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 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!

Five Steps for Organizing

Organizing a basement, 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 at all.
But to do nothing accomplishes nothing.

Step 1: Pick your target zone.
Decide what area you want to work on first. Do not 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 something to put away into another room, 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 by accident)
3) Clear bins with lids or boxes
4) Labels – masking tape can do the job and a sharpie marker
5) Your sorting lists

Step 4: Make Sorting List
Get a 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 – Do not like it or use it, doesn’t fit, it is still in good shape and someone can use it.
3) MOVE – It doesn’t belong in this room.
4) STORE – Seasonal items, occasional use (camping, skiing equip. etc)
5) TOSS – Trash, torn, broken, missing pieces, not in any shape for anyone else.

Step 5: Start Sorting
You need to make a decision on each item in the space you are organizing. You have to make fast decisions. give yourself about 5-10 seconds for each item. Do not sit and recall memories for each thing, or start looking at old pictures. When you do that you are “personalizing” that item. The goal here is to “depersonalize” these things in order to get rid of them.

Once you get started, it will get easier and the feeling you get when you are finished with your first project will spur you on to do more.

I have posted this before, but with different pictures. This is a basic post that I will post periodically to help new readers.