First things first: Will I see you next week at the Working Mothers Summit? I hope so! So many excellent panelists, from Emily Oster to Neha Ruch to Morra Aarons-Mele to First Lady Joanna Lydgate. Plus: headshots, networking, and the chance to mix and mingle with your favorite Globe journalists. 

I'm excited to leave my house, because it's currently a messy disaster. I knew I was in trouble when my son’s basketball hit me on the head as I reached for my winter jacket. Like many of you, I live in an old New England home, built when people owned one coat and when kids didn’t play four sports with 10 pairs of sneakers.

Moving to a larger space isn’t an option for us. (Have you seen the prices lately?) Because we can’t trade up, the only option is streamlining: decluttering, organizing, and making our space — in a wonderful location but seriously lacking for storage — work for us. This is a query I get a lot from readers: How can I optimize? Where can I donate? Why does my mudroom look like Dick’s Sporting Goods?

Fear not, families. I harnessed top home organizers and interior designers for their 12 commandments of space optimization. No, you do not need to pile cereal into translucent bins. You do not need to color-code your bookshelf. You just need to build simple, easy systems designed to stick. Here is the average person’s guide to home organization.
 

1. Determine your organization type. Norton-based home organizer Allison Rothwell says there are two organization personalities. Macro-organizers find things by seeing them: stacks of bills in a basket; keys on a hook. Micro-organizers break out in hives with too much clutter. They like bills in a drawer and keys in a bag. Many people feel disorganized because they’re living against their personality type. Which are you?

“When I come home from work, I want my kitchen island cleared off, except for the one decorative tray I have in the middle. If the kids have put papers there, and my husband’s dropped his keys there, it makes me physically anxious,” she says. Ditto, Allison.

Meet in the middle: Get your spouse a hook for his keys. Get your kids a tray for their papers. And put your stuff out of sight.

“Living with other organizing styles is all about compromise,” she says.

2. Use the 15-minute rule. You’re not going to turn your home into a Pinterest wonderland in one maniacal weekend (not without scaring your family, anyway; I’ve tried it). Instead, prioritize your top-three pressure areas, like a kitchen junk drawer, a mudroom closet, and a bathroom cabinet. Then, commit to the bit and declutter in small bursts, says Kristen Salera from Salera Home Solutions in Medway. Spend too long in one space, and you’ll wander from room to room, with nothing accomplished.

“Do not leave the area, because you will get distracted: ‘Oh, this belongs in the kitchen.’ You leave the closet, go to the kitchen, and then the dishes need to be done,” she says.

Sound familiar? Instead, spend 10 or 15 minutes in one designated area, every day for a week. Set a timer if you need to. Consistency beats intensity.

3. Group like things together. Similar items should be roommates. This makes things easy to find, and it’s also the best way to spot redundancies. All shoes should live in the same place; so should all tennis rackets, backpacks, and snacks. (I recently discovered that my son had a stash of Doritos under his bed. This is organizationally unsound and, also, poor hygiene.)

Expect this process to create an initial mess, as you dislodge lost items and discover five blenders in four closets.

“This does make people uncomfortable, because it does feel like you’re going back before you’re going forward,” says Kari Noble, a professional organizer with The Stuff Lab in Arlington.

Keep your eyes on the prizes: “You’ve got to pull everything out. Ninety-nine percent of the time, people will say, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know I had five spatulas.’”

4: Never double up. Get rid of all duplicates and relics: multiple water bottles; tote bags from a conference you attended in 2009; extra Tupperware from a dinner party. You cannot organize when you have too much stuff.

This involves a bit of psychology: Why are you hanging on to certain things? Many people are memory-keepers, where every piece of paper has an event attached, says Kate Roberts from Melrose’s Bee Organized Boston.

Other people are just-in-casers, clinging to 30 cans of tomatoes pending disaster. A sentimental way to mitigate this? Donate wisely.

“Some people really don’t want to see their stuff go into a dumpster. They hold on to things because they don’t know who to give it to. So we find places to take it, like Big Brothers Big Sisters, Habitat for Humanity, or More Than Words,” says Roberts. “It makes it easier for them to let things go.”

This doesn’t mean scorched earth, Marie Kondo-style clean slates.

“It’s not about getting rid of everything. It’s thinking about: Is this item useful for me? Do I enjoy it? Do I need it? If not, what can I do with it?” Roberts says.

5. Trash junk mail immediately. “Anything you know you’re not going to read, put in the recycling bin. You’ll be amazed at how much less clutter you have,” says Salera.

6. Step away from the Container Store. Look, I love it, too. But you can’t design your way to organization. Bins don’t fix clutter; they hide it. Instead, work with boxes you already have: shoeboxes for excess cords and chargers; paper bags from Trader Joe’s for clothing donations.

“The first thing you should do is stop and observe, because too many of us run straight out to The Container Store and buy things that look cute or we think are going to be functional. We get them home, and all it is is more stuff in our house. It’s not actually solving the problem,” says Swampscott-based designer Erin Judkins.

7. Your space is finite; treat it that way. If a drawer or closet is full, that’s your limit. To add something new, something else has to go.

“If you’re feeling overwhelmed in the space that you’re living in, that means you have too much inventory, and you’re above your clutter threshold,” says Rothwell. No, the answer is not buying more storage.

8. Make storage systems visible, especially for kids. If putting something away takes too many steps, it won’t happen.

“If you use a drawer or a bin with a lid, forget it. It’s not happening,” says Judkins. “Kids need things that are visually available to them.”

This means hooks at eye-level, baskets for shoes, cubbies for backpacks.

“We have to really think about the way that the other people in our home are functioning, and what’s going to work best for them in order to have a system that’s going to be at least somewhat reliable,” Judkins says.

9. Archive school art. “I tell parents that they can be more ruthless when it comes to their kids’ belongings. You don’t want to lose their trust, but you’re in charge. It’s your house. If everything is special, then nothing is special,” Roberts says.

Be honest: You’re never going to open a Rubbermaid container that holds six years of elementary artwork. Use an art-archival service like Artkive to commemorate special pieces in a printed book instead. Roberts uses the 75/25 rule: Save 25 percent, and ditch the rest.

10. Create a purgatory bin. Not sure what to do with barely used Legos or Nerf guns? Afraid of risking your child’s wrath if you toss them? Put them in a purgatory bin. Check in three weeks later.

“If they haven’t asked for that specific toy in that timeframe, it’s probably good to donate it. Nine times out of 10, they never ask for it,” says Rothwell.

11. Donate on a cycle. Roberts clears out her home once a month: toys, outgrown clothes, and sports equipment. Make your rounds on a schedule, and check out a list of spots to donate here. Special note: Goodwill recently added drop-off spots in Newton, Waltham, and Winchester, with a special need for small household items and gently used clothes.

12. Hide your clutter inside furniture. “Just because a space is small, doesn’t mean it’s not worthy,” says Tess Leeds, a designer with Tess Leeds Redesign in Newton.

If you’re cramped for space, select multi-functional pieces that work twice as hard. For instance, small storage ottomans hide clutter and serve as a coffee table or extra seating, Leeds says.

“You’re allowed to use a buffet in a living room as a TV stand that will hide games, toys, and your yoga mat,” Leeds says. Nobody needs to know.

Are you truly on a tear? Revisit my interview with the lovely ladies from The Home Edit, who do use translucent bins, but who also have very realistic strategies for harnessing chaos.

This newsletter was written by Kara Baskin and edited by Chris Morris.

By Kara Baskin
Have something to say? E-mail me!
kara.baskin@globe.com