Getting Started on Home Organizing: Put Your Plan into Action
Last month, we talked about the very first step to getting started with your organizing project: creating your vision. Now that you have a vision to work toward, it’s time to really get started tackling the clutter! Here are a few tips to help you get going.
1. Remove Distractions before Starting to Organize
Although home organizing work isn’t particularly difficult, it can be emotional. It requires you to consider a lot of things when making decisions. Things will go much more smoothly with your undivided attention.
Making decisions, having to assess hypothetical situations, and tuning into your feelings requires a certain clarity of mind. Researchers say it takes anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to fully refocus on a task after a distraction. If the phone is buzzing with notifications, the kids keep coming in asking for things, or you’re trying to sneak in 15-minute blips here and there, you won’t ever really have the chance to get in the zone.
As much as you can, make this time about you and your self care. Turn off the phone, set a playdate for the kids, or coordinate with your partner to be the go-to person for a few hours. Plan your sessions into your calendar so you can make your preparations.
2. Tidy Up to Assess the Contents of the Room
A little straightening up can save you a lot of time as you move forward. Plus,you’ll feel progress in the room immediately. The process of doing this will better acquaint you with what’s in the room and provide an opportunity to group like items together.
There will likely be things that you’ll say right away that you don’t want. Awesome! Go ahead and put them in the donation pile. Getting rid of obvious garbage and recycling right away will also help you focus on what really matters in the room. When you’re done you’ll see improvement, and will have more room to work.
3. Create Your Workspace
Gather your essential supplies, including garbage bags, boxes for donations, ziploc baggies of various sizes to group small things together, sticky notes, and a marker to label things. The tidying up you did initially will be key in creating space for you to work. Having a nice, clear workspace will help you stay focused and motivated. It’ll allow you to really get into the headspace of decluttering without having to interrupt your momentum to get supplies or wonder what to do with certain items. Never underestimate the power of prep!
Additionally, end your session about 15 to 20 minutes before you need to be finished so you can load donations into the car and tidy your workspace for next time. Tying up these loose ends helps your brain to say, “This task is complete. I can be done thinking about it for today and move onto the next thing.”
4. Sort Category by Category
Though not always practical, try to sort and declutter category by category. Why? It’s so much easier to make decisions pertaining to similar items, rather than asking our brain to totally refocus on a different category with every other item we pick up. Again, that’s a distraction that prevents you from getting in the zone. This also helps you see how much of something you actually have.
Additionally, give yourself space to lay things out. If you’re going through a cabinet or set of drawers, go shelf by shelf or drawer by drawer. Empty all the contents, spread them out within your workspace, and go from there. While the shelf or drawer is empty, clean it. That’ll add that extra little bit of freshness to the area, and bust up stale energy.
5. Keep Making Decisions
It’s easy to get hung up on an item we’re not sure what to do with. Donate it? Sell it? Where and how do we do that? Maybe you want to keep an item, but don’t know where it will go yet. You do not have to have all those answers right now. Just decide if it’s staying in your home or not, and then if it’s staying in that room or not. If it’s difficult to answer those questions, put it in the miscellaneous pile. Don’t just put it back where you found it, unless that’s where it’s going to live.
There’s almost always going to be a miscellaneous pile to tackle toward the end. Take the time to make those decisions once the bulk of the room has been addressed. Make the easy decisions. You may even discover mini categories that end up in the miscellaneous pile that make it easier to decide what to do with them. By setting aside the tough decisions for later, your project will progress much faster, and you’ll have a clearer mind when you do address those unknowns.
6. Buy Storage Supplies after You’ve Downsized and Measured
I can’t stress how important it is to know what you’re storing before purchasing containers or other organizational supplies. This is going to save you so much money and time dealing with items that aren’t the right size or configuration for your needs.
When it’s time to shop for storage, take measurements before you buy! Drawer organizers are big culprits of disappointment. Often they are too big, or go together in a way that leaves a lot of odd dead space in the drawer. Test with what you have on hand. Jewelry boxes and cell phone boxes make great drawer organizers, or even just strips of heavy duty cardboard. You can use them temporarily to get your space functional, then go out and replace them with something nicer, if you want. At least you’ll know more clearly what you need and what size it’ll need to be.
7. Be Purposeful
Don’t just put things someplace for the sake of putting them somewhere. Place them somewhere with deliberate purpose, where it ultimately will be helpful. Take pride in your space and make it feel intentional. It may be that not everything that’s in the room will stay there. Think about the prime real estate around the room and what things really ought to be there over others. When we take time to really think about how we will be functioning in the room and arrange our environment with intention and purpose, we increase our chances of loving the space in the end, and feeling motivated to maintain it.
Every organizing project is unique! These tips can be applied broadly across the board to help you be successful in your journey toward a more functional and supportive space. It is absolutely okay to ask for help, too! Get in touch with Sorted Stones today.