Five Steps to Start Organizing

Organizing Broken Down Into Five Steps

Organizing can be broken down into five main steps. Organizing a desk, room or home can be completely overwhelming. Where do you start? What do you do with everything? How much will it cost?

So often we don’t do anything because we don’t know how to do it, or it seems too “big” to do anything. But to do nothing accomplishes nothing.

Step 1: Pick your target zone.

Decide what area you want to work on first. Don’t say, my whole house. More like; I want to work on the desk in the corner of the family room. The hard part when you get sorting is to stick to that target zone. You can’t take an item into another room to put away, because then you will see something in that room that you want to move and you will lose focus.

Step 2: Set an appointment on your calendar to start your project.

Try to give yourself at least 2 hours to start your project. Hopefully if you haven’t started too big you can finish. Take “before” pictures. When you finish and take your “after” pictures, it will help to keep you motivated to not let it get back the way it was before.

Step 3: Have your supplies ready to start.

Do not go out and buy a bunch of organizational products. You do not know what you are going to need yet. You may have it somewhere in your home.
I suggest getting
1) Black trash bags for trash
2) White trash bags for donate (so you don’t throw away your donate bags.)
3) Boxes or clear bins
4) Labels – masking tape can do the job and a sharpie marker.
5) Your sorting lists

Step 4: Make Sorting Lists

Just get any piece of paper and a marker and write this on each one:
1) KEEP – Love it, wear it, use it, Can’t live without it
2) DONATE- Don’t like it or use it, doesn’t fit, it is still in good shape.
3) MOVE – It doesn’t belong in this room
4) STORE – Seasonal items, occasional use like camping or skiing equip etc.
5) TOSS – Trash, torn, broken, missing pieces, not in any shape for anyone to use.

Step 5: Start Sorting

Each item in the space needs to be decided on. You have to make fast decisions. Give yourself about 5-10 seconds for each thing. Do not sit and recall memories for each item, or start looking at old pictures. When you do that you are “personalizing” that item. The goal here in order to get through these things is to “depersonalize” the items.  For some extra help, you can read my post on the 5 steps for sorting

 

Organizing Mission Monday – Mission: Office Week 8

This Week We’re Working On Paper!

This week on Organizing Mission Monday I am going to be concentrating on all that Paper clutter we have to constantly deal with.

But here is a list of the Mission: Office posts that I have done so far:

1) Your Files
2) Your Mail System
3) The Shredder
4) Pen & Pencil Clean Out
5) Organizing Your Desk Drawer
6) My Office – Before
7) My Office – After
8) Shelf Organizing
9) Organizing Sales from Home
10) Office Chair

Please visit my Featured Bloggers for this Week:

Featured bloggers please pick up the “Proud To Be Featured On Organizing Mission Monday” button

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Talking Dollars and Cents – 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge

Alexandra tackles her files!  Now she is ready for her taxes! lol

My Chaotic Home – Home Management Binder

Patty did a great job making a Home management binder.  I love her her page that she made up for who she does this for.

A Tall Drink of Water – Office Makeover … well, sort of

Rachel reorganized her office in her bedroom.  Working with a small space is really hard to do.  Check out how she lined her drawers and made her space look great.

Thank you featured bloggers.. don’t forget to pick up your button above!

Link up to my Link Party

Rules- Just a couple basic ones. Your link doesn’t have to be office related, just organizing… but I will be looking for the office related on this Office Mission for my Featured Bloggers.

This link party is continuous for the Mission: Office series. It is open until Feb. 24, 2011.  Feel free to add more links as long as they are to the specific post and organizing related.

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1) Link to your specific post – not your blog
2) Link back to my blog with my button or link (cuz it’s just linky nice)
3) I’d love if you’d follow me on google and/or FB. The google is new and I’m trying to build it
4) Blog post related to Organizing or Cleaning
5) Family friendly
6) No sales pitches or web sites.
7) If I feature you I will use one or more of your pictures with a link back to your blog!

Be sure to check out my list of link parties! If you have a link party.. please link it up! Underneath the daily buttons there is a list of links I have compiled of link parties.

If you are confused how my Organizing Missions link party is set… check out the agenda here.

If you aren’t sure how to link up… see my link party tutorial here. It is simple.

This is a continuous link party until the 24th of Feb! Feel free to link up other posts, even if you have already left a post.

Organizing: How to Get Started

Getting Started can be the Hard part of Organizing!

But this is actually the 3rd step in my process to Organize a space. The first step is to Visualize and Plan out your space. Then your next step is to know how to sort and make your sorting cards.
Now you are ready to actually walk into that room and tackle the clutter. This is the scary step. I know… you look at that pile of stuff and think…”There is No Way!!”. But guess what? “Way!”. You can do it!
Just little by little. If you try to jump in and don’t have a plan or know what you are going to do with things… .then you might have more of a problem.  Don’t forget that when you start working on one room… you can cause a bit of a “domino effect” and have some mess build up in another room that you are moving things too.  Don’t let that stop you. It is just a part of the process and once you have one room under way or finished… you will get inspired to keep going. It will just feel so good to have your space back again.
Hopefully my video will give you a little guideline to go on too. But if you have the Sorting process down, then the rest of it is just going through each item. Just pick up that first item…and start.

Here is another post I did awhile ago on Getting Started to Organize . You might see some things there that I didn’t mention in the video that might help you.

Please let me know if you have questions.  I will do my best to help you answer them… just leave them in the comments, or you can contact me via contact form to ask me.

Organizing: Visualizing the Room

Step 1 in Organizing a Room is to Visualize what you want the Room to Look Like When Finished

You can use visualizing a practice in many areas of your life. When it comes to organizing, it can really be a useful tool.  Having an end goal can make the process much easier and less stressful.

If you dive into a cluttered room without any kind of plan….it is hard to know what the outcome will be.  If you go in with a plan of how you want this space to look when you are completed, it makes the process easier.
How does it make it easier?  One big way is that when you are sorting through all the stuff in that room, when you come upon an item that you just don’t know what to do with… it can help if you have a plan. For instance – Let’s say you have this huge stuffed animal that your husband won for you at a fair 15 years ago. It is in the corner of the room, with clothes draped over the top. You haven’t even actually seen him for what seems like years – but when you finally uncover it…all those memories come flooding back.  How happy you were that he spent all that money trying to win that for you, walking through that amusement park with people looking at you asking how you won that huge animal.  Trying to figure out how to even fit it in your compact car…   But – will this huge stuffed animal fit in your new space?  That corner that it sits in is going to have a storage cubby unit that will house all your scrap booking paper.  This is where the rubber meets the road.    You realize that he won’t fit. Then of course you try to figure out if there is another place in the house for him.  If there is and you really have the space…then keep him.  But my suggestion would be to let someone else have some time to enjoy him too. Donate him – a nursery at church, preschool room etc…  But be sure to take some good pictures of him first.  Even take one of you and your now husband with him… then you will still have those memories.

When you have a plan in place – then it can make those hard decisions much easier. You go back to what you visualize and decide if that item fits into the plan you have for the space.  If not…. get it out of that room.

Organizing One Step at a Time

It doesn’t have to be hard to Organize, just break down the steps

You have now blocked out that time on your calendar to Get the Job Done.

What is the next step?  Get Prepared for that day.  How?

Try and decrease distractions.
I suggest black and white trash bags.  Black for trash, White for donate.

Change the mind set.

Stop thinking about it as drudgery, but think of it as organized space coming!

So crank up the music and get in the mood to have an uncluttered area….use positive thinking here.  Visualize what you would like the space to look like.  Think how good it is going to feel when you have accomplished the task.

Start with sorting.

Each item has to be looked at and a quick decision has to be made.

Keep – Do you USE it, do you LOVE it, does it FIT?
Donate – Don’t like it, Doesn’t fit, Don’t use it, Still in good shape
Move – It doesn’t belong in this room. Move out of this space.
Store - Use it but only once or twice a year. Holidays, camping etc.
Pitch – Broken, in no shape to donate (recycle if possible)

Clean

You should have less to put back in your space now.  This is the time to clean out those cupboards or the space good. It isn’t very often that it is probably empty.

You can measure the space to see what kind of organizers you may need (if any). It isn’t a good idea to go out and buy a bunch of organizers unless you have already measured the space and have an idea of what you need.  If you do not want to waste the time here and have an idea of what you think will work, please make measurements before you buy anything.  Then keep your receipts so that you can take the item back if it doesn’t fit or work like you thought it would.

Organize – A few tips

Now put the items that you are going to keep back.

Remember:  Like with Like!
Keep the cans together in your kitchen. Keep the extra office supplies together in your office. Don’t have some of this and some of that in the space.

Zones
Think in zones for your space.  What do you do?  For instances…in an office.  Your Zone A or zone 1 would be the space around your desk chair and desk that you can reach. Things you use daily and often, such as your phone, your pens, your stapler and letter opener.

In your kitchen you can do the same. For instance for your stove area, you should have your pot holders within reach of your stove. Your pots and pans should be near your stove.  For your dishwasher, your plates and glasses should be near it if possible.  Decrease steps when making the space functional.

Have fun organizing and let me know how you feel after a space is done.  It is like a “feel good” moment for me!

Target Zone

Stay in your Target Zone

When you are trying to organize a room, what is one big stumbling block?  For many it is getting side tracked. You pick up a basketball that doesn’t belong in the kitchen and walk it out to the garage where it does belong. Then what happens? Let me tell you…..

You see what a mess the garage is and get over whelmed and think you need to work on it.  You pick up the new package of toilet paper that got left in the garage to take it up to the bathroom.  You get to the bathroom and screek because it is such a mess and the tub has a ring around it and the kids left the toothpaste on the floor without a lid on it. So you grab your supplies to clean the tub….and so on and so forth.  Well, forget ever getting back to that kitchen today….and so your kitchen has made no progress.   So what is the solution to organizing without “drifting”.  Stay in your Target Zone.

What is a Target Zone?

Your Target Zone is the area you are working in.  That room, or area or small space that you have designated “I’m going to organize THIS today”.  Once you leave your target zone you are open to anything and everything that grabs you and pulls you away from your mission.  When you are in “organizing mode” usually you are ready to go and your mind is in …”Let’s get this Done” gear.  So everywhere you look you see things that you need to work on.  We want to do it all Right Now.  But that isn’t possible.

How Do I stay in my Target Zone?

It is actually easier said than done when you are organizing. Like I said there are going to be items that do not belong in the space you are working.  What you need to do before you start is set up a box or a  bin.  You have your sorting cards to help you sort your piles, but for your “move to another room” card…you will need a box, or two.  Rather than taking that basketball to the garage, simply put it in the box that goes somewhere else.  Then you are not leaving your Target Zone.  It will help you tackle the space you are working on.  Focus is the key. You are focusing on one space right now.

Results of staying in your Target Zone

The main result is that you will have an organized space in the place you have targeted to accomplish that day.  But you will end up having a box or pile of other items that you have to find homes for.  Allow yourself time at the end of your organizing of your Target Zone to take that box and drop off the items in the rooms or places that they belong.  An easy thing to do it to leave that box sitting full of stuff and you have another mess.  I just had someone recently leave me a comment that she had a similar box that she cleared out of one room and stuck in her laundry room (I think). She ended up leaving it there for 2 years and was saying she had to go back and go through it.  My comment to her was that if she has not missed the items in that box for 2 years….it is time to get rid of the entire box.

Think Target Zone

Think Target Zone when you go to organize your next area.  Even make yourself a sign that says it.  STAY IN THE TARGET ZONE!  You can even make it a little game with yourself. When you are tempted to go take something to another place…say to yourself, “Oh, I can’t go out of my Target Zone!”, and stay put.  Just put that item in your “move to another room” box.

Book Review

1-2-3…Get Organized Mini Books

by Beverly Coggins

Beverly Coggins is a professional organizer and has written several mini books to help people get organized easily. These are easy to read books and are brief but cover a magnitude of information! Her years of experience as a professional organizer gives her insight and many tips that can help even an experienced organizer.
She has mini books and ebooks available. Here are a few of what she offers:
*Three Steps to Time Management in the Office
*Three Steps to Time Management for the College Student
*Three Steps to Decluttering
*Three Steps to Downsizing to a Smaller Residence
and many more.

Each book is divided into 3 chapters. This is the general breakdown.
1) Saying good-bye to unnecessary items
2) Rearranging your area (whatever area she is writing about)
3) Maintaining the system or area and keeping it organized.

Pros:
*The books are colorful and fun to read
*They are full of good information
*The are simple and not overwhelming for anyone.
*Even a child would be able to read and understand them.

Cons:
*They are so cute and small that someone might feel they aren’t getting a full book of knowledge when they first receive them. (This isn’t really a con because once they read them they will realize how much valuable information is actually in this small book. More than enough to organize the job they wanted!!)

Beverly has offered for me to give you a chance to win 3 of her mini books!
Three Steps to Organizing your Kitchen,
Three Steps to Organizing your Child’s Room
Three Steps to Organizing your Office

To buy these and many other items you can visit Beverly’s web site at
www.1-2-3getorganized.com