Organize Your Home by Treating It Like a Retail Store

Scrolling through TikTok and Reels can often feel like a waste of time, but today, I found a winner: Christen Fackler, a professional organizer who offers advice on clearing out both your home and your mind, suggests thinking of your home like a store for maximum organization, calling upon the same methods you'd use to handle inventory if you worked in retail.

Why think of your home like a store?

According to Fackler, this tip boils down to how a retail business is run, utilizing backstock and replenishment areas. Typically, these are store rooms or warehouses that serve to hold onto stock that isn't out on the display floor, but can easily be moved out there when something sells and its slot needs to be filled up for the next customer.

In your home, then, you also have backstock and replenishment areas. Fackler uses the bathroom as an example: Your bathroom might be the store and so, your display areas are your shelving, mirrors, and cabinets. Your backstock in this scenario is the cabinet where the bulk of your bathroom items are actually stored. Think of other examples around your living space: Your spice cupboard is full of spices and small bottles, but you have extra salt, baking supplies, and other goods in your pantry. There's a set of sheets on the bed and a towel in the bathroom, but plenty more in the linen closet.

What drew me to this method on first watch was that Fackler compared the approach to my personal favorite organizing method, decanting. When you decant your store-bought goods into more uniform, reusable containers, you save space and can more readily see when something needs to be replaced. The same thinking guides the "backstock" idea.

How to use this organizing technique

Often, I recommend the Organizational Triangle as a set of rules to follow when organizing your home, especially the requirements that you store similar items together and make sure everything has a designated spot. Reframing your perception of your home to be more like a store and incorporating backstock areas is the one time I'll say you can be a little lax with the Organizational Triangle, but that comes with a caveat: This method is best suited for homes where you have plenty of storage space and front-facing, accessible space.

If that applies to you, start incorporating this method to see how it works for you. Select the most frequently used items in each category, like aspirin from your medicine stash, your favorite herbs in your spice collection, etc. Move those to easily accessible spots, then keep the lesser-used items put away in cabinets, a storage room, a pantry, or someplace more out of the way. Whenever you buy a new version of one of these high-need items, stick it in that backstock area and then when you run out up front on your "sales floor," be sure to check backstock before buying anew. This also works for things you don't always have to repurchase, like clothes. Your work clothes and mainstays can be readily available in the closet while the lesser-worn items, like special occasion attire, can be stored somewhere like under the bed or in an attic, keeping the closet less cluttered.

Organizing this way, with your most sought-out items stored away from the bulk and easy to access, will help you keep an eye on what needs replenishing, either from your stock pile or the store, and will also keep your front-facing areas tidier. As ever, use storage containers in both your backstock and front-facing areas to ensure the most organization possible.