Home Organization 101

Tips for Getting Organized

A disorganized home can make you feel stressed out, anxious and overwhelmed. Often times the clutter can become so overwhelming, knowing where to start can be so daunting you may never begin. Use our home organization 101 article to get you on the right track. Whether the disorganization of your home is habitual, situational or simply historical that does not matter. The decluttering journey does not have to be as overwhelming as some make it out to be.

Home organization can help you simplify and unclutter your life. With less stuff around, you will ultimately find that a weight has been lifted! Remember; a place for everything and everything in its place! This is where home organization begins and ends.

An organized home is a comfortable home and a comfortable home is a happy home!

So kick off the New Year right with our simple and easy to follow tips, on how you can make your home an organized home…

Decluttering

A home becomes disorganized when there is too much clutter. A talented craftsman, designer and poet William Morris once said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Simply put, if it is not useful or beautiful then it is clutter.

To fully understand how to declutter your home you must first understand what clutter is. Clutter is anything and everything that does not have its own place… or put simply, it is ANYTHING that is disorganized. Clutter is anything that you do not need, too much stuff in a small place and can take many forms including too many clothes in one drawer, too many items on a desktop, too much stuff on a counter top, too much furniture and so on.

How Clutter Piles Up

Clutter collects when things are not put away. Files or paperwork that have not been filed in your filing cabinet, shoes left at the front door or in the hallway, unopened/opened mail sitting on your counter top or kitchen table, clothes sitting out on a couch and so on. Anything in your home that is disorganized or untidy is clutter.

So the question is, how does one declutter their home?

Tips for Getting Organized

Whether your home has begun to look like a storage room or is simply disorganized, now is the perfect time to purge, declutter and refresh your home. Home organization begins and ends with a place for everything and everything it its place. With this in mind we offer you some tips on how to get organized:

Prioritize

• Make a List: (Slow and Steady Progress) make a list of every room that needs work
  • Follow a list
  • Make your list in order of priority
  • When as you complete a room, check it off the list
• Make a Plan & Set Aside Time: Make a plan and stick to it
  • Set Time Aside: (Schedule Decluttering Sessions)
  • Decluttering your home will take time
  • Set a schedule
  • Whether it is one hour each day or even every other weekend until you are done
  • By sticking to your plan you will make progress
  • Staying Motivated: By committing time to the process you strengthen motivation by working towards a goal
  • Action will always result in an outcome

Be Realistic

• Start in ONE Area: choose an area or room
  • One Area/Room: start in one room or even in one area of the room
    • Be realistic with your time and
    • It may take a few hours depending on how big your decluttering project is
      • Grab a few storage boxes
      • A giveaway box
      • A box of items you want to sell
      • A box for items that belong in another room of your home
      • And a trash bag
      • Remember; if it is broken, obsolete or redundant get rid of it

Cluttered Areas

• Common Areas: Here is a list of areas that are known for being the most cluttered areas and tips on what you can do
  • • Counter Tops: remove everything you do not use
      • Sort through items that will stay in the room and find a place for them
    • Kitchen Tables: It goes without saying; a kitchen table is an area where you eat
      • Remove anything other then a few table settings for aesthetics
    • Shelves: Get rid of things you do not want like old books gathering dust
      • If you don’t use, remove it
    • Drawers: Junk drawers, really? WHY?
      • If you truly want to declutter your home there should be no such thing as a junk drawer
      • Drawers no matter where they are should match the room they are in
      • As an example, a bathroom a drawer might consist of essentials like a toothbrush, dental floss, and tooth paste

Closets

• If you have any closets filled with items you never use
• Remove anything you do not use
  1. Gather all the clothes, shoes and accessories you never wear and donate them
  2. Look for places that will pick your items up
  3. Get a receipt and use as a write off for charitable donations
  4. If you have a few closets make them have a focus
  5. As an example, it is is summer there is no need for a winter closet
  6. If you love shoes like some do
  7. Investing in a closet organizer
  8. This will reduce clutter in any closet

Cabinets

• Remove old items
• Items older than 3 months
• Remove old towels
• Dishes
• Pots or pans
• And donate them
• Old food well is a no brainer
• Check the dates of everything
• Then organize and group items together 

Do Not Stop

• Until everything in your home has a place
• When you are done using something, put it back

An organized home is a comfortable home and a comfortable is a happy healthy home…