Organize for YOU
Sometimes, I think organizing is portrayed as such a trendy activity that we lose sight of why we are organizing in the first place. Sure, products and aesthetics are all over social media but what is the deep, underlying reason to do this work? I can tell you - it’s for YOU! It’s never easy starting a project when it feels overwhelming or unpleasant. So let’s reframe decluttering from being a painful process to one that is giving YOU physical and mental space. And, let’s remind ourselves that being organized means you have more time and space to focus on what is most important in your life.
To become organized and to do the work to stay organized, we are going to need more than motivation. We will need the skills that keep us working toward our goals. We will also need clear guides to help us ignore the conflicting advice on how we ‘should’ organize and and what we should be purchasing. Start here with these guidelines for the support to eliminate the clutter, reduce the overwhelm and power through the steps to organize your space.
Don’t organize clutter
Decluttering is a separate and distinct step that must be completed before we organize. Too often, I see advice that starts with a product recommendation. Using containers is the very last step in the organizing process. Otherwise, we buy containers to store things that don’t even belong in our homes. In addition, the wrong containers or too many organizing products will actually add to a clutter problem and make it harder to work to organize. The first step to gaining control of a space is to reduce the volume of stuff in it.
Do more with less steps
The best way to finish an organizing project is to STAY in place until it’s organized. When I work with a client, we have the usual categories for KEEP, TRASH, and DONATE but I add one more category “NOT HERE”. It’s a catching area to hold all the things that you need and belong in your home, just not in the space you are currently organizing. Setting these items in a bin outside the space we are working in allows us to keep our focus on sorting, deciding, and organizing rather than walking all over the house and getting distracted. It’s nice to get our steps in but not when we are organizing! Staging these things in a NOT HERE bin is a huge time and step saver and allows us to efficiently put these things away after we’ve completed our project.
It’s okay to ask for Help
We don’t feel bad when we take our car to a mechanic or hire a plumber to fix a clog. Yet so many of us feel like we need to organize ourselves all by ourselves. And so, we may work for hours, buy lots of containers and still feel frustrated when we don’t get the results we hoped for. Shortcuts are a good thing. Shortcuts are how we get things done in less time. Spending a few hours with an expert or having extra hands to move the big things can be just the thing we need to get over the hump.
Know your Value
Remind yourself that YOU have more value than the things in your home. I see clients hold onto literal rooms of items for many reasons. Decluttering means challenging those reasons to see if they are still valid. I often ask clients if an item is worth the effort of keeping it and maintaining it. Your home and the things in your home should serve you right now in the present, not in the past or a ‘maybe’ future. If you find yourself working too hard to maintain your home, it’s ok to be ruthless when decluttering. I once advised a client to walk something out to the trash and to say “You have no power over me” as they tossed it. It was a funny moment but a solid reminder that nothing in your home is more important than your peace of mind.
Beyond buzzwords and influencers, the true value of organizing comes from the freedom it gives us to live well. The end goal of organizing a home is to lower our stress, ease our workload and to allow us to enjoy in our living space. It’s easy to lose sight of the gifts we gain from organization when we are bombarded by conflicting advertising messages! Listening to those messages can take us away from the #1 priority which is YOU. Rather than getting lost in organizing products and confusing advice, remember that the most important thing in your home is YOU. An organized home means YOU live well.