What’s next?

After doing a few trouble spots of organizing in the house, what is next?  (see last week’s blog for details) 

My spots were the pantry and a kitchen cabinet.  And I feel better already! 

You can keep going and hit a few more small spots.  It’s an easy way to feel a sense of progress and success.  Also, you will be learning your style of organizing.  This is important when you get to the bigger stuff.  To know how you clean out and how throwing things out and moving things around affect you will be important when you get to emotionally charged things. 

So, what about organizing style?  It may seem, by watching home improvement shows or reading magazine articles, that there is a right way to get organized.  But there are SO many different styles of getting through all the stuff and finding a system that works for you. 

The most important thing is to find an organizing system that works for you is that it is easily maintained.  But here are a few basic principles to keep in mind: 

•  Find a spot/home for everything – nothing lands and stays randomly

•  Keep surfaces mostly clear

•  Pair down enough so that things can “breathe” - aka you can see everything!

•  Group like-items together

You might not be a labeling person – and that’s ok!  You might love storage boxes or baskets.  You might like to hang things on the wall (going vertical is a great way to use space).  I love to label, and I like to contain things.  But you might like open shelving and easy access to items.   What you want to find…is all your stuff!   

You want to find a system for you that you can maintain.  There will probably be an initial purge.  But after that, there needs to be a plan for things that enter the house.  And this can be for each area as you get to work on them – different plans for different areas of the house.  The plan will change over time.  And the plan will be forgotten.  And cleaning out will happen again.  But getting to know how this system works for you in YOUR house will help in the future.  It’s best to not just throw everything out (even though, some days, I just want to do that) – it’s going to be a slow-going and sometimes frustrating process.  Yikes!  Who want to start now?!  Yay?  But it’s like a diet – you need something that will work long term.  A crash diet will work short term, but it’s hard to maintain and there is major burn out quickly.  To be organized in the home is to find a “stuff diet” that works – and can keep working. 

The goal should be that you are using your home and storage areas to have the things you need and know where it all is and have easy access to it when you need it.  I am going to be on this organizing journey too.  I like to do it – but sometimes it just NEEDS to get done!  Organizing is an ongoing project.  Things are always coming in the house and need a home.  And if the stuff that’s already here doesn’t have a home, where is the new stuff going to go? 

So I am going to be tackling some big areas in the near future…  There’s a room in my house that has been catching stuff all summer (and for the past 4 years) – and there are so many things that I need in that room, that I think are in that room, and I have no clue where they are.  Or I have to move stuff out of the way to access them.  And it’s driving me crazy.  It wastes my time.  It results in duplicate stuff.   And the time is now… or at least very soon!  

Let’s get started

So the weekend is almost here, fall routines are finally kicking in and the house still seems to be disorganized.  The relaxed and haphazard days of summer are long gone, but now the fall stuff is sitting on TOP of all the summer stuff in the house.  Those “summer” projects are still sitting there – that room, those shelves – that were going to get to before school started are still there.  And now things that have come in the house for school, for fall, for later - are now piled on top of those undone projects.  So how do you dig out of that?  How do you get motivated?  How do you get started, if NOW is the time to get organized?

Start Small. 

Pick something small to start with – I suggest a drawer.  Now, which one?  Find a drawer (or even a small cabinet) that is just bugging you.  It could be a desk drawer, or one in your bedside table.  Maybe even a kitchen drawer, like the utensil drawer.  Here are my criteria on what to pick for that first “get you going” project:

1.     Pick a small area that can be started and completed within 30 minutes or less. 

2.     Pick an area that is used often and would benefit from a quick emptying, purge and cleaning. 

3.     Pick a spot that will give you high impact after it is done – this is good encouragement for your brain to continue the process and pick the next spot! 

4.     Pick a place that is “neutral” – meaning no emotional items or hard choices need to be made.  

One place you may have that you might want to start would be a “junk” drawer in the kitchen (or in my case, a junk spot).  My advice is save that one for a little later.  It could turn into an archeological dig that might stir up emotions and would probably take longer than you think.  This spot is usually the “save for later” spot.  There is a reason that so many things land here.  It’s where things go that have hard decisions with them.  Should I keep it or not?  Where should I keep it?   How about here for now…  Save this drawer for a little later in the process!! 

A good place to start in the kitchen, if that is where you are motivated to be, is the pantry OR fridge.  Most items are easy to make decisions on.  Has it gone bad?  Are we going to eat this?  It’s a great way to clear out and make a huge impact!   Another one is the utensil drawer.  It’s pretty easy to do and just a clean and straighten can make opening that drawer more pleasant! 

So once you decide your spot – and set aside your time to do it – get going.  Because this small accomplishment will get you motivated to attack that corner of your closet.  Or that junk drawer which might be next… 

What do you want to be?

What do you want to be when you grow up?
 I don’t know if I really ever had an answer for that.  When I was a kid, I guess I probably said something like a nurse or whatever came to mind at the time.  When I went to college, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a physical therapist – but things happened and my path was changed.  That’s a whole other story, but I ended up just where I was supposed to be – it didn’t make sense at the time, but what things like that DO make sense?   So I thought about what I wanted to do – what did I want to be now that I was pretty much grown up?  I was married, so I knew exactly what I wanted.  I wanted to be a mom.  Well, it wasn’t so easy for me.  Through many struggles, hopes, longings, heartaches and joys, I am now a mom!  What do I want to be?  A Mommy!
 And once again, I’m asking that question.  What do I want to be, now that my kids are growing up?  They are still so very little, but I want to put in practice now, doing something that I love.  So, what do I love?  I love organizing.  I like cleaning out, making systems and rediscovering stuff I thought I’d lost or space that I didn’t think I had!  It’s energizing to me!
I also love writing.  Journaling and blogging (when I make the time) really bring me joy, bringing out the creative parts in my brain.  The day-to-day life of moms with young kids can sometimes wear down those creative juices, so I’m working on bringing them back!
 I want to be doing something with organizing – helping people, helping myself!  So I’m starting a blog about organizing!  Instead of waiting for something to happen in the future, I’m jumping in the way I can right now!  I’m going to work on cleaning out and organizing spaces and stuff in my house.  I’m going to share tips, goals, ideas, fun ways to get organized and successes that I have at my own house!