Schedule 2 hours for a paper purge after your taxes have been completed with the goal of cleaning out and shredding old, outdated, and obsolete information. Archive the previous years’ tax and financial files, and keep current active files separate from the archived ones.
My house is small by today’s standards, but it’s a perfect fit for me and my husband. I love my tiny house, but organizing small spaces can be challenging. There is no room for excess and storage is limited. Little messes can appear to take over an entire room and a small amounts of clutter can seem like a mountain of clutter. So when working to facilitate and maintain order in my tiny home I rely on organizing systems and habits. Here are some tips that I use to help me organize my tiny home.
Organizing is like laundry and dishes. It’s an ongoing cycle of order followed by natural disorder followed by the important step of reclaiming order. Schedule 15 minutes a day to reclaim order by picking up and putting things away.
and cupboard. Make adjustments to cabinets to create more functional spaces. Customize closet with shelves and product that help you maximize it’s storing potential. Store like with like to keep track of how much you have.I hope these tips will help you organize your small spaces or tiny home.
©March 2018 Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer All Rights Reserved
Discard paper daily. Knowing what paper can be automatically shredded or recycled will motivate you to get rid of paper that has been accumulating. Use the list below as your personal paper discard list.
A common discussion I have with my clients when we’re working together is why they are holding onto something. The more information I can gather about the item in question the easier it is for me to understand “the WHY”. What I’ve discovered over the past 10 years in assisting my clients is that although there are several reasons we hold onto things, those reasons fall into one of three basic categories, the past, the future, or both.
We hold onto things from the past, because they were significant and important to us in our past. They help us remember and honor a past event or memory. Some examples may be a bride’s maid dress that was worn at a friend’s wedding, paper products from a child’s birthday party, or Dad’s wood carving tools.
We hold onto things for the future, because we think they will be significant or important to us in our future or the future of someone close to us. Some examples may be furniture our children will use in college, papers that have resources we think we’ll need in the future, or dishes our children will use in their first apartment.
A combination of the two is when we hold onto things from the past for the future. For example I have two cool swivel chairs in my living room that were originally in my grandparent’s front parlor. They were saved and used by other family members before I inherited them, and I plan on passing them along to another family member in the future. Another example is my old photographs and scrapbooks. I enjoy sharing them and reminiscing about past events, holidays, and special occasions. It also makes me smile to think that they will bring joy when shared in the future.
As you may be able to tell, things that have an impact on both the past and the future, are usually the most sentimental items, and thus the one’s we cling to. If this is what my client and I discover in our conversation about an item, then it’s usually a keeper. Otherwise we discuss some qualifying questions to determine whether it’s worth holding onto.
Whether it’s a keeper or not, answering the above questions help establish some objectivity to the sentimental attachment we me feel about our things.
Want more help letting go? Here are three blogs that offer more assistance.
©February 2018 Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer All Rights Reserved
Ask yourself at the beginning of each day, “What is the most important thing for me to get done today?” If the most important thing you have to do today requires more time than you have to devote to it, ask, “What is the first step I can take that will get me closer to completing that one thing?” After answering these questions, take action before doing anything else.
Janine Cavanaugh, CPO
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