When You Should & Should NOT Organize by Color!

infoorganizeraz911
Jan 12
2 min read

If you’ve ever been on Pinterest or Instagram, you’ve probably seen those eye catching rainbow-colored pantries or bookshelves. And while those beautifully color-coded systems can be fun to look at… the truth is, they don’t always work well in real life.

As a professional organizer, I’m all about function first. So in this blog I’m sharing my honest take on when organizing by color is truly helpful and when it’s totally unnecessary (or even counterproductive)!

✅ When Organizing by Color Actually Works ✅

1. Your Closet

Color-coding your clothes isn't just pretty, it’s practical. It helps you find what you’re looking for faster. It also helps you create better outfit combinations, and even spot wardrobe gaps (or duplicates!) at a glance.

2. Craft Supplies

If you’re a crafter, organizing by color is a wonderful way to keep your supplies organized. Whether you’re working with paint, vinyl, paper, thread, or beads, having everything grouped by color can give your creative process a huge boost and make the process of creating your wonderful work a lot more efficient.

3. Paper Files

Color-coded filing is a game-changer. Assigning different colors to different categories (like green for finances, blue for household, and yellow for health) can help you locate what you need quickly and easily, which in turn can reduce your daily stress when dealing with your paperwork.

🚫 When Color-Coding Misses the Mark 🚫

1. Your Books

Organizing your books by the color of the spine might look nice, but it makes finding your favorite titles a lot harder. Most people search for books by title, author, or topic, not whether the spine was blue or yellow. Plus, what if you own a book series (like the Harry Potter stories) that have different colored covers? Organizing them by color would scatter them all over your book collection instead of keeping them together as a series.

2. Your Kid’s Legos

Unless you're a LEGO-obsessed adult collector, this is a huge no-no for kids when it comes to organization. Color-sorting a mountain of bricks will only make cleanup longer and harder to do. It's highly unlikely that kids will want to keep up with it. One big bin to contain your Legos = less stress for everyone!

3. Phone Apps

Sure, color-coded app screens can look "organized"… but functionally speaking... it’s a mess! Grouping your social media with your bank app just because they’re both blue doesn’t help you use your phone more efficiently. Organize by purpose, not palette!

My Final Thoughts

Sorting by color is a wonderful organizing tool when it supports how you live and use your space. If the system you set up looks great but slows you down, it’s not really organized.

So before you go crazy organizing everything by color, ask yourself... Does this make my life easier? If the answer is yes, go for it! If not, keep it simple and focus on "function" first. Your future self will thank you.

Want more honest, real-life organizing advice?