressed today, I knew exactly where everything was, my kids are on time’ and that’s what gives us the most joy to be honest. We love making that different to people’s lives.”
Follow Gemma and Hayley on Instagram @organise_d
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