Getting organized can be overwhelming. Here are 8 simple steps you can take that’ll make a real difference. As you read on, check out the difference between the fantasy of being perfectly organized (overwhelming) and the realistic actions you can take right now that will make your home more organized and enjoyable to live in.
How Awesome Would It Be to Have Gotten Organized Six Months Ago?
In the morning you’d move the vase of fresh flowers from the garden that makes you smile every time you walk by. It can easily go in the kitchen because there’s plenty of clear space on the kitchen counters. Gone are the days when they were covered with piles of unopened mail, the dog leash tangled up with the kids’ homework pages, dirty dishes and way too many coffee cups.
The shelves hold only the books you adore and refer to. The glass fronted cabinet is filled with the items you love seeing but hate dusting. There’s plenty of room to stretch your legs out under the table. You’ve already taken care of that carpet of lethally sharp legos and dusty old cat toys.
REALISTIC ACTION YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT NOW: Scout around and pick up all the dirty dishes and coffee cups you can find. Take them all to the kitchen. Empty the sink and set all the dirty dishes aside. Fill the sink with hot soapy water and wash all the coffee cups. Dry them and put them in the cupboard.
As your online meetings continue, you refill your mug at the coffee and tea section you created a while back. Stocked with your favorite beverages and snacks, it’s a great way to have a little treat to break up the work day. The curated pile of the latest issues of the magazines and newspapers you enjoy is enticing but you’ll check back during your lunch break.
REALISTIC ACTION YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT NOW: Flip through your stash of tea and discard all the weird, funny-tasting ones you don’t enjoy.
At the end of the work day, laptops and school papers fit easily onto the shelves of the dedicated storage area you’ve created. Easily accessible but out of the way. You set the table and enjoy dinner with your family around the dining room table.
Dinner happened because your fridge and your freezer have been decluttered and organized too. No more rummaging through bags of half-opened bags of frozen peas and unidentified pieces of meat with freezer burn. You know what you have and you have a plan to use it all.
REALISTIC ACTION YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT NOW: Take everything out of the freezer and see what you’ve got. Toss at least one item you’ve been avoiding for months.
If you haven’t eaten those frozen burritos in six months, it’s time to try them or let them go. When you put it all back, keep like with like.
All the pieces of meat together, all the frozen treats together, all the frozen pizzas stacked together. That makes it easier to find things and see what you’re running out of.
Doing the dishes after dinner is simple. When you decluttered the cabinets, all that old crockery you never used moved on out, freeing up valuable real estate. Now it’s easy to unpack the dishwasher and put the clean dishes away, which means it’s easy to keep the cycle going by loading the dishwasher right after dinner.
After you’re all done cleaning up, it’s time to relax and play games with the family or watch a movie. The games have been organized so they’re right where you play them and they all have all the pieces. Your movie collection is a thing of organizational beauty. So easy to find exactly which movie you want to watch!
REALISTIC ACTION YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT NOW: Pick a board game and see if it has all the pieces. If it doesn’t, let it go. If it does, play it this evening. If you don’t, because it’s too boring or hard to understand, off it goes.
Your system works for you. You can find pretty much anything you own within minutes. You idly consider tallying the number of hours you’ve saved not looking for things since you got organized. It’s substantial.
As you secure the house for the night, you lock the garage door, happy that your cars are safely parked inside. Remember when they sat out in the snow and ice while your boxes of who knows what else settled in for the night? Those days are gone and you couldn’t be prouder of yourself for getting it done.
REALISTIC ACTION YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT NOW: Pick one box from the garage and bring it indoors. Open it and see what’s inside. Can you put anything away in the house now? Can you throw anything away?
Heading for bed, you beam as you pull out tomorrow’s clothes from your pleasingly organized closet. Everything in there fits you and makes you feel good. Perhaps you’ve arranged your clothes by outfit, perhaps by color. However you’ve decided to set up your closet, it works for you and you love it.
The bathroom is well supplied with the soaps and lotions you like. The soaps are stacked, the toilet paper is at the ready (you were so organized that you got to the store in time to score some this week) and the whole room feels like a place to relax and pamper yourself. You grab a towel, neatly folded or rolled from the linen closet. Pretty baskets keep the facial spa treatments together and the nail polish and supplies are in an easy to grab container. It’s such a pleasure to be in there!
REALISTIC ACTION YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT NOW: Assess the shampoo and conditioner situation. What works and what doesn’t? Toss all the ones that make your hair look and feel like straw, no matter how expensive they were.
You sigh with relief as you soak in a steaming hot bath and then jammies on, you head to bed to read for a few minutes. You don’t trip on anything because the floor, like all your floors, is clear. The bedside table holds a selection of books. A softly lit lamp to read by and a sachet of lavender all conspire to help you feel sleepy, although you’ve noticed it’s so much easier to fall asleep now there’s so much less dust.
REALISTIC ACTION YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT NOW: Take all the books off your bedside table. Choose three and put the rest downstairs.
As you turn out the light and settle down for sleep, you review the day. It was wonderful to be ready when the online meetings began. You chuckle compassionately as you remember how Danny showed up for each meeting ten minutes late looking disheveled and trying desperately to hide the dirty dishes on the counter behind him. Once that was your story too.
REALISTIC ACTION YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT NOW: Read How to declutter and organize.
If you’d like help getting organized, contact me for your free 30 minute in home consultation.