Start Organizing like a Pro with these Six Steps


1. Identify a Space

Focus on organizing just one space at a time. As you will soon see, the organizing process is actually quite messy and things may look worse before they get better. What is more demotivating than starting multiple organizing projects, upending your home, and being even more overwhelmed than when you began? Instead, concentrate your efforts and isolate the project to one area. Tackling one space at a time also means completing that one space faster than if had you split your time between multiple areas. The excitement, pride, and relief of completing one space will likely energize and motivate you to continue onto another, like a domino effect.

I recommend starting with a small space. When choosing which space to start with, take into consideration the scope of the space and the impact of the finished project.

Scope

The scope of a project is an estimate of the amount of time and energy it will take to complete. For example, tackling the junk drawer in your kitchen has a smaller scope of work than reworking your entire pantry. Try to identify a space with a scope of work smaller than your available time window so it can be completed.

Impact

The impact of a project is what you gain once it is complete. This will vary from space to space and person to person. Maybe organizing your kitchen will enable you to prepare meals more quickly, leaving more down time for relaxation in the evening. Maybe corralling the clutter on your bathroom counter will make it easier to clean, reducing your frustration of regularly looking at a dirty counter (anyone else out there ever rage clean?!).

Here are two exercises to help you identify a space that will have the most impact for you. First, think through your daily routine, or do this actively throughout your routine. Think about which parts of your routine stress you out the most. Perhaps your day gets off to a rough start every morning because your family is scrambling around trying to find their bags, keys, and that one shoe that always seems to go missing. Or maybe you’re having an excellent day, but when it comes time to sit down to dinner your kitchen table is covered in papers and now meal time has gone from a fun family gathering to a chore.

2. Gather

Now that you’ve identified the space you want to organize, it’s time to start. This is the part where things are likely to look worse. Remove everything from the space. Yes, everything. Even if you know you want to keep that blender where it is. Take. it. Out. You must commit to this step to fully reap the benefits of the organizing process.

As you pull things out of the space, feel free to get a jump start on step 3 – bag up any obvious trash and move like items into piles. Work within a separate large area of free space from what you’re organizing. This may be a different room, it may be the floor, it may be a table or a bed…

If you start to freak out “Oh no, what have I done?”, please know this means you’re probably on the right track. Don’t stop now, keep going!

3. Sort

Now that everything is pulled out and you can see it all, sort everything into groups of similar items or categories. What qualifies as “similar” will depend on what you have and how you use it. Someone with lots of shoes may go super specific and sort into heels, flip flops, etc. whereas someone with only a few pairs of shoes will go macro and group all shoes together. One person may sort their paper plates into their dinnerware category because they use them all the time, another person may sort their paper plates into a party category because they only get used when hosting events.

4. Purge

Generally the most overwhelming step of organizing, it’s time to pare down what you have. If you’re looking to declutter and make more space, 9 times out of 10 that means removing some of the items from the area. It isn’t physically possible to create a bigger space (unless you’re doing a remodel, lucky you!). Instead, the way to get more space is by taking items away. Now, you don’t have to go crazy here. Sure, the more you get rid of, the bigger the impact. However, the real goal here is to keep within your space only belongings of importance and function to you. Purge what isn’t serving you and your goals.

A common method for purging is the four pile system – one each for discard, donate, relocate, and keep. Of course, you may wish to further split discard into trash vs. recycling, and split donate into donate vs. sell, etc.. The keep pile are items that you will be putting back into the space you are organizing. The relocate pile are things that you are keeping but they belong somewhere other than the space you are currently working in. Do not move these items to their proper homes as you find them, this will slow you down and derail your progress on the identified space. Instead, store them off to the side and put them away at the end of your organizing session.

Important for momentum and not regressing is to complete the removal process as soon as possible. Any items not being kept should be taken care of and not just moved around. For example, at the end of your organizing session, move all trash out to your trash bin. Place all donate items into your car, to be dropped off the next time you run errands. Designate a limited, confined place for storing items you want to sell (i.e a storage tote). Date the container. If you haven’t sold them in x weeks, consider donating them instead. You won’t recoup any money, but you will regain space and space = sanity and your sanity is priceless!

5. Contain

This is the step most people probably envision when they think of organizing. How many times have you come across a cute storage container and grabbed it, thinking it was the solution to finally get you organized. And yet, you’re reading this blog post 😉 The ‘secret’ that professional organizers want everyone to know is that you should buy containers only after you’ve completed the above steps. First, you may not even need to purchase new containers. You may be able to repurpose what you already have or make do without containers. If you do wish to purchase containers, you will want to make sure they fit your items and space. In order to measure your space for fit, it is best to empty it first (thank you step 2!). In order to know what you need the containers to fit, you need to know what you’re keeping and grouping together (thank you steps 3 and 4!).

Here’s a handy resource for finding containers that fit: http://findorganizersthatfit.com/

You may also add labels at this step. Map out your items, containers, and space for efficiency. Where do you want everything to live. Finally, place your newly organized items and containers back into your space and stand back and marvel at what you’ve accomplished!

6. Maintain and Adjust

You now have this awesome organized space! How much more awesome would it be for it to continue? Maintenance is key. An organized space is only as good as its maintenance. Throughout steps 1 through 5, you should be thinking about and optimizing for a system that will be manageable for you to maintain. We don’t always get it right on the first try, or sometimes our needs change. If a system isn’t working for you, don’t be afraid to switch it up. That is part of the process. Do what works for you!


Read on to learn how working with a professional organizer can further enhance your organizing project.


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