How To Organize Like An Architect in 5 Steps

Have you ever felt overwhelmed in your own home just by stepping into a certain room? Whether it’s a ‘spare furniture’ room, a claustrophobic office, or a cluttered garage, it’s an obstacle to your everyday life and seems too daunting to overcome. However, if you approach it like an architect planning the function of space based on their clients’ day-to-day tasks, you will find that even the most difficult rooms can be turned into a source of pride for your household. Here are five guiding principles that can help you organize any space like an architect:

1: Declutter

The old adage rings true: less is more. It’s always best to start with a clean slate when organizing a space. Take all the clutter out and sift through it, setting aside only the things you truly value or actually use on a regular basis. You’ll be shocked at how much room is taken up by things that no longer serve their purpose! Once you’ve carefully chosen which items to remove or return to the space, you can start to think about the new layout.

2: Get inspired

Even the most accomplished architects throughout history had their sources of inspiration. Search through sites like Pinterest, Apartment Therapy, and other design sources to create a mood board that guides you throughout the entire process.

One of my latest projects as a recent architecture graduate was to redesign a garage, and the client provided a collection of precedent images demonstrating the overall intent for the space. This made it a lot easier to determine the final design since there was a clear goal for both function and aesthetics.

3: Take measurements

Rough sketch for a garage redesign, showing the various dimensions and objects arranged within the space

It’s crucial when organizing a room to take accurate measurements of both spatial dimensions and the key objects that will be placed within it. It opens up opportunities to explore different options for design solutions according to the available space.

In my garage redesign project, there were several large items, tools and existing shelves that had to be integrated as part of a cohesive layout, and their proportions impacted what I could build or include in the rest of the garage space. I recommend drawing plans to help you directly visualize how each element would come together and determine the flow of movement within the space.

4: Create zones

Before/After: My redesign for this garage started with a clear goal: to provide a functional work space and specific zones for each item category.

Reorganizing a space should make things easier for the user, and that means minimizing the distance they have to walk to reach the things they need. Consider what tasks would be done in the space, and place any relevant items in that general area.

For example, my garage project required a primary zone for working, so I designed a table and storage unit against a wall dedicated for that purpose. I also set up two more zones for gardening and boating equipment. Instead of running all over the room to get different items, everything has its own designated area. This can be applied on any scale, even closets. Life is better when you don’t need to search for things for half an hour.

5: Think outside the box

Not every solution is straightforward; there’s usually a reason for a space being difficult to use in the first place. Maybe the only way to make good use of an awkward corner is to invest in a built-in storage unit. In other cases it might be better to change the use of the space entirely, and what might once have been an unused spare furniture room could be turned into a home library, for example. Don’t let yourself get constrained into an (awkward) corner — consider all the different possibilities that the space can provide!

Speaking from experience, there is no room that can’t be made to function properly through careful organization. It all depends on how you see yourself using the space, and working from that to set up a conducive final layout. By following these steps as an architect would, you can take any dysfunctional space and organize it into something that actually makes life easier. Is there any more satisfying payoff?