Welcome to the first post of 2023! Can you believe how fast the holidays flew by?! When I’m writing this, we’re halfway through January and I’m already thinking about the activities for organizing I need to start doing. Especially because NOW is the perfect time to organize. If you haven’t started yet, don’t worry… I’ve got you!
Before I dive into the different activities for organizing I want you to consider doing, I want to remind you that organizing is not a means to an end. It’s more of a way to create peace in your life. Organizing is about having an order to your life so your life doesn’t feel so stressful and chaotic. And my order won’t necessarily look like your order and that’s OK!
As you read this post, I want you to think about organizing your home environment or office. It will help you visualize the activities for organizing easier and understand the process. I try to go through these activities every six months, at a minimum. If I can do them more, I do. These activities aren’t something you will necessarily start and finish in one day. Sometimes they happen over the course of a few days, a week or maybe even a month. Be patient with yourself because I remember it being hard and challenging in the beginning. Ok, here we go…
Activity for Organizing # 1: Reducing
For many, this is the hardest part. But it’s the most necessary part to the whole process. Here’s why…
- How many spatulas do you have?
- How many black t-shirts do you have in your closet? Heck, how many white t-shirts do you have?
- How many pairs of ratty, old sneakers are you still holding onto?
- How many spare blankets do you have lying around the house?
Do you see where I’m going? I don’t ask you these questions to judge you, but rather to make you realize you may have excess or multiples of things you don’t necessarily need. Granted, there are some occasions where having multiples of an item make sense.
- Multiple serving spoons on had for the Summer BBQs
- Black (and white) t-shirts in different sleeve lengths or textures
- A blanket in each room of the house and for when guests come over
But let’s be real… Do you really need to keep multiple pairs of those ratty, old sneakers? As long as you have one for yard work and outside chores, I think you’re good. The whole purpose of reducing is to look around and see what items you could eliminate by means of donating, throwing away, selling or gifting [not like birthday gifts, more like giving to someone because they need it].
Donating is where you take items in decent quality and give them to local charities, big box stores like Savers or online retailers like ThredUp. These places will take the items, clean the up and sell them. It gets the items out of your home and into the home of someone else at a much lower price point.
Throwing away refers to tossing Items that are broken, ripped, torn or unusable. When things are in this condition, there’s really no point of holding to them anymore. If you have something you’re holding onto because you want to repair it, then do it and stop leaving it in your closest.
Selling is when. you take quality items that have been well taken care of and literally sell them either in-person or online. You can do this on Poshmark, Mercari, eBay and many other sites. When. I first started selling on Poshmark I made close to $500. I was literally blow away.
Gifting is when you take those quality items that you can’t sell but look new and give them to someone you know can use them. Those extra water bottles? Yep, these could fall into this category. You don’t need 20+ water bottles when there’s only seven days in a week, right?!
Remember, the less stuff you have, the less clutter you have and ultimately that means more peace in your life.
Activity for Organizing # 2: Arranging
Once you’re done with reducing, you move onto arranging. This is where you find places for the items you still have. It might mean completely changing your kitchen set-up to move the coffee maker to be closer to where your mugs are or clearing your counters and only keeping items you use most often out for people to see. Heck, it could even involve a closet clean-out where you empty your entire closet, pick out the stuff you like, get rid of the stuff you don’t.
This is probably my favorite part of the activities for organizing because it feels like you’ve given your home a refresher. Things start to feel new again. Once you’ve reduced, you now have the opportunity to arrange your things in a way that makes sense (because you’ve got less stuff). And what’s even better is that you’ll save time in the long run now.
You’ll spend less time looking through a messy drawer to find what you’re actually looking for. In the mornings before work, you’ll spend less time spent picking out what to wear for the day. Because you have less stuff you’ll have to clean less often. I call that a win!
Activity for Organizing # 3: Maintaining
I said I go through these steps every six months or so, but in reality, I do this step every day. The maintaining piece is probably the most important part of the whole process. If you don’t keep up with what you’ve done in the first two activities, then things will go right back to where they were. No one wants that!
In this activity, you do exactly what it sounds like. You clean up a bit every day by tossing old papers, receipts and items you don’t need. Wipe down counters every night before you go to bed becomes a habit. Sweeping floors is something you may not do daily but weekly for sure. And gathering up the items you want to donate or sell because part of your normal routine. The key with this activity is to make a point of doing this regularly.
If every day doesn’t work, do it every week.
Every week doesn’t work, do it every two weeks.
If every two weeks doesn’t work, do it every month.
My point is to do it based on YOUR schedule. You’re the only one who is going to know what that looks like. Unless you have an assistant like MVA that helps you manage your schedule. 😉 But you know what it looks like which is why I’m giving you the homework. I don’t usually do this, but I want you to look at your calendar and see when you’ll start this process. Actually pencil it in on your planner or make an entry into your electronic calendar. Then, commit to doing it. And feel free to DM me on IG with any questions or concerns. I know these activities for organizing may be a game changer for you and I’m here to help.