FOCUS ON ORGANIZING TUTORIAL

The hardest part of organizing is getting started. Use these simple tips to get your stuff in order one small section at a time. As things become more orderly, you'll feel yourself becoming more peaceful, motivated, and happy! There’s no time like the present, so let's get to it!

Tips for Getting Started Organizing Your Home

Convince Yourself

The best way to convince yourself to get started is to take a moment to realize that it doesn't have to be a huge deal. If you think about organizing the whole house, then yes, it's true, it could take days. However, there's no schedule, and that's actually part of the problem. Commit yourself to whatever seems too good to be true. If you take ten minutes per day and dedicate it to organizing something, you could be completely organized in a week or two without ever feeling like you spent any energy on it.

Prioritize, or Not

Some people need to get the big stuff out of the way in order to feel like they've made any progress. If this is you, then start with your "dumping grounds". The entryway to the house, the kitchen counters, and the coffee table are great places to start. If your everyday stuff is organized and in place when you need to leave the house, you'll immediately feel the benefits of your effort.

If you're like me, you'll organize the most important thing, like the entryway table, and then get sidetracked because the disorganization isn't really inconveniencing you anymore! Because I know that I'm like this, I choose to make organizing more of a daily goal, instead of making "getting everything organized" my goal. What I mean is that my goal is to spend ten minutes organizing, not to "get" organized. I may do a kitchen or bathroom drawer one day and find a new basket for lining up my pillowcases the next. I never concentrate on "finishing" organizing, but rather reward myself for doing ten minutes of work on some small part of the house. I like smaller goals and it's hard to tell myself that it can wait when it's so quick and easy to accomplish.

Make Things Look Nice

Organizing is a lot about function, but it can be to make things look pleasing, too. It's not just that my cleaning supplies are easy to get to, it's really more about how happy it makes me to see them all lined up and nice. I use different shapes and colors of containers to make it look better, simply because the happier it makes me, the more likely I am to keep up with it.

Find what works for you by focusing on what you like about having things organized. Make the goal so simple that you can't give yourself an excuse for not doing it. Follow these steps and organizing will become fun for you, instead of an insurmountable task that you dread.