Peter Walsh's 7 Secrets of a Master Organizer

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The declutterer extraordinaire shares the genius rules that will make your spring cleaning easier than ever.

By Meredith BryanO, The Oprah Magazine  |  From the March 2012 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

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In 2007, more than a decade after he landed on these shores and quickly became indispensable to America's pack rat citizenry, Australian organizing guru Peter Walsh—along with his partner, Ken Greenblatt—bought a charming little stucco vacation cottage in the chic desert oasis of Palm Springs. There, the couple retire most weekends from their busy life in Los Angeles to bike, hike, read, entertain friends, "eat way too much," admits Walsh, and generally bask in gloriously minimalist domestic perfection. In honor of O's third annual de-cluttering issue, we decided to see Walsh's home for ourselves. Although we've watched him subdue 4,000-square-foot suburban junk palaces on his OWN show, Extreme Clutter—not to mention whip a certain magazine's very messy New York headquarters into shape—nothing could've prepared us for the super-advanced stuff-slaying that goes down in his own home.

Walsh swears it's all about volume control and systems. "We keep physical stuff to a minimum," he explains, noting the scant furniture and complete absence of tchotchkes. "Instead, we want to emphasize the house's openness, the view of the San Jacinto mountains, the incredible weather." And rather than perpetually clean and organize, Walsh and Greenblatt use an established set of tools and routines that allow them "to quickly straighten up, find things we need, and not have to waste more time than we absolutely must maintaining the house," Walsh says. His solutions include life-alteringly simple ways to store linens and dried foods, even tame one's junk drawer. "It's about ease of living," says Walsh. "We come here to recharge our batteries, not to clean."

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1. Make Your Rooms Multitask

In a small house, each room can serve more than one purpose, says Walsh. Take his guest room/TV room/office. The couch—a pullout that's perfect for guests—faces a flat-screen TV that Walsh and Greenblatt watch alone on quieter evenings.

To create a cozy home office, Walsh removed the closet doors, installed a desk and shelving, and added venetian blinds from Ikea that he can pull down to hide the workspace when visitors arrive.

Even Walsh's furniture serves more than one function: This ottoman, a handy footrest and coffee table, moonlights as storage for Walsh and Greenblatt's DVD collection, leaving the room's media console clutter-free.

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2. Focus Your Fridge

Walsh uses clear plastic trays (Fridge Binz; Organize.com) to separate cheese from condiments from baking supplies. When he's grilling outside, he simply grabs the entire condiments tray (ditto the cheese tray, which he and Greenblatt sample most evenings). Bonus: No need to scrub dried maple syrup from the far corners of his fridge.

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3. Use Easy Counter Canisters

To keep the dried lentils, beans, quinoa, flour, and other ingredients he uses for healthy summer meals readily available, Walsh stores them in a set of stainless steel canisters (Organize.com). This way he always knows what he has—and friends can easily pitch in with the cooking.

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4. Rethink Your Linen Closet

Warning: Your mind might be blown by Walsh's brilliantly simple linen system. To store his uniform white sheets, he folds fitted sheet, top sheet, and extra pillowcases inside a pillowcase of the same set. Needless to say, he never has to ransack his closet for an elusive match.

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5. De-Junk Your Junk Drawer

Instead of being jammed in a kitchen drawer, household necessities like rubber bands, pencils, and glue are stacked in clear, labeled boxes of varying sizes (Zak! Designs canisters; Organize.com) inside a cabinet. This makes things easy for Walsh—and his houseguests—to find.

Walsh's clear containers make it easy to see what needs replacing. Even better, their labels discourage the stashing of miscellany. "They don't allow you to overload your junk drawer with junk," he explains.

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6. Establish a Free-Money Box

Inspired by the sheer dollar amount of unused gift cards and rebates he finds stashed in others' homes, Walsh corralled his various coupons, gift certificates, free gym passes, and vouchers into this brightly colored box (Bigso storage box; Organize.com), which he riffles through for relevant bargains each time he goes shopping. (Hoover: credit card companies have rewards that entitle you to free coffee, groceries , or vouchers for food when you spend a minimum amount. Establishing a money box is a great idea to keep it all together and to make sure you don't forget which ones you can use!)

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7. Standardize Your Food Storage

To avoid accumulating a drawerful of mismatched plastic containers in ten colors, Walsh uses just one brand of food storage container so lids will always fit (OXO LockTop set; Organize.com). He stacks just a few sizes in a cabinet for easy access. "Most people only really use three or four of these containers anyway," says Walsh. "There's no need to keep hundreds."