I got completely sidetracked by my own thoughts in my previous post and forgot to actually write about HOW I organize which was basically the main point of my post, haha.
Keep in mind, this is what works for me & may not work for you. The trick is to adapt. Take some of these helpful tips, along with those that you find elsewhere and find a system that works for you.
I set small goals for myself first. Then I set a larger "in the end" goal that I basically forget about until I've tackled every other thing on my list...because its my small goals that lead to the big one.
When it comes to cleaning, organizing and decluttering...my small goals are each individual room and my large goal is to go through every last room, closet, cabinet & drawer until I've done them all.
For the purpose of this post, I'll just keep it simple.
A couple ground rules that I follow:
A) Finish one room completely before moving to another (trust me, stick to it). You don't want to have an entire house of half organized stuff. Finishing a room brings a sense of completion that carries you into the next project. It will slow you down if you're thinking about what you neglected to do in the previous room.
B) If its expired, toss it. If its a bathroom product (i.e. liquid, soap, shampoo, makeup, medicine, etc.) and its more than a year old, toss it. If you haven't touched it, used it or even thought about it in the past year, toss it. Learning to throw things away is CRUCIAL. Sure, that super sparkly blue eyeshadow looked great that one time and sure, I might want to wear blue eyeshadow again someday, but that day hasn't come anytime recently therefore that blue eyeshadow is just waste.
C) Trust your gut. If your gut says "keep it" then do so. You'll do another clean up a year from now and realize you didn't need such & such but keep it if it makes you happy. Don't stress about it. I like to think that if I at least toss about as much as I'm keeping I'm in a good place.
D) Buy good trash bags before even attempting a cleanup. I'm talking the 30 gallon, black, Hefty bags. Challenge yourself to fill at least one trash bag per room (or whatever your particular cleanup calls for).
E) Save your breaks. Nobody *likes* to clean. You'll often get bored, discouraged, frustrated or tired by what you're doing. Keep going. You can take a 5-15 minute break between rooms. Finish the entire room before you stop. Otherwise you'll start feeling like you've been working in the same area ALL day. If you keep the momentum going you can easily tackle one room at a time before taking a break. Believe you can do it.
When I start in any given room of my house I do the following:
1) Pick up any normal clutter and put it where I'd normally put it when I'm cleaning. Working with a clean room to begin with makes me want to strive to get it back to cleanliness after I've dumped everything out and created a big mess. To organize efficiently, you're going to need to make a mess. Forget the windex and wood polish for now. You'll have time for that when the room is decluttered. Give yourself plenty of room to sort.
2) If there is a big task (as in, size matters), do it first. If that means cleaning all your old clothes out of the closet first because they're overflowing and making your workspace difficult to navigate, start there. You'll feel great after you clear out a bunch of larger items and the room will already start to feel lighter.
3) Next, move onto things that annoy you the most. For me, its junk drawers. Any place where random items are accumulating. Why? Because they require more sorting and time devotion. It usually involves a lot of small things that have to be organized. The easiest method I've found is mini piles. I make a mini pile of things that belong in the kitchen, or my son's room or the bathroom. Instead of running every little thing from room to room I can take it all at once. On that note, I also LOVE old shoeboxes for this reason. I usually have one for each room of my house and I bring them with me as I clear room after room. Organizing within organizing, the way someone with OCD would do it.
*HINT* If you're boxing things up and/or have a lot of items you plan on just storing...I suggest using medium sized boxes. I avoid large boxes because I have a tendency to pack them too heavy which defeats the purpose when we're moving if nobody can lift the darn box. Small boxes just mean more to move. A good sturdy medium box means I won't be keeping too much but I'll have room for what I need.
4) Okay, you've done something BIG and you've done something annoying now, right? Now do something easy. Organize something that doesn't require much organization.
5) You should be done or very close to done by this point. If you're still far from your goal, keep pushing. Box after box, tub after tub, until you've sorted through everything in the room.
6) Lastly, clean that room the way a maid would. Wipe down mirrors and windows, polish furniture, clean your baseboards and any smudges off the walls. Wash your bedding if you're in a bedroom. Vacuum, sweep or mop the floors. Give yourself a pat on the back and move on!
In my case this task took me a couple weeks and I'm still going strong. At the end of it I'll haul everything I've purged out of my garage and off to recycling, the dump or Goodwill. Then life will go back to normal.
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