January is universally recognized as the month of organization. We spend the fall months nesting, adding stuff, stuff, and more stuff to our living spaces in an unconscious effort to brace for the changing season and onslaught of entertaining. We try to make our homes feel more “festive” for the Holidays and every year the push to purchase starts earlier and earlier! From Labor Day through Christmas we’re assaulted with throw pillows. blankets, candles, So. Much. Stuff! UGH! Its too much and I just can’t handle it anymore! Who’s with me?
By the second week of January, we have a collective need to purge and/or buy stuff to stuff the stuff. Please tell me you all have heard the George Carlin skit about “stuff” If not, your’e probably young and you need to check it out - after you’ve finished reading. Consider it a cultural education.
Everyone has a different method of organizing all their stuff. My husband is the Tetris King. No, really. He’ll pack everything into boxes and make use of every single square inch available. Never mind that I’ll never know what’s inside those boxes because I can’t get to it, or that I have no idea what combination of things is hidden inside. Opening a box he packed is like Christmas all over again, “Oh! Wow! I forgot we had THAT!” I recently found a contractor sized pack of new electric switches in a random box he stashed…after I finished changing out all the switches in the living room with new switches I bought because I couldn’t find the pack I knew I had! Ugh! Drives me nuts, but I digress.
Personally, I’m more of a task oriented organizer. I like to keep everything I need to complete a job from stage one through to completion in one place. I consider this self-preservation rather than strictly organization. Being naturally scatter-brained, I can easily get sidetracked by a shiny thing in my path. Have you ever had that happen? You start off with good intentions to clean, grabbing only what you need and can easily carry to the starting point. But then you find stuff that needs to be in another area of the house, so you decide to put it away. Before you know it, your’e pilfering through a tub of half dried nail polish because, hey that needs done too.
This was me once. Now I keep a separate cleaning kit in the most often cleaned rooms. This is called the Kindergarten Method and if you’ve ever attempted to teach young children an activity, you know what I mean. Have everything you need in one place with enough supplies at hand so that no one has to share. No more distractions!
Maybe you’re an aspiring minimalist and you’ve tried the Marie Kondo method? That’s a nice idea in theory, but there’s a meme for that.
So what do you do when you really like your stuff and you want to make the best use of it? My ten tips for task oriented organization will change the way you look at your stuff.
First, forget purging for the moment. It doesn’t solve anything to start tossing stuff only to realize you need it again in six months! That’s not thrifty! Slow down…let’s think this through. The first key to organizing is to identify your organizational style. How is that working (or not) for you? Look around you first. Are certain things piling up? Are you procrastinating doing them? If so, you might have a broken or incompatible system and new storage containers isn’t going to fix that. So let’s begin with your SYSTEMS.
When you are organizing, or putting things away, ask yourself, “WHERE DO I USE THIS?”
Tip #1 FIRST POINT OF USE STORAGE
Here’s an example, when I used to get ready to wrap presents, I had to go through the Christmas stuff to find the paper and ribbon, (assuming I had some birthday paper hiding in there) then head back upstairs to the junk drawer to find the scissors, then hunt through my daughter’s room for the tape. Why do kids universally want all the tape? I was tired and grumpy before I ever started!
Now, I keep all wrapping supplies go in a box, paper, ribbon, tags, scissors, tape; everything needed to sit down and do the dreaded present wrapping deed. Yes, that means I have multiple pairs of scissors and tape. Which brings me to my the epiphany for step #1.
Tip #2 MAKE IT EASY TO BE TIDY
This is the key to sanity! Having what you need, where you need it solves daily irritants. In my home, I keep a spray bottle of cleanser and a stash of microfiber towels under the sink - I gave up buying paper towels last year in an effort to be more environmentally conscious. I spray everything down while I’m brushing my teeth, let the cleanser soak for a minute or two to do its job, and I wipe everything from the top down to the floor. BOOM! Done daily with minimal effort and zero fanfare. So easy even the kids can halfheartedly do it! How could this apply to your home?
My FAVORITE cleaner! It smells absolutely divine and it’s Kansas City Hometown Proud!
Tip #3 OWNING MULTIPLE ITEMS IS OKAY, IF YOU USE THEM
My scissor story is a prime example. For less than $10, I can save my sanity and time not running from here to there to get the scissors for a project. I have my kitchen scissors, my bathroom scissors, my crafting scissors, my wrapping scissors and my “don’t touch mom’s sewing shears” scissors.
Another example is a friend of mine who lives with multiple levels in her home. She has a vacuum on every level. When you make the job easy and the tools accessible, no one will whine about doing the job. That may seem an extravagance to some, but lugging a vacuum up and down stairs is a major pain and possibly a safety hazard as we age!
Tip #4 WHAT WOULD MAKE THIS JOB EVEN EASIER?
This one will blow your mind in a palm to forehead kinda moment. Allow me to set the stage for dramatic emphasis. My house is small, about 1500 square feet. I can vacuum most of my living space (one floor) in a single swoop. Vacuuming is a task I enjoy. Those tracks in the rug make me super excited and I adore my Dyson Big Ball Allergy Animal, (talk about a splurge!) I can reach almost everywhere short of about 10’ into the Master Bedroom. It dawned on me one day that if I bought an extension cord, I could vacuum my entire house without stopping to re-plug. Easy, problem solved!
Tip #5 KEEP A “DONATE IT” BAG IN THE CLOSET
This is a particularly good one if you have children that grow out of their stuff faster than you can corral it. When you notice that shirt is a little tight around a tummy, or they complain about scrunched toes, into the bag it goes.
One bonus tip? Keep that bag hidden. They will go digging for their stuff and you’ll have to peel it off of them next time! Do you have an outfit that you put on but always take off because it just doesn’t feel right? Into the bag it goes. This tip is also great for games, dvds, puzzles you’ll never put together twice. When a bag is full, take it to your favorite donation site and Voila!
One of my very favorite Interior Design clients said something that has stuck with me as we were merging her furnishings with her new love’s things, “Everything has a place, it might just not always be with you.” That’s some seriously deep zen thinking I want around me.
Donating your unused items is a great way to keep the cycle going!
Tip #6 ARRANGE AND STORE ITEMS BASED ON HOW OFTEN YOU USE THEM
So this one was the fuel for the very first ugly argument my husband and I had when we were first married. I moved into his house and he had things set where and how they worked for him. But he’s almost 6’ tall and I’m definitely NOT. I got super tired of dragging a step stool over to the pantry every day to get down the tupperware. One day while he was at work I swapped out the pots and pan cabinet, which was low, but rarely used, for the tupperware cabinet. It made terrific sense to me because I could now reach it easily and without added stress. If you can reduce the amount of steps and effort it takes to perform a task, that’s efficient. However…it brings me to Tip #7
Tip #7 DON’T REARRANGE SOMEONE ELSE BASED ON HOW YOU FUNCTION
For real. Just because you like the toothpaste in the medicine cabinet next to your moisturizer doesn’t mean your bathroom mate appreciates that convenience. Re-read Tip #3. Some things are’t worth the battle and two tubes of toothpaste is absolutely okay if it keeps the peace. Pick your battles. Organization is about keeping life simple. If you have children, watch how they like to play. Do they want all their lego pieces together in a big box because its easier for them to put it away? Or do they like to have them color coded? Yes, there are actually children out there who do this. Trust me, I have one. Allow ownership of the process and you’ll have so much more cooperation from the entire team.
Tip #8 BE SELECTIVE ABOUT WHAT YOU ALLOW INTO YOUR SPACE
Being organized is great, but if you don’t have anywhere to keep new stuff? Do you really NEED it? No place to store a value sized box of kleenex? Even if it was a good deal, you’ll be tripping over it for months, even in cold and flu season. Do you really need another pair of sneakers? I mean…really? Buy one really awesome pair and wear them out. Buy better less often is my philosophy and that applies to everything, shoes, clothes, furniture. You will save money in the long run. I often educate my design clients on this one, but that’s a blog for another day.
Tip #9 LOOK AT YOUR HOME AS IF YOU WERE A GUEST
It’s easy to become blind to the clutter in our home. Take a photo of your room and look at it. Really look at what is sitting around. Sometimes re-framing your perspective allows you to pinpoint problem areas before unexpected guest arrive and those problem areas scream at you for attention! Excess papers and throw blankets are my weak spots.
Tip #10 DON’T BUY MORE STORAGE CONTAINERS UNTIL YOU HAVE ELIMINATED YOUR EXCESS STUFF
Why spend precious money on boxes and tubs to store stuff you don’t really need! Once you have your system in place and have removed the stuff you really don’t need, then you can see what storage solutions work for you and your family, But please…I’m begging you…label those boxes and put like items together.
I hope a few of these tips make their way into your home. I’m definitely not perfect or an immaculate house keeper (ask said Husband) But I do like things to be nice and if I stay on top of it, it doesn’t get too far gone.
And now my BONUS TIP
You have to do it daily. Ugh. I know you didn’t want to hear that. But if you go to bed with dirty dishes, you’ll wake up with yesterday’s dirt. That’s no way to start a beautiful day. You’ll be surprised how much you can get done while you’re waiting for something else.