​As the saying goes, ‘cluttered space, cluttered mind,’ and I really identify with this. If there’s a mess in my house, it occupies a little corner of my subconscious until it’s straightened up, which is why I recently teamed up with organizer Shara Koplowitz from O.P.E.N. to help with a project: my beauty products.

I sat with her on the floor of the bathroom and watched her closely as she organized so that I could learn as much from the process as possible. The results were an extremely organized beauty cabinet (hellllo, #shelfie!) and an education on how to organize just about anything. Here is what I learned:

1. REMOVE and CLEAN:

Whatever it is that you are organizing (pantry, clothes, beauty products, etc.), remove all items from the drawers/closet in which it will live and lay it all out. Clean drawers and shelves thoroughly. For closets, this is super important to prevent moths, etc.

2. CATEGORIZE:

Separate your items into categories. For my beauty cabinet we broke things down by face, hair, makeup, etc. As you go through your items, separate what you don’t want into donate and trash boxes to get rid of what you don’t need. If seasons apply to what you’re organizing, separate ‘out of season items’ to store separately elsewhere and be sure to label accordingly. When storing seasonal items, consider conditions of storage space and type of items. Use things like cedar, acid free tissue and watertight containers to prevent any damage.

3. ANALYZE:

Review each category to come up with the best solution for storage. Will this live in a drawer? On a shelf? Does it need to be in a bin? Standing up? Etc. Make lists of the types of storage containers you think you might need. When deciding where something should be stored permanently, think about how the items are used (i.e. we thought about the steps taken when applying skin care products; Starting with cleansers on top, serums and toners in next drawer, etc). The ‘most used items’ should be easiest to access and ‘least used items’ should usually be placed on the highest shelf when maximizing vertical space – or lowest drawer.

And second, make sure there is enough space for every item with room to grow/add additional product.

4. SOLUTIONS

Once you have a sense of what you need to store and how to store it, pop into your local Container Store to find the right solutions. Don’t forget to measure accurately. And bring your measurements with you. Your measurements will determine which options are available for your space and then you can decide which best suits your needs. For my beauty cabinet, we used a variation of different acrylic solutions.

5. FIT

Now that you have your storage solutions, place your categorized items into each of their respective storage solutions and label accordingly. Remove price tags, place back in drawers and/or on shelves. Securing your containers in a drawer will prevent things from moving around and getting messy.

Enjoyyyyy the de-clutter.​

**A special thank you to Container Store for providing us with product for this project