Top 10 Best Organizing Tips: The First Five

Tip #1: Clear your mind.

Once you have made the decision to get yourself organized, you have to be in the proper mindset. Clear your mind of any expectations you have about how much you are going to get rid of and how much you are going to keep. Going in with a clear mind will help move the process along. Often times when we clean out, we get stuck in our memories or we get stuck on our to do list. Both the past and the future can sneak its way into our organizing process. That’s why, the clearer mind you have going in the stronger and more effective your organizing process will be.

Have a clear mind to help you clear your space.

Tip #2: Have a goal(s).

How can you define success in any capacity unless you are working towards a goal? The same rings true when it comes to getting organized. You can’t organize without a purpose or goal in mind - how will you know when you’ve accomplished what you set out to? Your goal can be anything! It can be simple -  “I can’t take it anymore! I can never find my keys!” Perhaps more specific - “We are moving and have lived here for 30+ years - we have to clean out.” It can even be somewhere in the middle “I want to have a place to keep all of my yoga things together.”  Set your goal. Write it down. Remember your goal. Continuously remind yourself of your goal and why you have set out to organize. Let it drive your motivation especially when you start to feel stuck.

Set a clear goal to support you in getting organized!

Tip #3: One space at a time.

Have you ever started organizing one space and then found something that belongs somewhere else? You automatically go to that second space and find yourself organizing that. To add to the tangent, you find something there that belongs somewhere else and you move to a third location. This can quickly spiral out of control, and by the end of the day you have partially organized 6 different spaces in one day. 

When we organize we MUST take it one space at a time, otherwise we are going to end up with half a mess in every space. When we find something that doesn’t belong in the space we are organizing, we should make a pile of “this belongs somewhere else” and then we work on that pile later. At first, it might seem counterintuitive to ignore some of what needs to be organized and sorted, but at the end of the process, it will be a more manageable and efficient way to clean your space.

One. space. At. A. Time. It will all be accomplished, just be patient.

Tip #4: Prioritize.

You decided to start getting yourself organized - that’s awesome! How do you decide where to begin. When you decide to take on a large project - i.e. your entire home or a heavily cluttered space - you should prioritize. This goes along with setting your goal. If your goal is to be able to find your belongings when you are leaving the house, your priority is the front (or side) door and the space surrounding that area. If your goal is to have a yoga space - this requires a bit more planning because you have to decide where you want that place to be. Once you decide, you prioritize cleaning that space first.

Prioritizing doesn’t just mean the space. You have to set priorities when you start decluttering. Is your priority to move things around, throw things out or donate as much as possible? Having your priorities in mind when you organize will help guide the process. Your priorities can differ from space to space. For instance, I needed to clean out my closet because I needed more room. My priority was to donate the clothes that I hadn’t worn in at least a year. That made it a little easier to start letting things go.

Set your priorities. Use your goal. Clear your mind.

Tip #5: Don’t organize when frustrated.

Have you ever been frustrated with your mess and you start to organize, or more likely, just start throwing things out and moving things around? Later comes, and you can’t find anything and you realize you may have thrown out something important. This is what can happen when we organized because we are frustrated.

Let yourself get frustrated, it is good motivation to clean your space. I wouldn’t recommend organizing at the time of the frustration. When you start to organize because of frustration, you may start piling things and moving them somewhere not in your way, or even throwing things out because they are in your way. Take that frustration, let it motivate you. Calm your frustrations. Then make a plan to get organized. Start with the space that you were frustrated with in the first place. It is a great way to start your organizing project.

Get frustrated. Use it. Find calm. And then tackle your projects!

Stay tuned for the final five next month!