a fresh start

Houston organizational expert shares 8 tips for reducing clutter

Welcome to 2025! Each new year ushers in a different set of hopes and goals for the coming months, but one in particular continuously tops the list: becoming better organized.

With the holiday season firmly in the rearview mirror and children back at school, now is the time to get started. For some, tackling organizational challenges is easier said than done, and oftentimes just not even knowing where to begin may make the project feel overwhelming. Recognizing this, Houston organizational expert Carroll Cartwright of Neatly & Co. has some tips and tricks for getting organized, as well as sharing her local go-to spots for her favorite organizational accoutrements.

Photo by John Charles Held

Cartwright creates bright, bespoke closet solutions for prized collections.

Cartwright founded Neatly & Co in 2020 when — like so many others — she found herself working her corporate job from home. What started as a personal quest to declutter her own cabinets and closets has grown into a business with 10 employees that serviced 158 clients in 2024 alone.

“It turns out that I really love it,” Cartwright tells CultureMap. What’s more — she’s great at it. Her thoughtfully-designed and practical storage solutions put Cartwright on the radars of top interior designers like Kara Childress and Benjamin Johnston, the likes of which consult Neatly & Co. during the planning stages of their new builds and remodeling projects to ensure that clients receive truly bespoke solutions that align beauty with functionality.

“Most clients want to feel like they’re walking into The Four Seasons Hotel when they come home,” Cartwright says. It’s this epiphany that led Neatly & Co. to offer end-to-end move management in addition to their organizational services. These stress-free transitions are what clients have come to expect from working with top interior designers, and Cartwright and her team blend seamlessly into that turn-key realm. Organizing, packing, and unpacking ensure a chaos-free experience for clients during what could otherwise be a stressful experience — and Cartwright is a pro.

Here are Carroll Cartwright’s top eight steps to getting organized in the new year:

Start with a Plan: Write down every area in your home. Identify spaces that feel the most stressful or daunting to tackle. This is your task list!
Pick Your Priority: Assess how much time you have and choose a project you can complete in that timeframe. Thinking you can do your house alone in one day is not realistic! When getting started, go for an easy win! Starting small (like under the sink or a single closet) can help you build momentum to then continue tackling other areas of the house.
Create a Centralized Sorting Zone: Before taking on an area, designate a spot for the purge AKA items you’re donating, selling, or throwing away. Once you’re done with one area, handle those piles before moving on.
My Foolproof Method for Organizing Any Area:
Purge – Start by removing everything from the space and letting go of items you no longer use, need, or love.
Categorize – Group similar items together to understand what you have and how they fit into your space. Now that you have your categories, do a second sweep and reduce any extra duplicates you don’t need. Of course there are exceptions, but you really don’t need more than 1 or 2 of any single item!
Consolidate – Combine like items to streamline your belongings, ensuring everything has a clear home.
Curate – Thoughtfully choose which items to keep and arrange them in a way that feels functional, intentional, and visually pleasing.
Complete Each Area Fully: Always finish one area before moving on to the next to avoid feeling overwhelmed and leaving areas undone.
Make It Functional: Organization only works when it makes sense for your lifestyle and daily needs. Keep frequently used items in logical spots. For example, your cutlery drawer should be near the dishwasher for easy unloading. Create designated areas for common clutter areas like countertops and mail.
Use Dividers and Organizers: Compartmentalize drawers and cabinets using dividers to group items by category for easy access.
Daily Maintenance for Clarity: End each day by tidying surfaces like countertops and desks. This ensures a mentally clear space for the next day. Beginning the day with a clean environment boosts productivity!

If bespoke cabinet, closet, and drawer inserts aren’t in the budget, fun, off-the-shelf items work great.

“Depending on what you’re looking for, I love Rejuvenation, Restoration Hardware, Kuhl-Linscomb, and The Container Store,” she says. “It’s more fun to be unique when looking for product! I also always look at home stores like Biscuit Home for fun storage items or antique stores around town for bins or, like, an antique drip-dry for a laundry room! Makes it more bespoke and sets you apart!”

Regardless of whether one chooses to repurpose items from around the house or pop around town for fresh, new (or antique) finds, one thing is for certain — the only way to finish a project is to start one. Good luck!

home organizing home-design

roll tide

This Houston furniture store sells big name brands at deep discounts

Courtesy of Alabama Furniture

Visit “Sofa Sherri” in Independence Heights.

For the past 35 years, Alabama Furniture has served Houston as the premier source for showroom-condition secondhand designer furniture and antiques. Find designer brands that include Bernhardt, Baker, and Thomasville, plus mainstream store inventory from Restoration Hardware, Arhaus, and West Elm for over 50 percent off — every day of the week.

Proprietor Sherri Enroth, colloquially known as “Sofa Sherri,” opened her savvy-shopper staple on West Alabama in 1991. Commercial development in 1996 caused Enroth to relocate the store to 22nd and Yale in The Heights — where Alabama Furniture remained for 20 years — before settling into its current Independence Heights location in 2016.

Alabama Furniture is technically a fast-paced consignment store, with the bulk of the inventory coming from fellow Houstonians. The remainder is sourced from store liquidations and surplus inventories from furniture stores and showrooms. Enroth sells to everyone from the design trade to one-off looky-loos; even Round Top retailers source inventory from the store. However, it’s what Enroth calls the “TikTok effect” that has caused Gen Z to “discover” the store — while embracing thrifting as an environmentally-conscious lifestyle choice — and welcome an entirely new clientele.

“With the younger generation, the new keyword is ‘thrifting,’” says Enroth. “You’re not out shopping resale shops, you’re out thrifting! And thrifting is getting that find at the best possible price — getting more for less. It sounds cliché, but why would you shop retail? In here you can shop brand new, 50 percent off or more, and take it home or have it delivered the same day.”

The concept of purchasing brand new furniture below wholesale is what attracts interior designers and retailers to Alabama Furniture. The store lists its entire inventory online, and ships as well. Recently, a client filled an entire truck to furnish a second home in a remote area of Colorado. According to Enroth, this type of thing happens all of the time. Buyers even fill shipping containers to send overseas to stock their own stores with brands and items unavailable in their local markets.

“It’s cheaper than wholesale. So even if you can buy wholesale, or you get a 20 percent trade discount at Ladco, we’re still cheaper,” says Enroth. “Go out to any one of those big brand stores and look at their prices, then come back here and we will be best friends.”

What’s more, she means it. Clients of Alabama Furniture have been repeat buyers for decades, which Enroth loves: “I know my customers, I know their kids, and now I even know their grandkids. It’s wonderful.”

Enroth hails from a long line of furniture enthusiasts. Her grandparents owned the iconic Red Barn Furniture in Denver, and her interior designer father owned the eponymous Tim Hamrock Furniture in Highland Village. “It’s in my blood. I was cursed from birth,” she says with a laugh. Her keen eye for quality is what has kept Alabama Furniture alive for nearly four decades. As it says on the sign out front, “There’s no sale, like resale!”

The store is bursting with new and like-new furniture on any given day, but approximately 10 percent of the inventory is antique or period specific. “I get more of the collectibles, like Murano and certain types of art glass, certain china [and barware],” says Enroth. As for 30s, 40s, MCM, and retro pieces, “That sells quick!”

When it comes to Alabama Furniture being plucked by furniture flippers prior to the Round Top antiques fairs, Enroth doesn’t mind at all: “They do whatever with their prices. Most of those people do it for a hobby. So, if you go out and sell a couple of pieces, you’ve paid for your trip — so why not overprice it?”

Just keep in mind when you pick a piece of vintage from a field this October, that it could have come from Alabama Furniture — for less!

Courtesy of Alabama Furniture

Visit “Sofa Sherri” in Independence Heights.

home-design shopping alabama furniture