So You Want to Get Organized!
Getting organized is one way to drastically improve your quality of life, decrease your stress, save you money AND increase your productivity! If you have made "getting better organized" one of your New Year's Resolutions here are some strategies to help you get control of all that stuff: CARVE OUT THE TIME.
Allot yourself a certain amount of time to work.
If the project is big, schedule time to work in chunks and put the time into your calendar/planner.
Keep that appointment with yourself.
FOCUS on one area at a time.
Pick a location that is bothering you the most.
Then narrow that space down even further; to a closet or drawer or corner.
Start small.
SORT.
It's very easy to start cleaning out a space and either find something that goes someplace else or find something you haven't seen in a long time and get completely distracted, losing track of time.
Have boxes or bags ready and labeled (DONATE, TRASH, GOES ELSEWHERE, etc.
) to contain these random items.
Leave time at the end of your organizing session to put these things away, don't interrupt yourself dealing with them one at a time.
DECIDE.
Every space, container, and room in your home or office should be designated as a home for something.
Base what goes into a space on what activity that space needs to support.
Clutter occurs when things don't have a home or have outgrown their home.
You have only 2 choices at this point; either purge the collection or assign that collection a bigger space.
WORK BACKWARDS.
This technique is especially helpful in an extremely cluttered space.
Instead of leaving things in the space and removing what you don't think belongs, take everything out.
Now, based on what you've decided needs to be kept in this space, starting putting back those top priority items.
This way, you can be sure that what really needs to be in that space is there and anything additional will be determined by whatever room remains.
CONTAINERS.
Once you've determined what you want in the space, you can organize your smaller items further with containers.
I don't recommend going out and buying a bunch of organizing containers until you know what you're keeping, otherwise you'll end up cluttered with containers! Clear bins are best for hidden storage but there are plenty of choices for great-looking containers.
MAINTAIN.
Here is where the wheels tend to fall off the bus.
No space can be left unattended and remain organized.
Revisit those frequently used spaces to bring them back to the order you worked so hard at creating.
Desks should be addressed every couple of days, closets, 3 or 4 times per year, garages, spring and fall, etc.
Develop some new habits and you will be well on your way to better organization!
Allot yourself a certain amount of time to work.
If the project is big, schedule time to work in chunks and put the time into your calendar/planner.
Keep that appointment with yourself.
FOCUS on one area at a time.
Pick a location that is bothering you the most.
Then narrow that space down even further; to a closet or drawer or corner.
Start small.
SORT.
It's very easy to start cleaning out a space and either find something that goes someplace else or find something you haven't seen in a long time and get completely distracted, losing track of time.
Have boxes or bags ready and labeled (DONATE, TRASH, GOES ELSEWHERE, etc.
) to contain these random items.
Leave time at the end of your organizing session to put these things away, don't interrupt yourself dealing with them one at a time.
DECIDE.
Every space, container, and room in your home or office should be designated as a home for something.
Base what goes into a space on what activity that space needs to support.
Clutter occurs when things don't have a home or have outgrown their home.
You have only 2 choices at this point; either purge the collection or assign that collection a bigger space.
WORK BACKWARDS.
This technique is especially helpful in an extremely cluttered space.
Instead of leaving things in the space and removing what you don't think belongs, take everything out.
Now, based on what you've decided needs to be kept in this space, starting putting back those top priority items.
This way, you can be sure that what really needs to be in that space is there and anything additional will be determined by whatever room remains.
CONTAINERS.
Once you've determined what you want in the space, you can organize your smaller items further with containers.
I don't recommend going out and buying a bunch of organizing containers until you know what you're keeping, otherwise you'll end up cluttered with containers! Clear bins are best for hidden storage but there are plenty of choices for great-looking containers.
MAINTAIN.
Here is where the wheels tend to fall off the bus.
No space can be left unattended and remain organized.
Revisit those frequently used spaces to bring them back to the order you worked so hard at creating.
Desks should be addressed every couple of days, closets, 3 or 4 times per year, garages, spring and fall, etc.
Develop some new habits and you will be well on your way to better organization!
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