Today is national organize your home day!
I've always been a little on the messy side, and organizing was definitely not one of my goals. I discovered something though, if I gave everything a specific place, I was 10x more likely to keep an area clean! So here are my top tips for how to tackle home organization:
1) Make a plan: I highly suggest the book The Home Edit, it's a helpful guide to getting organized. If you plan to use bins, totes, or boxes, look at your space, measure, and make a plan. Head to the store and make sure you pick up everything you need. Nothing is worse than getting into a serious workflow and having to stop because you ran out of supplies.
2) Start in one place: Many attempts at organization fail when the task of cleaning up the entire house seems daunting and you give up. Pick small areas first, closets, vanities, entertainment centers. When you complete one area, celebrate and then move on to the next. Break the large jobs into parts. Don't try to reorganize your entire kitchen and make your pantry Pinterest worthy all in 1 day.
3) Allow plenty of time: Depending on the area to be organized, schedule a couple of hours each week to work on getting everything organized. It doesn't need to be completely done in the span of one weekend. Try not to start a project late at night, or before you need to be somewhere, you'll likely get annoyed or leave it a wreck with no desire to come back and complete it later.
4) When in doubt, throw it out (or donate!): Go through your drawers; throw away old makeup, half-empty hair products you don't use anymore, the iPhone box, broken pens, you know what I'm talking about. As for clothes, use the two-year rule of thumb — if you haven't worn it in two years, it's time to say goodbye. If you're like me, you have a box full of clothes for "when I lose the weight", but by the time that rolls around, the clothes will likely be out of style. There are so many places to donate your clothing, someone else would get much more use out of them, just let go.
5) Maximize vertical space: If you don't have a lot of room to work with, a surefire way to instantly create more space is to go "up." Instead of only having a couple of shelves to house your kitchen items, take them up to the ceiling. Is there empty space at the top of your closet? Add a shelf!
6) Organize with color: Whether you're working to organize the family room or striving to get your home office under control, use color to enhance your efforts. Labels are also a great way to go, and these can also be color coordinated.
Now that you've got these tips, turn on a Spotify "Cleaning Motivation" playlist or binge watch The Home Edit on Netflix, and get started! You got this!
Comments