The 7 Best Home Organization Books
The benefits of an organized home (and home organization books) cannot be denied.
We moved from Washington State to Missouri for my husband’s job a few years ago. After we sold our home in Washington, we spent about three weeks staying in hotels and living in temporary housing until we could close on our new home.
Then, after we moved into our new house, it took a few more weeks for all our belongings to be delivered and everything unpacked. The chaos of being unorganized was brutal. And we are a laid-back, take-things-as-they-come family.
The value of having your own space, your belongings and knowing where everything is immeasurable. I have a renewed appreciation for homemaking and organization.
If you need help organizing your home, here are the seven best books on home organization. There’s a book for everyone.
1. The Complete Book of Home Organization by Toni Hammersley
“Everyone is different, so figure out the best ways to make your spaces work for you…”
I am a sucker for pretty pictures in books about homemaking, and The Complete Book of Home Organization delivers. The photos are inspirational.
What’s Inside The Complete Book Of Home Organization?
There are 166 ideas to get your home and life organized. The book has three sections.
Kitchen & Dining
Living & Storage
Working & Outdoor
Sprinkled among the tips for organizing each room are challenges for each room of your house.
In week 1, you’ll do the kitchen
Week 2, the pantry
Week 3, the dining room
Week 4, the launch pad
Week 5, the Living Room
Week 6, the Master Bedroom
Week 7, the Master Closet
Week 8, the Kids’ Closets
Week 9, the Linen Closet
Week 10, the Bathrooms
Week 11, the Office
Week 12, the Playroom
Week 13, the Laundry Room
Week 14, the Garage, and
Week 15, the Car
Each challenge follows the same basic outline, with a few minor changes based on the room you’re working in.
In Step 1, you’ll start by preparing and making sure you have your supplies ready, like boxes for donations, etc.
Step 2 is where you sort and purge. Go through everything in your drawers, cabinets, baskets, etc, and decide what you will keep and what needs to go.
In Step 3, you’ll thoroughly clean the space.
And Step 4 is when you get to organize what remains.
And while each challenge is set up by Week 1, Week 2, etc, there’s no reason you can’t spend a couple or more weeks on each challenge. A lot will depend on how organized you already are.
If this is the first time you are working to get your home organized, it will take longer. If you’ve thoroughly decluttered your home previously, you will finish in less time.
My Favorite Ideas From The Complete Book Of Home Organization
I love the photos! Almost all the images feature clean, light, neutral spaces with dark woods and light fabrics. They inspire me to get up and find fresh ways to clear away the clutter in my home.
I love that each week has a challenge with a step-by-step checklist of the things you need to do to get that space organized.
One of my favorite tips is to create a Goodbye Station. That would be a specific spot in your home or garage where you place items that need to be donated, returned to a store, or returned to a neighbor or friend. This keeps everything in one area, ready to leave your home the next time you go out.
The Complete Book Of Home Organization Is Best Suited For:
Someone motivated by beautiful imagery. Someone who wants a weekly exercise to guide them through organizing each room in their house.
2. The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals by Clea Shearer & Joanna Teplin
The Home Edit team might be best known for their love of organizing things by the colors of the rainbow. And maybe their Netflix series.
The Home Edit organizing system has three parts. The Edit, The Assembly, and The Upkeep. The premise is pretty simple.
The Edit
During The Edit, you’ll pull everything out of the space you are organizing and pare “down your items to the ones that are most used, most loved, and most important.” Ask yourself: “Are all these things worth my energy?”
To simplify the Editing process, Clea and Joanna include helpful tips such as “Rules for Getting Rid of Stuff” and “Tips for Low-Stress, Tears-Free Purging.”
The Assembly
The Assembly phase is where you put everything back in a neat, organized manner.
For each space they organize (entry, laundry, bathroom, etc.), photos from different homes illustrate how the space can be organized in different ways.
They liken this portion of their book to a cookbook.
[They]“give you a collection of organizing recipes alongside inspiring photographs, in the hopes that if you follow those instructions, you’ll achieve similar results…The purpose of showing you a range of spaces, with different aesthetics, at varying degrees of difficulty, is to help you pull together inspiration for your own home when you’re ready to embark on the challenge.”
In other words, don’t get hung up on the perfection of one individual photo. They feature a lot of high-end spaces in this book, and most of us won’t have the same spaces in our own homes. Take pieces of what you see and work them to fit your space.
In the Assembly section, they cover:
Entry
Laundry
Bathroom
Home Office
Play Spaces
Closets
Kitchen
Pantry
There’s a wide variety in the photos they show. Everything from big (BIG) expansive closets that could “host a wedding” to a small “no pantry” pantry. Again, don’t get tripped up thinking that YOUR pantry needs to look like the pantry they designed for a professional chef (unless you’re a chef, too). That’s not the idea. Take the inspiration and customize it to suit your home.
The Upkeep
The Upkeep is maintaining the beautiful, organized spaces you have created.
“Keeping your newly organized space looking beautiful will take effort. It won’t be difficult, and it won’t be painful, but it will require a commitment to the order you just created.”
This is something that is missing from a lot of organizing books. Once you organize your space, there is the extra step of maintaining it. I appreciate that they acknowledge it will take some effort. But they share several tips to help you keep your newly organized space looking good.
Favorite Ideas From The Home Edit
They encourage using momentum to get through an organizing project. Once you get started, don’t give up. Keep going. They say,
“Stopping and restarting is a big reason people tend to lose interest and confidence when tackling an organizing project.”
Before you begin the editing process, they encourage you to figure out WHY you want to get organized. Getting clear on that reason will help you stay motivated.
Labeling—These ladies label everything. Something like that would frustrate the heck out of me because I’m the person who would get hung up on how to categorize everything and what to call it.
But they make it clear that you should keep your labels very general. Don’t get too specific.
Favorite Quotes From The Home Edit
While editing:
“Make sure every single thing is worth the time and energy it’ll take to physically put it back in your space.”
On function vs. beauty:
“We want to showcase the magical sweet spot that exists where function meets form—when spaces are efficient, user-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing all at once. It not only makes sections of your home more enjoyable to look at, but we’ve also found that sprinkling this extra layer of pixie dust inspires people to maintain their organized spaces.”
The Home Edit Is Best Suited For:
Anyone inspired by bright, colorful organization. Those who want extra guidance for maintaining their newly organized space. And anyone who wants a sneak peek into some celebrity homes The Home Edit has helped organize.
3. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
“When you’ve finished putting your house in order, your life will change dramatically. Once you have experienced what it’s like to have a truly ordered house, you’ll feel your whole world brighten. Never again will you revert to clutter. This is what I call the magic of tidying. And the effects are stupendous. Not only will you never be messy again, but you’ll also get a new start on life. This is the magic I want to share with as many people as possible.”
What’s Inside The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has 5 parts.
Part 1: Why Can’t I Keep My House In Order
This is where Marie explains her method and why it’s so important to do things in the order and the way she teaches. She explains why you haven’t succeeded with organization and why her method offers guaranteed (and permanent) success.
Part 2: Finish Discarding First
“Start by discarding, all at once, intensely and completely.”
She teaches you why you need to start by getting rid of stuff. There’s a little mindset work here. You need to get clear on why you want to get organized and create a picture in your mind of the lifestyle you dream about.
You’ll also learn what to do when you struggle to get rid of something.
Part 3: Tidying By Category Works Like Magic
Marie has a set order in which you must go through things. Clothes, then books, papers, komono (miscellany—pretty much everything else), and last, items of sentimental value. She’s pretty frank that she doesn’t know why this order works, but it does. Trust her.
Starting with the category of clothes, you bring every item of clothing to one spot in the house. All of your clothing. Every shirt, scarf, hat, jacket, sock, everything. Then you must handle each piece, one at a time, asking yourself, “Does this bring me joy?” If it doesn’t, you get rid of it.
Part 4: Storing Your Things To Make Your Life Shine
You don’t start storing and putting things away until you’ve gone through everything. Keep storage as simple as possible. Everything must have a place and you should keep like items together.
For example, don’t store some of your books on a bookshelf in your living room and some of them in your bedroom. All of your books should be together. (Note: I certainly don’t live by this thought. I have books all over my house.)
Part 5: The Magic of Tidying Dramatically Transform Your Life
This is where you learn the long-term benefits of tidying up. She talks about clients who’ve changed dramatically because of the tidying process. She shares clients’ stories of losing weight, finding more time for hobbies, and having an easier time making decisions. There are people who’ve gained confidence and had significant mindset shifts, and they credit The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up with their success.
My Favorite Ideas From The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up
There are a few instances in the book where Marie makes a claim and flat-out says, “I don’t know why it works, but it does.” I love her honesty.
There is a lot of mindset work connected to tidying.
“…The root of the problem lies in the mind. Success is 90 percent dependent on your mind-set.”
She leads you through visualization exercises so you can see what your life will look like once you get organized. She asks you to clarify why you want to get organized. You also learn why there are some things you can’t let go; spoiler—it has nothing to do with the object itself.
Marie On Books
Since we are book lovers here, I thought I’d share some of her ideas for books. Contrary to popular belief (and all the memes), she doesn’t really want you to get rid of all your books.
“Once you have piled your books, take them in your hand one by one and decide whether you want to keep or discard each one. The criterion is, of course, whether or not it gives you a thrill of pleasure when you touch it. Remember, I said when you touch it. Make sure you don’t start reading it. Reading clouds your judgment. Instead of asking yourself what you feel, you’ll start asking whether you need that book or not. Imagine what it would be like to have a bookshelf filled only with books that you really love. Isn’t that image spellbinding? For someone who loves books, what greater happiness could there be?”
Marie On Unread Books
“Take a moment to count the number of favorite books that you have actually read more than once. How many are there? For some it may be as few as five while for some exceptional readers it may be as many as one hundred. People who read that many, however, are usually people in specific professions, such as scholars and authors. Very rarely will you find ordinary people like me who read so many books. Let’s face it. In the end, you are going to read very few of your books again. As with clothing, we need to stop and think about what purpose these books serve.”
I disagree that people who read and reread are as rare as she says, but I do think it’s good to ask yourself what purpose there is to keeping books you’ve already read. Is it so that you have it to reference? Is it a book that you will reread at some point? Does it make you feel good to see it on your shelf?
“You may have wanted to read it when you bought it, but if you haven’t read it by now, the book’s purpose was to teach you that you didn’t need it. There’s no need to finish reading books that you only got halfway through. Their purpose was to be read halfway. So get rid of all those unread books. It will be far better for you to read the book that really grabs you right now than one that you left to gather dust for years.”
I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that books don’t need to be cover to cover to have served a purpose. And if having unfinished or unread books around weighs you down, get rid of them! Don’t hang onto or finish a book out of guilt.
My Favorite Quotes From The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up
“Although not large, the space I live in is graced only with those things that speak to my heart. My lifestyle brings me joy. Wouldn’t you like to live this way, too? It’s easy, once you know how to truly put your home in order.”
“A dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective. It is life transforming.”
“One reason so many of us never succeed at tidying is because we have too much stuff. This excess is caused by our ignorance of how much we actually own.”
“We should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.”
“The real waste is not discarding clothes you don’t like but wearing them even though you are striving to create the ideal space for your lifestyle.
The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up Is Best Suited For:
I am not sure who I would recommend this book to.
You need to be open-minded because some ideas are not typical of the Western mindset. You can’t be put off by a little woo. She talks about how inanimate objects have feelings and need appreciation for the jobs they do. If you’re put off by that, maybe this book isn’t for you. But if nothing else has helped you get organized, maybe give Marie’s method a shot. It might surprise you.
4. Beautifully Organized: A Guide to Function and Style In Your Home by Nikki Boyd
“… A beautiful, happy, organized home is obtainable no matter the size of your home or the size of your budget.”
I loved reading through this book so much! Beautifully Organized is a gorgeous book that is a pleasure to read. It’s a white hardcover with teal end sheets, thick, glossy pages, and sharp, clear images. Beautiful photography.
The decor style is clean and classic, with lots of neutrals. However, while her decorating style is beautiful, the key point of the book is organization.
The intro and the first chapter lay the foundation for getting started. This includes learning what it means to have a beautifully organized home, the benefits you gain from being organized, how you can get motivated, and Nikki’s five steps to an organized home.
The rest of the book moves through your house, room by room, where Nikki guides you through her five steps to organizing each room of your home. She walks you through these specific rooms:
Entryway
Kitchen
Dining Room
Living Room & Family Rooms
Home Office
Bedrooms
Bathrooms
Kids Spaces
Laundry Room
Speciality Spaces (craft rooms, media rooms)
Garage
Pet Organization
My Favorite Ideas From Beautifully Organized
Nikki talks a lot about making things beautiful. Even utilitarian things like your cleaning caddy. Or the laundry room. If you have to clean or do laundry, you might as well make it enjoyable by surrounding yourself with beautiful tools.
If you have a small space entryway, consider installing wall shelves vertically up the wall. This will make use of precious space.
In the dining room section, Nikki talks about using the dining room for multiple options, such as a home office. If your dining room functions as your home office, she suggests using a bar cart to store office supplies.
“The key is to make the bar cart look like it is styled for the dining room but function like a home office.”
If you want to decorate with books, try using coffee table books. Use your public library to score coffee table books on various subjects. When the books are due back at the library, return them and check out books on a different topic. This keeps your selection fresh.
When supplying guests with toiletries, she buys products from the same line because of the consistent packaging.
The “cabinet looks streamlined rather than cluttered, just like a luxury hotel.”
Favorite Quotes From Beautifully Organized:
“I always emphasize to my clients that their home needs to fit their lifestyle.”
“… You should be willing to reimagine the spaces that take up valuable real estate in your home to get a proper return on investment.”
“It is my belief that an organized home guarantees a beautiful and fulfilling life.”
Beautifully Organized Is Best Suited For:
Because it doesn’t have a lot of detailed instruction about decluttering—what to keep, what to part with—this book will work best for a self-starter who prioritizes beauty over function and prefers a methodical, room-by-room approach to getting organized.
5. Martha Stewart Organizing
“An orderly and organized life calls for creating and then sticking to clear rules, pre-set schedules, and to-do lists that are dictated by your own lifestyle and that of your family.”
Martha Stewart’s Organizing Book is another beautiful book that’s fun to read. Thick, glossy pages are filled with practical advice and beautiful images of inviting, organized spaces, yummy food, fun crafts, and bountiful harvests.
The book is divided into three sections.
Organize Your Year
Organize Your Home
Organize Your Routine
Organize Your Year
In this section, there is a calendar for each month, and each day has a suggested task. For example, in January, one idea is for you to review your financial plan for the year. In April, it’s suggested you buy graduation gifts and finalize summer vacation plans. In September, you’ll want to divide and plant perennials (depending on your gardening zone).
In this section, there are also additional snippets of things like seasonal craft projects that you could make, such as Paper Ghosts for Halloween. There are also ideas for entertaining during the summer and gardening tips relevant to each season.
There’s a lot in this section that I wouldn’t use because I don’t garden at all and I cook as little as possible, but I do like the idea of referencing the calendars each month to get reminders for things like deep-cleaning area rugs or test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
Organize Your Home
This section walks you through each area of your home:
Entryway
Kitchen
Bathroom
Living Room
Bedroom
Laundry Room
Home Office
Kid’s Rooms
Utility Spaces (attics, basements, garages, garden sheds)
In each section, you start by evaluating the space. How do you use it? How do you want to use it? Then, there are multiple suggestions for ideas you might try to make the most of your space.
Organize Your Routine
This is where you learn to implement routines to keep all areas of your life under control. Martha offers suggested routines for:
cleaning
laundry
gardening
home (maintenance)
cooking
entertaining
celebration (holidays, showers, birthdays)
kids
pets
wellness
Each routine includes a supply list, strategies for efficiency, and recommended schedules—daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, and yearly, depending on the topic.
My Favorite Ideas From Martha Stewart Organizing
It’s hard to pick a favorite since I’m not a Martha Stewart home-keeping type. However, I like having the suggested daily, weekly, and seasonal schedules for home maintenance. And the photographs in the book are beautiful!
Martha Stewart Organizing Is Best For:
Because it doesn’t address the need to get rid of clutter, this book is best for someone who is already pretty organized but who wants to step it up a notch. Or someone who is a big fan of Martha’s. It’s also an excellent resource for someone who wants a calendar-style reminder of everything that goes into running a household.
6. Good Housekeeping Simple Organizing Wisdom
Good Housekeeping Simple Organizing Wisdom is another book with thick, glossy pages and photos of pretty spaces.
It opens with a chapter on Organizing Essentials, such as:
9 Daily Must-Do’s To Stay Organized Forever and 7 Organizing Mistakes
Then, like the other organizing books, it walks you through your house, room by room. They cover the:
Kitchen & Pantry
Living & Family Rooms
Work & Craft Spaces
Bedrooms
Bath & Laundry Rooms
Entryways, Garages, & More
While the subtitle of this book is “500+ Quick & Easy Clutter Cures,” a lot of the tips in here are far from quick & easy. For example, in the Kitchen section, they suggest that you “consider glass-panel upper cabinets to show off dinnerware collection.” While that’s a nice idea, switching out cabinetry would be more of a decorating topic, not organizational.
Another suggestion is to “install wood panels to give your fireplace a dramatic redo.” Again, that might look pretty, but it doesn’t help you get organized.
There are some organizational pieces sprinkled throughout, such as:
8 Steps to End Gadget Mayhem
7 Smart Ways to Store Jewelry
Easy Ways to Organize Your Outdoor Stuff
10 Things to Remove from Your Bathroom Right Now
My Favorite Tips From GH Simple Organizing Wisdom
Upgrade the Nightstand
“Replace your traditional bedside table, which typically offers very little storage, with a large dresser. Look for a chest with two to three drawers that has a similar footprint to a nightstand but offers more height.”
And a 1-Minute Tip for book lovers:
“Pile High. Instantly spruce up the surface of a coffee table or side table by organizing books in neat stacks. Start with the largest books on the bottom and align spines so they face out. Place small curios on top of each stack for a decorative touch.”
This is a cute idea for incorporating your books into your home decor. But I wouldn’t add anything to the tops of the stacks because that might discourage someone from picking up the books. Books should be opened, looked through, and read.
GH Simple Organizing Wisdom Would Be Best For:
It has a lot of great ideas if you are remodeling or redecorating but minimal advice on organization. Best if you are looking for ideas for a remodeling project or the finishing touches after you’ve gotten organized.
7. What’s a DisOrganized Person To Do? by Stacey Platt
What’s Inside What’s A DisOrganized Person To Do?
What’s a DisOrganized Person To Do opens with seven general organizing principles. This includes:
10 Steps to Organizing Anything
The Organizer’s Toolkit
3 Habits of Highly Organized People
And more.
Then it covers the rooms of your house.
Entryway
Kitchen
Bedrooms and Closets
Bathrooms
Living Rooms & Dens
The Home Office
Utility & Storage Areas
Kid Clutter
From Trips to Moves (travel)
My Favorite Parts Of What’s A DisOrganized Person To Do?
This is hard. While I think it’s the most thorough of all the organizing books, it’s also my least favorite. The cover is really dated, even for its publishing date of 2010. The photos aren’t particularly attractive or aspirational. It doesn’t inspire me to get up and do anything.
But it IS filled with some great ideas and information. In the section on Utility & Storage Areas, you learn how to winterize your lawn mower. You learn how to fold clothes and towels to maximize space. You learn how long to keep various paperwork—and ways to store it. You learn different ways to store cookware based on your kitchen layout. This book provides a lot of great information.
Who Is What’s A DisOrganized Person To Do Best For?
This is the most detailed of all the books. The information in this book would be great for just about everyone. There are so many original ideas, and it is so thorough that even the most organized person can find some suggestions to add to their homemaking skills.
But, if you’re like me, motivated and inspired by pretty pictures, you’ll need to find your inspiration elsewhere.
Final Thoughts on Home Organization Books
Your home should be a peaceful place to relax, rejuvenate, be inspired, and gather with family and friends. You deserve to create a home that you love. If you need help to get organized, these home organization books can help.
Other Recommended Reads
If you enjoy The 7 Best Home Organization Books, you might also like:
Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson
