There comes a time in life when you look around and realize you have too little space filled with too much stuff, all scattered beyond recognition. Sometimes it can seem impossible imagine an organized space again, and other times it just takes a little rethinking and reworking.
Clean, Throw Out, and Group
Before you can consider organizing a dresser, closet, desk, or room, you have to figure out exactly what you have. Start by throwing away any trash, broken, or unused items. This is a great way to start because it gets a lot of stuff out of the way and makes you feel you have accomplished something right away.
Give away anything you no longer use, like, or want. Once you are left with items you want to keep, it’s time to group. Think logically and begin with large piles of similar items. Keep adding to the piles until everything is out of the space you want to organize.
Cleaning and Organizing a Space
Once everything is in a pile, clean your now-empty space (an empty dresser, closet, desk…). Before you organize, you should start with a freshly vacuumed, dusted, mopped, sanitized space.
Look at your clean space and decide where you want certain things. Be sure to plan practically, placing the most-used items in easily accessible places, and storing seldom used things out-of-sight. Practical organization will help you remain organized in everyday life. If finding or putting away things is inconvenient, you’ll end up back in an unorganized disaster.
Creating Organization
It seems overwhelming to go from piles to perfection, but just take one thing at a time. Start with your least used items. Put them in storage containers on high shelves or low drawers. Remember to give away or throw out anything you won’t miss or wouldn’t notice losing. If somebody else would enjoy the item, and you don’t use it, why should you keep it?
Move your way from least used to most used, placing items in more easily accessible locations as you move from pile to pile. Remember to do what makes sense to you if you are the one using the space, but generally, a well-organized space is an intuitive one where anybody can easily find and replace items.
Keeping Organization
It’s a great feeling to see your newly organized space. But… almost inevitably you’ll get busy, forget to put things back in their places, and you can end up with the disorganized mess that you started with.
Practice putting items back in their places as soon as you’re finished using them. This can be a difficult habit to instill sometimes, but it is one that will lead to a more organized and less frustrating lifestyle. Never move items to the couch or desk, saying you’ll put them away later because usually you’ll get even more things to put away, creating more of a mess.
Although it can be difficult to learn to be more organized, a more organized space will save you time, stress, and mess. Organizing a space is not a one-time project, but a daily practice of returning items to their place.
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