How To Organize
Newsflash: organizing doesn’t come naturally for everybody.
No really, it doesn’t. I know it can feel like that when everywhere you turn Pinterest and Instagram are filled with photos of perfectly organized houses but I promise you this, they all had to work for it, pay a lot of money to get it that way & even if it came naturally, it still took effort. Now I am blessed to naturally be able to organize. It’s in my blood. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn, it just may take a bit of extra work. Today I’m going to be sharing with you some of my tips that I give whenever I’m helping someone who doesn’t have the natural inclination to organize. These may or may not work for you, but it’s a start.
ONE : DEVELOP SYSTEMS
I like to think of systems as a life-hack that works for you. Systems can be anything from how you restock your pantry to how you organize your back-stock of toiletries. The point of a system is that it’s the moving parts working together to operate within your routine, that accommodates your lifestyle and that can always return to a neutral, organized point. Now you do need to keep in mind that everyone’s level of organized is different. The size of your house, how much space you have to organize, the other people you’re sharing space with and what you consider organized is all dependent on you- that’s what you get to decide. My organization may be unattainable to some and someone else’s organization may be chaos to me. The point of systems is that it works for you, with you & because of you. You’ll want to develop systems for everything in your house & stick with it. Going back to when we learned about establishing new habits a few weeks ago, you’ll want to focus on implementing only one system at a time until you know it works. When it does, you’ll add a new system and keep building on it until you’re living in a new household. If you ever find a system has stopped working for you, that’s your chance to redo or modify it to suit your family better. It’s okay if this takes awhile, you’ll eventually find a groove. For instance, when I organized our new pantry, I chose dry goods in one cabinet and canned in another. As we were going throughout life I realized that if I switched the cabinets it would better accommodate the quantity of stock of each type of item we kept in our house and how we utilized them in our kitchen. In this example, we used our cooking oils more than I realized so rather than keep them in the top shelf of the dry goods cabinet I moved them to a turn table in the canned goods cabinet closest to the stove where it would be the easiest to access on a daily basis. This is just a simple example, but you’ll see as you develop systems what works for you and what doesn’t.
TWO: SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
When setting up a system, do it right the first time. Choose an area that is a pain point in your home. Is it the junk drawer? The towel closet? The cabinet under the sink? Whatever it is, take it all out of that space, clean it well, purge any items you no longer need, want or that are expired. Then take what needs be taken out of containers and think about how you can utilize the space best based on what you use the most & the visibility of these items. Think vertical. How can you stack boxes or other containers to best use the space? Utilize like containers that can be stacked or hung easily. Use the sides of cabinets and the backs of doors. Get creative with command hooks! Try & put it back thinking about how to best utilize the space. What do you use the most? Do you have what you typically have or do you usually have more back stock? How can you fit that into that space? Would there be a better space in the house for that item to go where it would be utilized more often? Part of creating systems is thinking through how, when and how often you use an item. Don’t keep an item in the bathroom that you’re always going from your bedroom to get. Figure out how to keep it in your bedroom and maybe switch an item to the bathroom that you don’t use often in the bedroom. See where I’m going with this? Write it out if that works best for your or physically pick up the item and think through where you often think about needing it and walk yourself through the process you have to take to get to it. Figure out the best way to put it back so that you can get to it when you need to. The key is to keep seasonal items in the least accessible place, then back-stock of regularly used items, then your weekly items and finally your daily.
THREE: USE WHAT YOU HAVE
Just because you want to get organized doesn’t mean that it has to look like the Home Edit has just been through your home. Don’t be afraid to utilize containers you already have. It doesn’t all have to be matching, or Pinterest worthy. Not everything is for posting and that is okay. Even if you want it all to match, but don’t have the money to buy those containers right now, don’t let that stop you. Work with what you have and switch out containers later, especially as you figure out what works where and what you would actually need. Keep an eye on the dollar spot at Target or your local Dollar Tree, I’ve found some awesome organizational items for cheap there. Yes, it’s easier to use clear containers but if that’s not an option, label everything! For cheap labels design them in Canva, print it out and tape or clip it to your basket. You can easily switch that out and you don’t have to have a Cricut or mad skills to make it work.
FOUR: YOU GOTTA LET IT GO
The excess of stuff- you’ve got to let it go. I know, I know. I’m a sentimental person. I like stuff. I like to hold on to things that I may one day use, but know realistically, I never will. You gotta let it go. I talked a lot about this in a recent blog post about decluttering- skip to point #5 and you’ll see my whole system: “SIMPLE” on how I decide what stays and what goes. But my point is, only store sentimental items and items you’ll actually use within the year. Donate or trash anything else.
I hope you found this helpful! Remember to start slow and work your way through your whole house and then if you fall in love with it like I did, you can do your car and even your office space.
Happy organizing!