September 25, 2026

Photo: Ambar Pardilla

If you were to take a time machine to 2005 and tell my mom that I am now a home-organization columnist, she would laugh you out of the house. I was elementally, unrepentantly messy for much of my life until a string of microscopic apartments changed my ways. As someone who has lived as both a hoarder and a minimalist, I think mess gets a bad rap — it’s really just objects you love clamoring for attention. Mess plus structure is a collection, and if you know where your stuff goes, you don’t stress about using it.

Every month, I’ll put my organizational skill toward disentangling your thorniest clothes piles, neglected corners, and overstuffed drawers in a new column called “Clutter Clinic.” This month, I found museum-inspired storage for a Strategist writer’s Manolos and disentangled a family shoe pile. Next month, I’m focusing on closets. Email [email protected] with photos and a “primary complaint” of what you want to change.

Also on the site:

STRATEGIST SAVED

1. Easeland Cotton Pillow Top Mattress Pad: Annie Meyers-Shyer says this is her favorite mattress pad. No other convincing needed.

2. Ganni x Hunter Downpour Tall Boots in Leopard: I have a few pairs of tall Hunter boots that I'm constantly rotating, but this new Ganni leopard print is one I'm dying to add to my collection.

3. Tolkning Handmade Rattan Pouf: Our senior writer Liza Corsillo mentioned this rattan pouf when there was a polling in our Slack channel for the Strategist's most stood-behind IKEA Items. It's actually a stool and storage in one.

If you’d like to save items like Brenley, it’s pretty easy. You’ll notice there’s now a small heart icon in the upper-right corner of all product images on articles. To save a product, just click the heart. It’ll change color, which means it’s been saved. All saved products will then be stored in the “Saved for Later” tab of your account, so make sure you are logged in to access this feature. (And you just need to submit your email to create an account — no payment required.)

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