How To Organize Your Home By Color

Try this intuitive and creative method to keep your space in order—from the pantry to your bookshelf.

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Blue and Green and Pink and White and Yellow Vignette
Photography by MEGHAN MCNEER

Photography by Meghan McNeer

 

Text by Natasha Wolff | Styling by The

Home Edit

“We wanted to elevate

 

professional organizing into a branch of interior design,” says Clea Shearer, who launched

The Home Edit

with Joanna Teplin in Nashville in 2015. The duo offers a distinctive aesthetic, with organizing systems that are seamless and functional but also highly stylized. One of their favorite tools is using color to keep things tidy. “Color is intuitive because it’s ‘plug and play.’ It’s inexpensive to implement and inspires maintenance, since you want your space to continue to be as beautiful as when it was first organized,” says Teplin. 

Green and Red and White Food
Photography by MEGHAN MCNEER

KITCHEN

Organizing your kitchen by color allows you to “eat the rainbow” and makes healthful ingredients look even more delicious. Stock the fridge with produce in similar shades (dark leafy greens, bright fruits, etc.), and identify the contents of drawers and clear storage containers with erasable markers. For the pantry, Teplin suggests emptying dry goods, such as nuts and dried fruit, from the packaging into individual glass canisters with airtight lids. Transparent spice jars holding turmeric, cayenne, and pink salt add more pops of color. (You can also gauge freshness better; when spices like paprika and chili powder fade, it’s time to toss them.)

Artisan Glass Containers With Oak Lids, The Container Store

White Product Silo
Photography by riess

Keep pantry goods in these mix-and-match enamel containers and assign different colors for different contents.

Enamel Canisters by Riess 

Fridge Binz Wine Holder $8

Linus Fridge Binz Soda Can Organizer With Shelf $20

Deep Fridge Binz from $11

Fridge Binz Egg Holder $15

Glass Refrigerator Pitchers from $8

Glasslock Slimline Food Storage With Lids from $9

Glasslock Clean & Fresh Food Storage Containers from $6

All available at The Container Store

Blue and Green and Pink and White and Yellow Study
Photography by MEGHAN MCNEER

PLAYROOM

Avoiding clutter and having toys neatly displayed—especially stray Lego pieces waiting to be stepped on—is every parent’s dream. “Using color to organize a child’s space provides them with an easy road map,” says Shearer. “It adds a whimsical element but also makes cleanup extremely simple, since children learn to put the red book back in the red section.”

Rainbow Stacker Puzzle by SensoryPlay

White Product Silo
Photography by muuto

This soft-sided felt basket is ideal for storing toys. 

Restore Basket by Muuto 

Blue and Red and White and Yellow Kid's room
Photography by MEGHAN MCNEER

Our Shoe Box, The Container Store

Blue and Green and Pink and White and Yellow Office
Photography by MEGAN MCNEER

OFFICE

Organization is key in a workspace to maintain a clear mind. Color-coding files simplifies your paperwork and lets you efficiently designate categories (personal, work, household, travel). Take this go-to method onto your desk with a stack of rainbow-hued drawers or color-blocked nesting trays. For each room you’re trying to tidy, Teplin and Shearer recommend “choosing a palette that makes sense for your space, so you’ll be inspired to stay organized in the long term.”

Amac Box Assorted Colors The Container Store

White Product Silo
Photography by HAY

Geometric shapes in a modular design for creating your own catchall system.  Kaleido Trays by HAY