Eliminate Clutter Part 2: 4 Steps To Organize Just About Anything

In Part 1 of this series I talked about the cost of clutter and where it all comes from. With that out of the way you ask “Yes, but how do I begin to change it?” Now it’s time to get started on the path to living a simpler and more organized life. Before you look around and think “Never going to happen!” let me remind you this is a journey and there are no shortcuts to getting there.

Organizing and simplifying can be summed up in four easy steps and can be applied to just about any organizing venture.

1. Pull it out and pile it up! If you’re starting with a closet for example, pull everything out and put it in one central location (on a table, counter top or bed). Everything in that closet needs to be removed every hanger, jacket, purse, even an old awkward stool that you think is going to go right back in there anyway. Take it ALL out.
2. Picking and choosing. Once you have the entire content of your closet in one central location go through the pile quickly and pick and choose only the essentials, these are things you currently use or cannot live without. You need to be aggressive with the purging here!
3. Dump, donate or re-file. With the remaining items decide whether they are to be thrown in the garbage, donated to a friend or to goodwill, or re-filed somewhere more appropriate in your home.  TIP: Find 3 bins or boxes. Label one as Garbage, another as Donate and the last as Re-file.
4. Organize. Once the items from your closet have been divided among the three bins DO NOT go through them again! Handle each item ONCE deciding what to do with it then and there. Take the essentials that you put aside in step 2 and put them back in the closet in a neat and orderly fashion. Group like items together in the space that you use them i.e. work out items should all be in the same spot, cookware, books etc.

These four steps are the foundation on which you can start tackling your space. Remember de-cluttering and organizing your entire house or even an entire room will take time. This is not something that can be done in a matter of a hours. Take time get your head around what you want the space to look like once you’re finished and go from there. Don’t let it scare you, you just need to get started!

Be sure to check out Part 3 of our series Strategies to Getting Started.

Photo courtesy of Elsie esq.

See also:

Eliminate Clutter Part 1: The Cost of Clutter and Where Does it Come From?

Eliminate Clutter Part 3: Strategies to Getting Started.