Discover 8 handy tips for organizing your house, from the hallway to the playroom. 

When it comes to sorting and organizing items around the house, you may feel a little daunted by the amount of work involved.

To make things easier, our expert divides the organization into three categories: everyday things, items we love, and happy memories.
 

Here’s how to get started:
 

1. EVERYDAY THINGS

In the kitchen, if you count eight spatulas, three bread knives, and five identical salad bowls, you keep only the items that are really needed.

In the bathroom, we suggest keeping a maximum of three sets of towels per person, and organize the medicines by age group, at eye level (and therefore inaccessible to children), so that they can be easily identified and duplicates avoided. You can also check expiration dates. Hair accessories and make-up can be stored in separate compartments.

In the closet, you can get rid of clothes that haven't been worn in the past year, those that are damaged, or that no longer fit.

The garments can be organized by colour, style, or type (pants, dresses, jackets...). In drawers or on shelves, the Marie Kondo method has proved its worth.

The principle: forget flat storage for vertical storage, which lets you see everything. Accessories (belts, jewelry, ties) will be more visible in compartments than loose in a drawer. Two shelves at the bottom of the closet or shoe storage systems optimize space. As with clothing, shoes that haven't been worn in a year are given away.

In the hallway, especially if it's small, you can multiply the number of wall-mounted storage accessories, such as hooks, shelves on which to place baskets, high or narrow shoe cupboards, and store shoes and coats that are not needed for the season elsewhere. Adding shelves to the closet optimizes space for bags or bins for hats, scarves, and mittens.

In the office, keep the work surface as cluster-free as possible and keep a filing cabinet under the table to store supplies. Here again, there's no need for duplicates, such as three staplers and four pencil sharpeners! Documents filed in well-identified boxes or briefcases save time.

In the playroom, organize storage spaces that are easily accessible to children, such as bins and shelves, to make things easier for them and get them used to putting things away as soon as they change games. You can also rotate games when you realize that your little one is having less fun with certain toys, rather than putting them all in at once. It takes less time to put them away, and the space is more uncluttered. Educating kids when they’re young to sort and give away what they no longer use, explaining that it will make another child happy, will help them become an altruistic adult capable of tidying up their belongings.

2. ITEMS WE LOVE

Occasional items, such as the raclette machine, festive decorations, and evening wear, are kept and stored in a less accessible place. High shelves in the kitchen, closet, basement, or garage offer numerous storage possibilities.

In the latter two areas, we prefer closed plastic bins to prevent our possessions from getting damp. It's best to choose transparent bins so you can easily see what's inside, but you can also stick labels on them for easy identification.
 

3. HAPPY MEMORIES

"It's okay to keep things, as long as they bring back a good memory, but you can also keep them in another form. For example, you can keep a photo in which you're wearing the dress you loved so much during your pregnancy, but you get rid of the dress because you don't wear it anymore," says Gabrielle Breton.

Inheritances (crockery, cutlery, clothes, jewelry...) evoke the memory of someone who has passed away. This is positive, insofar as the person was cherished. Gabrielle Breton suggests "displaying some of the dishes in the kitchen if you don't want to use them every day, and putting the rest in a box to take out on special occasions. If you're short on space, passing it on to another member of the family and keeping just one piece is a good solution."
 

A HANDY TIP

Ideally, you should sort through your belongings every season, i.e. every three months. If you're short on time, you can start in autumn and spring.