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Yesterday in “Getting Organized: Part 1” we looked into what needs to happen in order to effectively organize a room in our homes. Personally, I’m using this information to get my home office in order, as it’s gotten nearly impossible for me to work in there these days! What we discovered yesterday is that there are some steps to take before we just jump right into the big overwhelming organizing process. Using Julie Morgenstern’s book Organizing from the Inside Out, we explored the idea that before we ever empty a cupboard or move a stack of papers, it’s best to consider our approach. We did this by analyzing and strategizing.
Today’s suggestion for Something Good is to take on the next phase of the organizing: It’s time to attack!
Once you’ve hit the “attack” phase of your organizing project, it’s time to implement another of Julie Morgenstern’s suggestions. She recommends that we use the acronym S.P.A.C.E.
S is for sort:
At this point in the project, you are going to handle every single item in the entire room. Pick it up and ask yourself if you really need it or not to determine its category. Morgenstern recommends keeping your categories pretty broad and grouping like items together. I generally sort into the following categories: keep, sell, store, donate, and trash. You’ll probably want to have subcategories in the “keep” section so that you
can put similar items together.
P is for purge:
This isn’t as difficult as it seems at first glance, because you’ve already handled everything and decided what is going to be thrown out. One place where I get hung up is that I put a bunch of stuff into my “sell” category and figure I’ll have a yard sale soon and make a little extra cash. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a yard sale in about four years, and my basement is filling up with things I plan to sell. It might be best to just bite the
bullet and donate things that I tell myself I want to sell.
A is for assign a home:
Now that you’ve purged the stuff you don’t need, you should have a little breathing room in your space. The next step is to take the items from your “keep” category and give them homes. Review your strategy so that you know where each item should end up in the room. Don’t mix up your categories. If you have a section in your kitchen cupboard for spices, for example, don’t store canned goods in the same section. Most importantly, make sure each item has only one home – one place where it belongs.
C is for containerize:
This is one of those areas where I get really excited. As I mentioned yesterday, I love containers. Whether they’re big Rubbermaid tubs, fancy cigar boxes, empty mayonnaise jars, or drawer dividers, I love them! Having followed all of the steps in this order leaves you with a good understanding of what types of containers you need and the appropriate sizes. So, you won’t waste time and money buying the wrong thing. One of the best parts of using containers is that they automatically limit the amount of stuff you can have in any given category. Do you really need more pencils than you can fit in a pencil box? Probably not.
Oh, and one of my other favorite things is using labels. (I did mention that this is a sickness, right?) In addition to using them on containers, I’ve even labeled the shelves in my kitchen so that my significant other puts stuff away in the right spot!
E is for equalize:
Once you’ve gone through this much work to get organized, it would be a real shame to let it fall by the wayside, wouldn’t it? That’s where equalizing comes into play. This is the time for you to develop a plan for keeping the new organizing system in check. Generally, a five-minute walkthrough each evening to straighten up will really help keep things in order. (That’s what I hear, anyway. Equalizing is my biggest challenge.) About two weeks after you’ve finished the organizing project, evaluate your system and see how it’s working. If things need to be changed, that’s o.k. However, do make sure that you give your system those two weeks. Any type of change takes some getting used to, and it’s easy to dismiss your system as “bad” because you’re just not used to it yet.
There’s no doubt that organizing an entire room is a huge undertaking, but once everything is in its place, the sense of satisfaction is well worth it. Not only will you be doing Something Good by getting your house cleaned up, but you will also end up saving yourself a lot of time and frustration over the long run. Imagine not having to spend 20 minutes rifling through untold numbers of papers each month when you do the bills. Imagine having a
kitchen that is fun to cook in. Imagine what it would be like to have such an easy organization system in place that the kids could help keep their own rooms clean! Depending on the size of your room, even this big project can be done in just a couple of hours, thanks to the analyzing and strategizing you did in advance.
I know these suggestions work, because I’ve used the methods from Organizing from the Inside Out in the past. When we moved into a new home last spring, it became more about just getting those dog-gone boxes unloaded than in creating a usable system. Now, I’ve nearly gone crazy; and I am so ready to take this next step and get some things organized around here. It will truly be Something Good for me, and I hope to have helped encourage
some of you to do the same. |
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