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Have you ever experienced a burst of inspiration to organize a space in your home—one that you figured would take all of one hour to complete—but 60 minutes into the job, you were left standing in the sea of randomness with no plan of what to do next?
Yes?
How did that make you feel?
Frustrated?
Defeated?
Like organizing your home was “above you”?
Well, if you can relate to such a situation, know this… You’re 100% capable of successfully organizing the spaces in your home.
Your vision of the end goal and determination to create it, however, is most likely what's keeping you from recognizing that organizing is never "just organizing"; there are several steps in the process that need to be acknowledged in order for you to get the job done.
In this post, I’d like to share the individual steps that make up the organizing process, as well as some tips on how to tackle your next home organizing project with realistic expectations and way more confidence.
In order to successfully organize a space in your home, you also have to consider the steps of decluttering, space planning, measuring, product placement, and resetting.
Decluttering: Decluttering helps us to eliminate items we no longer need and to create space to store the ones we use most frequently. Engaging in this process provides us with the opportunity to recognize and appreciate the current version of ourselves and our family members-- the ones we should be storing items for-- and to make thoughtful, informed decisions that best support this.
Space Planning: Taking the time to plan out a future organized space is super important, but is a step that most of us completely neglect to engage in. It’s not that we intentionally neglect the step… It's that we don’t even know it exists. Space planning means to look at the items you plan on resetting in the space and deciding where each should be placed so that function and flow can be established.
Measuring: When we're excited to dive into home organizing projects, we tend to pick up items at the store that we feel inspired by and that match our homes' aesthetics. The problem with this is that purchasing items without properly measuring the space first leads to challenges like underbuying product, overbuying product, or buying products that end up not fitting into the space. This causes frustration, wasted time, and money being poorly spent.
Product Placement: Determining which products would be best to use to store our items in can be more challenging than it seems. For example, we may love the look of a solid-colored bin with a bamboo lid and decide to purchase some to store certain household items in, but not being able to see what’s inside can lead to experiencing object permanence issues. It’s important to take some time to play around with the products we purchase-- to puzzle-piece them within the space--to determine the look, fit, and feel that best suits the space.
Resetting: When resetting items into the spaces we're organizing, we want to be sure that everything is easily accessible, viewable, labeled (if necessary), and able to fit; however, feeling tired, overwhelmed by the process, or unsure of where to place things tends to lead us to tossing items back into the space in a way that keeps it appearing cluttered and disorganized.
Without moving through each one of these steps independently, you'll most likely feel stuck and overwhelmed by the entire organizing process.
In order to avoid these negative feelings and to remain inspired to achieve your vision for the space, here are some tips I'd suggest trying out.
Break the task into smaller chunks and create the goal of completing one smaller task at a time. You can break it down by following each step of the process, assigning yourself one step per day to complete, until the entire project is done.
Use labels to guide you as you go. When we keep all of our thoughts inside of our heads, the chances of remembering our intentions are limited. Use sticky notes to create labels when categorizing your items and while space planning since they are easy to move around and rewrite, if need be.
Make the task feel less overwhelming by coupling it with an activity you really enjoy. Listen to a podcast or a video on YouTube through your earbuds, play a playlist of music that you love on volume 100, or let the TV run in the background to offer just enough distraction to keep you focused on the job at hand without becoming absolutely overwhelmed by it.
Ask for help! Getting someone else’s perspective helps in just about any area of life, including home organization. Someone who is not as connected to your home and belongings as you are may be able to form a flow for the space in a way you never dreamed of. Consider sending a picture or video to someone you trust to get his or her opinion on how to reset the space you may be struggling with.
Once again, my friend, organizing is never “just organizing“. So the next time you feel inspired to redo a space in your home, be sure to go in with a small-wins mindset and the permission to do little bit each day. This is how you'll achieve your end goal!
Do you know I offer 1:1 Declutter Coaching as one of my services?
If you're looking to declutter and reorganize a space in your home and are interested in being guided, supported, and instructed along the way, then the coaching model would be perfect for you!
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