Organizing Made Simple
What’s holding you back from getting organized? As I’ve worked with clients the past few years, the most common theme I’ve seen is that they don’t know where to start. Getting started is the hardest part! I think we struggle with this in other areas of life as well.
I believe there are 2 main reasons we don’t know where to start:
1. We are looking for perfection.
2. We are trying to do everything at once.
I have a goal between now and the end of the year to go through every room in the house, deep cleaning and reorganizing. We also have not finished renovating and decorating our house. We’ve lived here for 4 years, so that seems a little odd. But I’ve been going room by room in this, and I want to do it right the first time. So we save money for a space, get it how we want it, and then save for the next one. Our house is around 2600 square feet, and if I try to do things perfect or all at once I will get paralyzed and do nothing.
This is why I resolved to go room by room: deep cleaning, reorganizing, and making a list of what is needed to complete each space. I decided to start on the first floor at the end of my house, and work my way through and then up the stairs to the second floor. I’ve been through the bathroom, my desk, mudroom, kitchen (cabinets and all), pantry, and today I did the living room. Cleaning walls, cabinets, furniture, everything! The organizing is not taking long, as I am pleased to say that the rooms I’ve been through so far have a very good system in place. The walls however…. well you can just imagine with 3 boys.
For the cleaning part (walls, doors, door frames, baseboards, cabinets, etc.) I used a bucket of warm water with white vinegar. 1 part white vinegar, 3 parts water. It works! I will spare you a picture of what the water looks like after cleaning 1 wall.
Our living room took a little longer than I planned, but I wanted it done right so I didn’t cut any corners. I even pulled all the furniture away from the walls to get those awful dust bunnies. And wow I forget how much dust electronics cords collect!
You may have heard me say before, “I love organizing. I do not love cleaning.” Therefore, my house is well-organized, but the floors get swept and bathrooms cleaned a lot less than they should be! I decided it was time to suck it up and do some deep cleaning. The dirty handprints all over the downstairs walls were a really good motivator!
If you want to get organized and don’t know where to start, you need to first lay down your desire for perfection. It is not going to happen.
Secondly, break your project into small, achievable goals. One space at a time. One corner of a room at a time. One cabinet at a time.
This week, I had 3 hours to devote to my goal. I may have more next week, or I may have less. I just take and use what I can get!
Keep it simple,
Melissa
Get Organized. Simply Live.