How to Get Started Organizing & Minimizing
So. You’re sitting in a room or a house that you don’t feel works for you. Perhaps it has too many things and you feel that you need to minimize those items, or maybe you just want to organize the items you have to make your home work better for you. Truthfully, it is probably a little bit of both.
Before starting, take a moment to acknowledge that this organizing and minimizing is not a project that you will complete. Organizing and minimizing is a process that you will build, maintain, and change as your life changes.
Take another moment to let this sink in - organizing and minimizing is never done because true organizing and true minimizing is about how you think and how to respond, not about the items you own. You are entering into a new lifestyle.
Let’s jump into the actual physical labor of decluttering a space. The more of the physical doing you do, then more your mindset will change, and it will be easier and easier to manage your space with intentionality.
I suggest you start with something small but useful. For instance, the top of a dresser or a silverware drawer. No matter how big or small the project is, the steps are the same, so starting small will allows you to build the skills necessary to work up to a larger project. Click here to download a checklist you can use to get started.
No matter the size of the space you choose, start by removing the garbage. It is easy to determine what can be thrown into the trash.
Once the garbage is gone, put the remaining items into categories.
Start with broad categories, like keep, move to another space, and give away.
As you work your way through the space, you might need to break it into even more categories. For example, if you are organizing the kitchen and you find a lot of items that need to go to the bathroom, you might start a move to the bathroom category.
Below you can see the categories I broke the contents of my bathroom cabinet.
Once you have determined the items you plan to keep in the space, analyze the space you are organizing.
Be honest with yourself. Do you still have too many items for the space? If yes, then you will have to throw away, donate, or move more items to another space.
Determine the best way to store the items you have left.
Do you need to buy any organizers, or can you re-home something you already have?
Remember you can get creative. Do things like cutting up a cardboard box to make dividers.
Consider using a tiered shelf, a lazy Susan, or slide out organizer to help you make all items easily seen.
Make sure that every item in the space you are organizing has a logical home. If you keep something in your home, the best way to keep it from turning to clutter is to make sure it has a home. If you cannot find a home for it, then you must not really need it. Consider giving it away to someone who does.
Repeat in another space, or in the same space as needed. You might also need to repeat this process as your life changes. For example, after my son was born I added a whole lot of baby medicines to our medicine cabinet. Now I have to go back and fix this.
When you are ready to get started, click here to download a getting started checklist.
