Give yourself 5 minutes, when you return home, to take care of anything you brought home with you. I mean anything. Put your keys and handbag in a specific spot. Put away your coat and shoes. Take care of receipts, mail, and other papers. Find a home for new purchases or other stuff. Do this every time you enter your home so it becomes a habit. This helps prevent piles of clutter from growing, and helps you stay organized.
School’s out and the kids are home all summer. Here are a few tips to help keep things organized.
1. Schedule daily organizing time. Require participation from every child and play their favorite songs to motivate them.
2. Label children’s clothing bins, toy bins, and book bins with words as well as images, to reinforce where items belong.
3. Instead of leaving unfinished projects out, have an open space on a book shelf or in a cabinet for them to be stored.
How easy is it for you to get rid of stuff? Deciding what is worth keeping and what needs to go, can be difficult. I follow a three step confirming process. These three steps help me confirm what I have, and decide what I need, use, and want. The first step is to determine what I have. The second step is to decide what stays and what goes. The third step is to dispose of stuff. Let me explain how this confirming process works.
The first step is to determine what I have. This means gathering and assessing. I pick a small group of items to work with at a time. Instead of working with all my clothes, I work with just my spring wardrobe. Another example is instead of working with all my books, I only work with my organizing books. This helps reduce the time needed to complete the process, and helps prevent procrastination. Once I’ve chosen which category I want to work with, I gather the items into one location and assess them.
The second step is to decide what stays and what goes. I find it helpful to have criteria for what items stay and what items go. I call them my confirming guidelines, and they help me make decisions.
Examples of confirming guidelines:
1. It has to go if it’s broken, damaged, or missing parts, and you’re not going to fix it or pay to have it fixed within 3 months.
2. It has to go if it hasn’t been used in the past 3 years and won’t be used in the next 3 years.
3. It has to go if it is more than one size too big or too small.
4. It has to go if it’s torn, stained, or moldy, and you’re not going to fix it or pay to have it fixed within 3 months.
5. It has to go if it doesn’t reflect your current lifestyle. (Use 3 year timeline.)
6. It has to go if it’s very similar or identical to another item. Keep three favorites and the rest have to go.
7. It has to go if you’ve already purchased a replacement for it.
8. It has to go if it’s something you don’t like, or something that never worked right or fit right.
9. It has to go if the reason you’re holding onto it is not a good, valid reason. (See blog articles)
10. It has to go if it brings negative thoughts or causes self doubt.
The third step is to dispose of the stuff. It helps to schedule a day for removal, whether it is donations, items to be recycled or items to be given away. Voila! Confirming process complete.
© April 2017 Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer® All Rights Reserved
The world is full of useful things, but if you’re not using them, they are not useful to you. So, remove all those things that are not useful to you, by giving, donating, recycling, or removing them every week. This helps prevent clutter from happening and piles from building.
When reading an organizing book think of the content as a menu where you can pick and choose what fits your unique situation. Otherwise you can get overwhelmed or discouraged with advise that is good, but just won’t work for you. Be selective and choosy. After all the best organizing tip is the one you will do!
Two organizing books I’ve read recently:
Two of my most recommended organizing books:
Janine Cavanaugh, CPO
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