As the summer begins to wind down and beach days are traded in for back to school shopping, many families are looking for tips on home organization to get prepared for the busy fall season ahead.

Whether you’re packing up a vacation home for the summer and want to leave it as tidy as possible for fall renters or off-season cleaners, or you just want to get your home in tip-top shape before the new school year, this list of some of our favorite home organizing tips can help.

Keep reading for the best home organization tips for every room in your house.

Our Favorite Tips on Home Organization

1. Tired of mail, school papers and takeout menus cluttering your drawers and countertops? Build a household information hub that easily stores all of these hard-to-organize items. Use a stackable file cart or a wall mounted file system and assign an item type to each section. Bonus points: teach your kids to leave their important school papers (like calendars, newsletters and permission slips) in a specific spot, so you never miss a thing!

2. Look for opportunities for hidden storage. This is one of our favorite tips on home organization because it’s just so simple. These days there are so many options out there for furniture with built-in storage. Get a storage ottoman to store pillows and blankets, or a sectional with a storage chaise lounge to storage board games. Even dining room benches can be found with hidden storage for tablecloths and more.

3. Keep toys out of sight. While you may not be able to keep toys hidden throughout the day, having a home for every toy (that’s not the floor of your living room) can make your house really feel adult again after the kids have gone to bed. Use cube storage with plastic bins to stuck away toys and books or use built-in cabinets in a living room to hide kids’ items. This is one of our favorite home organizing tips for parents!

4. Find bookcases and storage cabinets with doors. Whether you’re storing a large DVD collection, have hundreds of books or want to store a mix of items on a bookcase or cabinet, make sure it has a door. No more time spent organizing every individual shelf or feeling like they need to be Instagram worthy – simply store your stuff and then close the door.

5. Set up a charging station. Tired of searching for your charger or remembering where you plugged your phone in? A family charging station is one of the simplest tips on home organization and that makes charging – and keeping cords out of the way – easy. Use a kitchen drawer or a drawer in a console table and divide the drawers with spaces for phones, tablets and computers.

6. Exchange mismatched cardboard boxes for clear, plastic bins. Make your pantry photo-ready and easy to use with this home organizing idea. Stock up on clear plastic bins and canisters to store crackers, chips, cereal and more. Having containers that are the same size makes it easier to keep the pantry organized, and you’ll love being able to see the food you’re looking for.

7. Make the most of your under sink storage space. We all have those awkward spaces under kitchen and bathroom sinks. They often end up cluttered and stuffed with random items we’re not sure what to do with. But one of the best simple home organizing tips can help: use free-standing shelves, stackable bins and risers to organize this space and easily store everything from cleaning supplies and linens to pots and pans.

8. Keep your fridge items easily accessible. Make it simple for your kids to grab snacks (or even pack their own lunches) by organizing food in your fridge into clear bins. Small items like yogurts, fruits, cheese sticks, snack packs and more can easily get lost or cluttered when not contained. Keeping similar items together will make it less likely to lose a months-old plum in the back of the fridge and help you make the most of your groceries so you waste less.

9. Keep daily products in easy reach. If you’re always using the same few kitchen cleaning supplies or the same toiletries in the bathroom every day, then store those items together and make them easy to reach. Use a clear plastic bin (bonus points if they’re stackable!) to store these items together so you can easily pull them out when you’re ready to clean or get yourself ready for the day. The same idea can also work for shower products. If you don’t have much storage space in your shower, then just pull out your bin of shower products to get clean and put it away when you’re done.

10. Divide drawers to keep items organized. It’s tempting to just throw a bunch of items in a drawer, close the drawer and forget about it. But that’s a recipe for a cluttered mess! One of our favorite tips on home organization is to use drawer dividers to create a clear space for every item. Use this for kitchen drawers, bathroom drawers and desk drawers to keep everything from silverware to nail care to pens and pencils in their place.

11. Use small space laundry room solutions. Whether your laundry room is small (or non-existent) it’s easy to have this space of your home get overrun with clothes and cleaning supplies. One of the best home organizing tips for the laundry room is to use wall-mounted drying racks to save space. No more setting up a rickety folding drying rack that takes up half the room. Simply fold out a wall-mounted drying rack, dry your clothes and then fold it back against the wall when you’re done.

12. Make the most of closet space. Have a bunch of extra space at the bottom of your closet that goes to waste? Add a cube storage bin to the floor of your closet to store clothes, bags, shoes and accessories. Or, try adding hooks to the side walls of your closet for hanging scarves, hats, bags and jewelry. A hook can also be used to display the next day’s outfit so you can get up and go the next morning.

13. Save space with a fold-up desk. Working from home more than usual? Trying to fit a desk into a child’s crowded bedroom? A wall-mounted desk that folds away could be the perfect fit! When not in use, a wall-mounted desk simply looks like a wall cabinet. But when folded down, it’s the perfect workspace for a mini home office or for homework.

14. Go vertical in the garage and attic. We all need more storage space! That’s why one of our favorite tips on home organization is to make the most of vertical space in the garage, attic and anywhere else you’re storing items in your home. Add ceiling-mounted shelves to your garage, attic and even storage closets and rooms and get a whole new area of shelf space. Just make sure you store items you only need occasionally (like holiday decorations) higher up and items you use more regularly where they’re easily accessible.

15. Hire a cleaning company! This is definitely one of the best tips for home organization (and we’re not just saying that because it’s what we do!). Our clients often joke that they keep their homes so much more organized when they know we’re coming to clean their homes. We can also help with home organization projects while we’re there. So, for the ultimate clean and organized home, a cleaning service coming weekly or bi-weekly could be the ultimate solution.

Getting Started with Tips on Home Organization

Feeling overwhelmed with all of these home organization tips? Start by identifying the biggest problem areas in your home. Do you struggle to stay on top of paperwork? Are your kitchen drawers a jumbled mess? Are toys taking over your home?

Figure out your biggest home organization challenges and then start small. Try one tip at a time or go room by room until all of your spaces are well organized and free of clutter.

And if you’re looking for a cleaning company in The Hamptons, then be sure to give A Votre Service a call! From day-to-day cleaning and house watching to home organization and property management, we’re here to assist you with all your home maintenance needs.