The 6 Worst Organizing Trends on TikTok Right Now, According to Pros

TikTok provides us with hours of great content—whether its the stuff that’s relaxing to watch (rug cleaning, anyone?) or service-packed tips and tricks, like watching someone organize their pantry. There are some amazing tips we’ve learned from watching these videos, (like using a shower rod to organize your bags). But, naturally, not every tip on TikTok is going to be a winner, so we asked a few of our favorite decluttering pros to tell us some of the ideas they can’t get on board with and why. Have you tried any of these?

Reverse Decluttering

What is reverse decluttering? Well, it’s kind of exactly what it sounds like. Instead of focusing on what you want to get rid of, this method asks you to focus on the items you want to keep and set those aside. It’s a more positive-sounding spin on the traditional take and toss method, but Gerrit Jan Reinders, decluttering expert and CEO of the storage rental company Boxie24, says it can do more harm than good. “First, by focusing exclusively on what to keep, practitioners often fail to properly process why they’re holding onto unnecessary items, missing the valuable insights that come from confronting accumulation patterns,” he says. It can also lead you to avoid those more difficult items (the borderline ones you really need to make a decision about but can’t).

Choosing Storage Solutions First

“A lot of influencers are promoting cool boxes, trays, and containers to help organize, but it really ends up being a lot of extra stuff,” says Dr. Regina Lark, a certified professional organizer and owner of A Clear Path. “Decluttering is about the best way to organize, not just buying more bins.” Real organizational progress comes by reducing the volume of your possessions and taking a good hard look at what you really need before bringing more stuff into your home.

Stocking Up on Only Clear Boxes and Bins

Yes, they’re aesthetically pleasing, but is the stuff inside them as good-looking? Morgan Olsen, interior design expert at Thumbtack, says these just aren’t the right vessel for certain items, including those under your sink. “If I put my hairbrushes in an acrylic drawer, all I would see are balls of hair,” she says. “Even if it’s organized, you also need to consider how it will look with the products you’re storing in it.”

Arranging Your Closet Like a Boutique

It may look cool, but this idea is kind of useless, says Olsen. “The ’boutique-style’ closet system is essentially no organization—you have the freedom to hang anything anywhere,” she says. Some people take this to mean hanging up their favorite items in the middle, or organizing clothes by color, but the practicality isn’t quite there. “The only thing that makes sense about it is that it doesn’t make sense. If you’re looking for a specific shirt one day, you might be searching for a while.”

Getting Too Granular

Yes, you want things to be organized into little groups, but you don’t need groups within groups within groups, says Tyler Moore of Tidy Dad. “You can have your bin of office supplies, and an individual bin for paperclips, but do you need a bin for the pink paperclips versus the blue? I don’t think that system is intuitive to people,” he says. It also leads people to buy more product (bins), so your’e actually bringing more items into the home (see choosing storage solutions first, above).

Decanting Everything

It’s nice to toss bulky packaging when it’s taking up space in your pantry, but not everything needs to be decanted. Potato chips can break apart and make the containers look greasy when you pour the contents inside of a clean jar or bin. Just put a bag clip on them and call it a day!