Try TikTok’s Viral ‘Knolling’ Technique to Organize Your Stuff

If you spend a lot of time on CleanTok or looking at beautiful, well-organized homes on social media, you’re bound to run across some trends, some of which make more sense than others. Knolling is like that: The term refers to a way of organizing what you’ve organized, which sounds like overkill, but it makes sense once you get into it.

What is knolling?

This word and idea comes from a sculptor named Andrew Kromelow who, in the 1980s, named it after the studio where he was working and organizing tools for another artist. In arranging things, whether they’re tools like Kromelow used or not, you should consider their placement, ideally putting them in a visually appealing pattern, like a grid.

This works well because when you’re organizing, you should already be sorting your items into categories and placing them into designated containers; those are the basic rules of the Organizational Triangle. Knolling, or turning those designated spots into spaces that are easy to access, is the logical next step.

How to start knolling

If your items aren’t organized and categorized into drawers, shelves, and containers already, do that first. You can use any decluttering and organizing method you want, but your goal should be to get rid of things you don’t use and find space for the things you do use and need.

From there, consider each designated space. In drawers, you can use dividers to make this even easier, but in general, you want to lay everything out flat, not stacked within its container, and arrange it in a way that’s appealing to your eye. For instance, a drawer full of writing utensils can get cluttered and ugly, but arranging all the pens pointing up and down, then establishing a section next to them for pencils to lay the opposite way will create visual appeal while making sure everything in there is visible and accessible. If something doesn’t fit into the grid or pattern you’re creating, consider getting rid of it. This process helps you streamline your stuff, holding onto only what you need and making sure you can always reach and grab it when you need it. If everything is arranged in a nice pattern, you’ll also notice when something is missing and be reminded to put it back exactly where it goes, maintaining the organization of your home even more.

If you’re not a super visual person, just start by laying out your bigger items with plenty of space around them. Then, add in your smaller ones, keeping similar items grouped together in the spaces you created and alternating their angles so you end up with perpendicular lines between categories, making it clear what and where everything is. Look to videos like this for inspo:

The reason this is so big on TikTok is obvious: When you’re done creating your patterns, it just looks nice. That’s a recipe for views and likes on social media, so you can see why creators are into it. For your own purposes, even if you’re organizing for an audience of one, pretend you’re doing a “before and after” post. I recommend doing that with organizing in general, since taking a picture of a cluttered mess and then another of your decluttered space is a helpful motivational tool. While you knoll, creating your pattern of angled, perpendicular, spaced-out items, imagine how it will all look as an “after” shot. Would it be appealing enough to share? The goal is to make every container and storage space inviting, not cluttered, so you actually use them and strive to keep them maintained. Imagine you’re going to post your final results straight to CleanTok, then work toward making something share-worthy, even if it’s just for yourself.