3 Simple Tips for Getting Started with Home Organization

“Life truly begins only after you have put your house in order.” – Marie Kondo.

You can lose more than just your inner peace when your house is messy and disorganized. You often waste your time looking for things when you need them. And this can be real trouble.

Organizing your home may suggest doing a lot of work, but having the right strategy, it can be fun and easy. However, it is vital to have a conviction to get the process of organizing your home done because some people would often give up and fail with their organization's goal.

The golden rule with getting organized is that your inventory must conform to your available storage and your ultimate goal would be to empty shelves and drawer space.

Organizing a home is such a massive project, so it is unnecessary to put pressure on yourself to finish quickly. Instead, enjoy the process and know that soon you will be reaping the fruit of your labor: a beautifully organized abode.

Before you proceed with your organization's goal, it would help a lot if you have a to-do list.

List down all the rooms in your home.

To start your organization goal, create a list of the rooms in your home as well as the spaces within that room you wish to organize. Below is my example:

• Living room (coffee table, console table)

• Kitchen (pantry cabinet, under sink cabinets, utensil drawer, pans and pots drawer)

• Bedrooms (cabinet, side table, vanity table

• Bathroom (medicine cabinet, wall shelves, rolling cabinets)

The task of remembering every area that needs work can be challenging. However, once you put all that information on a to-do list, you begin to formulate a strategy for dealing with the clutter.

Here are 3 helpful tips to start with your home organization

1. Declutter

Decluttering is the very first step and the most important one when organizing your home. Decluttering can be challenging depending on how sentimental you are, but this step is crucial.

Decluttering removes the unnecessary and makes you decide what to keep and what to let go of.

How to start decluttering?

You can declutter in so many ways, but I personally consider decluttering tips from Marie Kondo, a Japanese organizing consultant.

“The best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item in one’s hand and ask: “Does this spark joy?” If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it. This is not only the simplest but also the most accurate yardstick by which to judge.”

Decide on things to keep by asking yourself whether that thing appeals to you or is important to you. If you see that it’s no longer essential to you, you can let it go. You really don’t have to hurry things up; take it slow but be consistent. Eventually, you will get familiar with the art of letting things go.

We can be sentimental at times and it’s totally fine. Keep those personal items to you, but when it takes up too much space in your home, it is doing you no good; it’s time to re-evaluate. As a remembrance, you might want to take a photo of it and then donate it. For items that you are letting go of but are still in good condition, you can consider doing the following:

• Donate them: You can donate functional items and help someone in need of that item. There might be some donation drives in your community where you can bring those items for donation. You can also search online for organizations that accept old stuff. Some organizations accept old books, toys, and clothes, and from there, you can segregate your things for donation.

• Give them away to relatives, friends, or neighbors: If someone you know would need something that you have, you can give it to them. Do you have plenty of books that might interest your friends who love books? Ask them if they want some of your books; they will surely appreciate you sharing those books with them.

• Do a garage sale or sell those items online: You can earn from things you no longer need by doing a garage sale. You can also post your items for sale online. Join buy and sell online groups where you can post your items for sale. By doing so, you are making money out of your decluttering.

2. Organize and Categorize Everything

After decluttering, you are now ready to start organizing and categorizing everything. This is really the start of your home organizing project.

Look through all the things you choose to keep, start sorting things and categorize them accordingly. Categorizing will help you organize your stuff in an efficient manner that is easy to maintain.

Make use of your to-do list. Start from one room organizing areas and spaces and try to finish it before proceeding to other locations in your home. Take your time; no need to hurry. It’s definitely acceptable to take things slow, what matters is you're doing it and you are consistent with your goal.

Try to keep things organized to make the most sense to you, your family, and your home.

3. Have a System

After organizing and sorting your things out, it’s time to have a system in place. This system will eventually help you stay organized after that.

Having an organizational system will also save you time and money. It also helps you and your household members keep track of where your things are located in your home.

Consider the 3 “S” elements when creating your organizational system:

Keep your system Simple

As other members of your family will also be involved in maintaining your system, it is beneficial to keep it simple.

The simpler the system is, the easier it is for everyone, including kids to keep up with it. With a simple system, it is easier for people to follow and when followed, your organizing system can be successful and sustainable

A complex system, on the other hand, is not easy to implement and may end up not being followed at all leading your organizing efforts back to zero again.

Make your system Sustainable

It is important to make sure your home's organizational system is sustainable, and create a system that makes sense to you.

Can you sustain the system that you have now? Do you think you can have that high energy after sometimes doing the same labeling, storing, and organizing your pantry? If you can maintain that organizing style, that is perfectly fine.

Being unable to deliver that kind of organizing is also alright. Just be realistic about your time and priorities.

And it is also fine to create a simpler system, the one that works for you and your family. However, identifying a system that works for you will definitely save you money and time.

Your storage container should allow you to See what’s inside it

Seeing what is inside your storage container will make it easy for you and other household members to identify the location of items.

It also prevents having items that are forgotten due to being hidden from your view.

Baskets can also be great for organizing but make sure that you can see what’s inside them.

You can as well turn old boxes into storage containers; just be creative. This will save you money and allow you to store your things.

In conclusion, organizing your home is beneficial to your inner peace. But more than that, organizing saves you time and money. You can start small and take it one step at a time, no pressure. Happy organizing!