Getting Started on Home Organizing: Take the First Step, Create a Vision
Imagine that a builder decided to build himself a new home. He is so confident in his ability to do this and so eager to get started that he decides to skip the floor plans and blueprints and just go for it. What could go wrong?
Seriously, what could go wrong? Once you think about it, building a home without a plan is a reckless thing to do. Aside from the obvious issues this would cause with local municipalities regarding permits for the build, the door leading to mistakes and miscalculations is left WIDE open without a detailed plan. The builder could be put in a position where he has to undo his work to correct mistakes, wasting time and materials. It would be ridiculous to build a home without having gone through an extensive planning process to determine essential details of the build and design.
Home Organizing Is Like Building a Home
This same logic can be applied to your organizing project. The stakes and consequences are much lower, but the potential for wasting money on the wrong supplies and wasting time correcting mistakes is definitely present. I see it all the time.
Like the builder excited to break ground on his home, homeowners often excitedly begin their organizing project without having considered all of their needs first. Feeling motivated, they go out and purchase lots of fun organizing supplies like bins, files, wall hooks, drawer dividers, decorative baskets, and furniture for storage, only to discover that many of the items they bought aren’t quite right for their actual needs. They either don’t fit the space, don’t fit what they need to store, aren’t sturdy or heavy duty enough, or are total overkill.
It’s a common misconception that you have to spend gobs of money on new supplies to get organized. Your space does not have to be Pinterest-worthy to be functional. Much of what you need you likely already have or can acquire inexpensively secondhand. If you want the Pinterest-worthy end result, go out and purchase those coordinating sets of storage bins after you’ve made some progress, know exactly what you’re looking for, and have the space ready for it. Then, you’ll have direction when shopping and can avoid overspending and wasting time.
Start Your Organizing Project with a Vision
Let’s back up just a little bit. I mentioned that it’s common for folks to jump the gun on purchasing before really considering their needs. Having your needs and ideas accessible for reference will be priceless, saving you time as you move forward and make decisions. Begin your journey with a vision.
Now, I’m not saying that you need to have every detail of this vision decided before you begin. That’s unrealistic. You will likely not be able to determine every one of your needs in your initial planning. In most cases, certain solutions will only reveal themselves after some progress has been made. Be open to that aspect of this creative journey. Start working with what you know.
It can feel uncomfortable, but trust is a big part of the home organizing journey. Trust the creative unknown and trust yourself to be able make informed decisions. Having a plan or a vision will help to establish that trust. So to begin, grab a fresh notebook, a pen, and a tape measure. Go to the room you wish to work on and sit for a moment. If you’re wanting to work on your whole house, then you will do this process for each space. While you’re there, think about what you’d like to see happening there, and how you’d like to feel there. Start with what you know for sure. Consider the following questions:
Will it be a comfortable room for guests?
A gathering space for family?
A playroom for the kids?
A space to be creative?
How do you want to feel in this space?
What are your biggest priorities and must haves?
Write your answers down. I even encourage you to expand on your idea as much as you can. Get specific. Maybe you want to see more floor space, or have fewer piles on the desk. Maybe you want to finally hang up that piece of art you bought years ago. This doesn’t have to be a total redesign of a space. It’s whatever you need, and whatever you want.
A Real-Life Home Organizing Example
My basement includes a second living room area. When my now husband and I moved in, we had come from living with roommates, so we didn’t have enough furniture to fill it…at all. I suppose we were lucky in this way, because we had a fresh slate and not many things to sort through. My vision was for the basement to be the entertainment area where TV, games, and fun activities are stored and enjoyed, and it helped that we inherited a pool table from the previous owners to get us started.
Furthermore, I had a specific vision of my family being here. I had always wanted to have a place to entertain them, should they be out here visiting from the east coast, and this space was perfect. I saw us playing pool, the kids sitting and coloring, my brother and I playing our old favorite video games (he plays now with his daughter, it’s so sweet!). I wanted enough seating for everyone to be here enjoying the entire space comfortably, together.
There were two criteria for the space that I knew right off the bat had to be included. One, the pool table, because I wouldn’t even want to think about what it would take to move that thing. We have to work around that. Two, I knew that it was important to us to be able to see the TV from the treadmill, which is just around the corner. With those guiding elements, my option for furniture placement revealed itself pretty quickly, and my vision came together.
With that vision in mind, we’ve acquired the pieces of furniture necessary to make it happen, along with a few additional elements not in the initial plan (the fun bonuses!). Some pieces I purchased secondhand and came with stories, others came to us for free at the right time, and still others were repurposed from other areas of the house. Not all of it is totally in line with our visual aesthetic, but it’s functional, coordinates in a unique was, and was affordable nonetheless. We chipped away piece by piece with patience, and ended up with a room that we love to spend time in, filled with meaning and intention. We look forward to continuing to add pieces that contribute to the overall comfort and appeal to the space as we grow together.
When we got married, my family was here from New York for a week, and it hit me like a ton of bricks standing in my basement that my vision at that moment had become a reality. It was powerfully reaffirming to realize that I had achieved a goal that I set for myself, and that motivates me to continue taking on projects. Their visit is a wonderful memory that we will cherish, along with some stubborn marker marks on the glass top of the sofa table. My husband and I agreed not to scrub too hard on them just yet. They’re little pieces of the girls still here coloring, and a reminder of the special space we’ve created over time.
