How to Organize
Is clutter taking over your home? Do you need some fresh ideas on how to organize your stuff? Check out these RADICAL tips from the Domestic CEO.
Amanda Thomas
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How to Organize
When it comes to learning how to organize, there are steps to follow, no matter which area of your home you are organizing. I meet a lot of people who tell me that they just aren’t wired to know how to organize, but I believe that anyone can learn. For the past 5 years, I’ve been teaching my Moxie Girl team members how to organize for our clients. Some of them had a natural eye for organizing, but most of them were simply willing to learn the process. Today, I’m going to teach you the organizing tips we use to train our team members.>
See also: 6 Rules for an Organized Home
To help remember the steps, I want you to start thinking of yourself as an organizing RADICAL. The letters in the word RADICAL make an acronym for the steps toward organizing success:
R is for REMOVE – The first step to any organizing project is to remove the items from the space. This may mean that you remove everything in an entire area, like your bathroom cabinets, or just one shelf, like in your pantry. Only remove what you need to finish that area before moving on. Before you remove everything from a larger area, like a closet, make sure that you have allotted enough time to completely finish the job. There’s nothing worse than getting pulled away from an organizing project half-way through and then being left with a mess for days or weeks until you can get back to it.
A is for ARRANGE – As items are removed, start arranging them into groups. You’ve heard me use the phrase, “Like with like,” before, and this is where it applies. Think of how stores are laid out to help guide you if you aren’t sure how to organize your things into categories. If you are walking through the grocery store and wanted to get a box of cereal, you wouldn’t look in the pickle aisle. You would go to the cereal aisle because that’s where all the cereal is kept. Likewise, if you went to Target, you wouldn’t expect to find bottles of hydrogen peroxide or vinegar in the makeup aisle. You want to follow a similar model when organizing your home because it will help you more easily find what you are looking for when you need it.
Putting items together by category will help you create piles of items that need to be completely removed from the space too. These piles will likely be along the lines of:
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DONATE: These items are in good condition, but haven’t been used in more than a year or you simply no longer want them.
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REPAIR: These are items that can be in excellent condition if a repair is made. If something goes into this pile, you should be able to have it fixed in 30 days or less, either by you or a professional. If you don’t get it fixed in that amount of time, choose to donate or throw it away.
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TRASH: Immediately bag any items that are beyond repair, or are no longer needed. This pile can be subdivided into trash, recycle, and shred as well.
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WRONG ROOM: These items belong in another space. Put these items into a basket so you can easily deliver them to the correct rooms all at once.
D is for DRAW – The biggest organizing tip I can give you is to draw out the space and how you’re going to fill it on paper before starting to put items away. It is much easier and less time consuming to move words on paper than items on shelves, so plan before you spend time putting stuff away only to realize that all of your kids’ toy trucks won’t fit into the designated cabinet. If you don’t want to draw out the space, you can also do this is with sticky notes. Write all the categories on sticky notes and start sticking them where you think they are going to go. You can easily move the notes around to configure the space according to how much needs to be stored.
See also: How to Organize Your Kitchen
I is for INVENTORY – Take inventory of any items that you may need to create your wonderfully organized space. Search your home for items you already have that can be used like wire shelves, boxes, baskets, and bins, then make a list of items you want to purchase that is necessary to complete the project. There are lots of cute organizing products on the market, so have fun with this step. There’s no reason your organized space can’t be both functional and fun!
C is for CLEAN – Before you start putting everything away, remember to thoroughly clean the space. Wipe shelves, clean walls, vacuum and mop the floors, everything. You probably aren’t going to pull all these items out again many times in the future, so take advantage of the clear, empty space while you can.
A is for ASSIGN – Now that you have your organized space planned and cleaned, it’s time to truly assign every item to its home. You’ve heard the old adage, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” Committing to where you put items away is over half the battle. Once you have an assigned place for each of your items, you can put them away on a daily basis and keep your space organized all the time.
L is for LABEL – The final organizing tip is to label what belongs in each space. Having organizational bins and baskets labeled makes it much easier to keep your home looking amazing because labels give a visual reminder of where things belong. You can make small labels using a hand-held label maker, or you can buy cute labels made of chalkboards or dry erase material on Etsy. Again, there are a lot of options available, so have fun with this step!
So those are the RADICAL steps for how to organize any room in your home. As with any skill, practice makes perfect, so if you are learning how to organize for the first time, start with some of the smaller projects around your house and then move into bigger ones as you become more comfortable with the steps.
If you are looking for some inspiration for your organizing projects, check out the Organizing Ideas board on the Domestic CEO Pinterest page. Or, if you have some suggestions of ideas that have worked in your own home, post them in the comments section of the web site or on the Domestic CEO Facebook wall. You can also find me on Twitter, where I’m @TheDomesticCEO.
Until next time, I’m the Domestic CEO, helping you love your home.
Empty Shelf, Woman Drawing and Label Maker images from Shutterstock