By Yehudit Garmaise

Grouping belongings by color can help clear clutter while storing essentials in creative, attractive ways can help in finding what is needed quickly.

Although not everyone finds color coordination soothing and fun, for many, it can reduce visual clutter while making the world seem more calm, happy, and bright. 

When organizing things by color, what looks best is to follow the “rainbow order,” which is (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violent, otherwise known as “ROYGBIV.”

Here are some things you may want to start organizing by color today.

Books: While seforim might come in just one or two colors, other books, including children’s books, come in a rainbow of colors that look great when grouped together.

While some readers might want to organize their books by author or by type or height, organizing books by color is a great way to make bookshelves look neater and more appealing.

Instead of creating visual clutter by putting books back on shelves without any rhyme or reason, grouping books by color makes a striking design statement.

In addition, color-coding books make clean-up time more fun, when children, teens, and adults can just pop their books in spaces grouped by color.

Files: Plain Manila file folders are standard for organizing papers, but such a bland cream color is boring and makes every category look the same. 

Instead, choose files in a rainbow of colors and make a code to easily find banking documents, for instance, in green folders, insurance information in blue, and paid bills in yellow. Choose a bright color like purple or red to keep important documents, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, and passports.

Pantry: Rice, barley, beans, popcorn, dried pasta, and other dry goods look great when they are taken out of their packaging and put in clear containers. 

Instead of rifling through large Ziplock bags full of what is needed to make soups, cholent, and other side dishes, open up the pantry to quickly spot the green, black, red, or white beans you want to grab. 

Refrigerator: Instead of throwing everything in the fridge when returning home from the grocery store, take the time to remove all packaging from fruits and vegetables to reduce bulk and reveal beautiful colors. 

Choose one drawer to store all vegetables, which tend to be green.

Choose one drawer to store all colorful fruits.

Choose one drawer to store cheese, which is orange and yellow.

Choose one shelf to store white and beige things, such as sandwich bread, bagels, and pasta.

On a shelf on the inside door of the refrigerator, place condiments in “rainbow order,” starting with ketchup for red, and then mustard for yellow, relish might be green.

Make sure meat leftovers go in containers with one color top, and dairy leftovers are stored in containers with another color lid, so as to be easily located when needed. On the shelf next to the refrigerator, choose one bowl for potatoes and one bowl for onions.

Closet: While black and white are easy to separate, women can better organize closets by grouping their clothing by color. 

This way, when searching for “that one blue sweater,” it will be easier to find the right section.

Legos and stuffed animals: Children who like to color-code their belongings can learn to organize the chaos toys can create.

Legos and stuffed animals are the perfect toys for children to start separating by color.