Organize This, Not That

Organize This: Mail.
Nayak recommends a bin for catalogs and magazines (and consider if you'd like to switch to digital subscriptions if you're ignoring the bin in favor of your tablet). Bills go in a highly visible spot to remind you to pay them ASAP (and help avoid more mail: second notices.) Important family correspondence can go in a tray, noting updated contact info in your address book or phone and then discarding.

Not That: The miscellaneous things you carry in your purse or coat pockets.
One trick Helmuth has implemented in many of the 1,000 homes she's transformed is a simple tray to empty your pockets into each evening. "Keep your day-to-day chaos within the walls of a 4-inch deep space," she says. "You'll save time in the morning when you don't have to search for keys in one place and a watch in another." Instead, she says, you can grab the tray's contents on your way out the door.