Spring is right around the corner. And with it comes the annual tradition of “spring cleaning” which nowadays begins with decluttering and organizing. If you are one of the many who plan to take part in this annual ritual and would like a few ideas on how to get started, we’ve got you covered.
Here are 8 keys to any successful organizing session:
Determine what being organized means to you.
Everyone has a different picture in their mind of what the word “organized” means. So, you must determine what it means to you. And be realistic. When you think about what your organizing goal is also consider what you can maintain. Social media is plastered with beautifully organized spaces that are too much work to maintain. Do you want to organize to show the space off, or do you want to organize to make your life better. How you answer will determine how you should organize.
Determine what would make the biggest impact.
Now it’s time to determine where to start. Ask yourself. What would provide the greatest improvement to my life if it were better organized? Your answer to that question will give you insight about where to start.
Pro Tip: Start with the area that will give you the greatest sense of accomplishment and provide you with the biggest impact. This achievement will give you the motivation to continue organizing other areas too.
Make the time.
Next, carve out the time needed for your organizing project. Is there a day in the week that is best for you to get started? What time of the day is best?
Pro Tip: The earlier in the day the better! Decision fatigue is real. As the day goes on our ability to make decisions diminishes. So, organizing projects produce the best results when we have the best decision making capabilities – early in the day.
Sort it out.
It’s time to get physical! You’ve created a plan. Now it’s time to execute it. Start by sorting through the items within the space being organized.
Pro Tip: Don’t sort more than what you can organize in one session. Taking on more than you can handle in one sitting is a sure way to tank your motivation to keep going.
Decision time.
This is the part you want to do early in the day. Decide what will you keep, toss, donate and sell from your items.
Pro Tip: Designate a staging area and create piles of each category. Once you’ve completed categorizing all the items go back over your piles and see what you can move from the keep pile to the donate and sell pile. The less you keep the easier it will be to organize and maintain.
The matching game.
For simplicity’s sake, let’s say that you’ve donated your donation pile, you’ve tossed your toss pile, and you’ve sold your sale items. It’s time to focus on your keep pile. Now it’s time to group like items together. If it’s a pantry, you’ll put all the cans together, the cereals together, the snacks together and so on. It’s a lot like playing a matching game.
Pro Tip: No need to get too detailed in this step. There’s no need to put canned vegetables together and canned beans together. Just create major groups like canned goods. You can get down to what we call “micro-organizing” in the next step.
Contain it.
Now that you have like items together you can begin to contain them. First, look at your groups of items and think about how you want to contain them. Think about how you operate. Are you visual? Then maybe you want clear bins. Do you like to read labels? Then use containers with areas for labels to be attached. Once you’ve determined the best way to contain your items then you can place the items in their respective containers.
Pro Tip: Don’t purchase organizing tools like bins, containers and dividers until you’ve placed like items together. Doing so will enable you to purchase what’s needed. This way what you purchase will fit your items instead of your items fitting what you purchased.
Label it.
The last step is to label your areas. This could include, walls, cabinets, shelves, drawers, containers, bins, or any tool used to create organization for your items. Labeling helps us find items quickly and maybe even more importantly – helps us put items back in the designated place. Labeling also helps show others where you want items to be taken from and put back. In a nutshell, labeling is an organizational tool that helps us maintain order once it’s created.
Pro Tip: Consider the application when choosing your labels. Is this a permanent label? Maybe you want something good quality that will last a long time and hold up under its environment. is this a temporary label? These don’t need to be fancy, feel free to write on masking tape if that’s what you have. Just make sure it sticks to the container but will also come off easy when it’s time.
Need help?
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