The question I ask all my clients before we start an organizing project is “what is your number one goal for this project?”
The responses range from wanting more efficiency in their space to needing to majorly declutter.
When you’re interested in getting organized, it’s important to remember the 5 S’s or organization.
Staging
Begin by starting with a specific space — you’ll want a good amount of room to select and sort your items before they’re put in their permanent home.
The thing to remember is that organizing is going to make the space look much worse before it get’s better — items all over the floor and you need to have everything out and easy to see!
Selecting
As you’re going through your items, it’s important to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.
The concept itself is simple. The actual process can be difficult.
This can be because of emotional ties to memorabilia or because the volume of things to go through can feel overwhelming!
The best thing to do when you’re trying to tackle some decluttering is to think simply.
Hiring a professional organizer can be helpful because they are unbiased and can help you figure out what really matters enough to keep!
Sorting
The next step is categorization.
After you’ve gone through the “keep – throw away – donate” selection process, you will need to categorize your items.
This is an important step because organization is about making things more efficient — and this means easier to find.
Storing
Everything should have a home.
After everything has been categorized, everything needs to go back on the shelves to be easily found when you need it!
If everything has a home, you’ll never waste time looking for it.
A study conducted by Pixie found the average American loses 2.5 days each year looking for misplaced items in their home.
Another study reported by Newsweek found that each American loses 12 days looking for things!
That’s a lot of time wasted!
Simplifying
Mindset is really important when it comes to organizing AND staying organized. Keep it simple.
Each person is different, so I always think it’s important to keep it simple when it comes to organizing.
If someone was disorganized before, it’s highly likely they will fall back into those same patterns.
We’re just human.
The habits we develop are what we will revert back to.
This is something I’ll dive into more in another blog post — why people are disorganized.
But there’s always hope!
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, try to tackle a small space every day.
Remember to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages for tips and tricks to getting and staying organized!!
Until next time,
Happy Organizing!
