These three key steps will get you on your way to making order in your home using basic everyday items:

1. Contain

Enough storage space is, of course, the Holy Grail of any household. But solutions to the problem are probably littering your closets and cupboards right now. Use monochromatic boxes, wooden crates, berry baskets, and empty jars to stash anything from mementos to old files, paper clips to dried spices.

2. Repeat

Transform stray containers or collectibles into a decorative tableau by clustering like objects. Consistency produces a neater look than a random assembly does — and while one or two may look arbitrary, a group looks like art.

3. Repurpose

Although your lidless sugar bowl and your wobbly chair no longer serve their original purposes, they're far from useless. You can eke a second life out of idle treasures by assigning them new functions — and, in so doing, add style to the surfaces they grace.