10 organizing tools I swear by

You don’t really need to buy anything to get organized, but these help.

A quick note! I had a story published on NYMag.com about families living in one-bedroom apartments this week. I was honored that it was picked as New York’s ‘One Great Story’ on Wednesday. Here’s what my editor wrote about it:

How much do you love living in New York City? And if you have kids, how desperate are you to raise them here? Do you want it enough to sacrifice having a bedroom and the privacy that comes with it? In this uplifting story, Laura Fenton, author of The Little Book of Living Small, interviewed parents who have the means to move out of New York City into larger homes but have opted to stay in their one-bedroom apartments. Their reasoning: Raising their kids in a great neighborhood matters a lot more than having space for more stuff or even a Sunday-afternoon nap… As someone who’s been reading about city families fleeing to the suburbs for a solid two years but has every intention of raising my own kids right here in New York, I found these stories and portraits to be a much-needed palate cleanser.

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It’s time for another edition of the Living Small 100, a series devoted to my favorite everyday objects for living small and sustainably. I always say that you don’t need to buy anything new to optimize your home, but readers also want to know what works, so I am sharing the housekeeping tools, decor, and more that I have come to rely upon. I publish chunks of the Living Small 100 in themed installments for paid subscribers. Today I’m talking about storage and organizing tools; let’s go:

Wooden hangers

Back in about 2005, I discovered Huggable Hangers, the original slim velvet flocked hangers that promised to double your closet space–and they did. In fact, they allowed me to squeeze too much into my wardrobe. Friends, I’d like to formally apologize for all the times I recommended these in magazines: They’re garbage. They break so easily, cannot be recycled, and make your closet crammed and hard to navigate. I now recommend solid wood hangers—even for small closets!—because they last forever, make it easier to see your clothes, and force you to be realistic about how much space you have. I’m slowly replacing my velvet hangers with wood ones as they break. I used to recommend the IKEA ones, but I’ve heard the quality has gone way down.

Cloth bins

I bought a bunch of these simple cloth bins from The Container Store to hold our extra linens and they are great. Affordable and made from breathable, natural fibers, these go a long way towards containing mess and concealing clutter in a closet. 10 out of 10 recommend, but if you live near a store, get them in person: The Container Store is just terrible with their excess shipping materials and giant boxes.

Clear plastic drawers

This is one of the only plastic-y storage things I recommend—but not for shoes! Here’s how I use them (please excuse the ugly photo):