05/05/2025
If you’re here, it’s because you have the best intentions on making your life simpler by getting organized. I’m proud of you for being so eager to learn. Your mindset is in the right place, and now it’s just a matter of learning strategies that work for you.
I’ll give you one piece of honesty that every professional organizer gives. You cannot organize clutter. You can’t contain clutter. You can’t contain excess. So, how do you start? Before you begin anything, get your timer ready. Set it for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, you can focus on another task, and after a total of 45 minutes, give yourself a break for 15.
First start with things that can be thrown away. If you’re working in a closet, toss out the clothes with stains and rips, or if they’re not your size. Hanging on to clothing that doesn’t fit is a mental weight on our minds. If you’re working in a pantry, toss expired foods or items that are trash (such as if your children leave empty boxes or bags on the shelf…I’m not the only one, right?). If you’re working to declutter your bedroom, grab a trash bag and just pick up the things that need to be thrown away.
Second step: Put away things that don’t belong in this space. When I am organizing a space, I bring along a basket. When I have things that don’t belong (such as If I have water bottles in the bedroom or the random charger cord for my laptop), I place it in the basket by the door. This prevents me from walking away from my work space and getting distracted. When my 15 minutes is up, I use the next time slot to put those items away. If I finish faster, then I get back to work.
Now to declutter: Move on to things that, as Marie Kondo says, spark joy. For me, everything would spark joy, so I made myself touch everything more than once, and I asked myself why this was important to me. Finally, separate the things that need to be rehomed - BUT, you must promise to donate them immediately. When I work with clients, I offer to take the bags and items for donation myself, so they are out of their house. This is for a couple reason. One: sometimes clients feel guilty for donating them; and two: donating can be a mentally hefty task and procrastination sets in. When I do this with my family, it’s not uncommon for my husband and me to drop things off at the donation site very late at night. No matter what, just get it out of your home.
Step 3: Work in sections: This is going to take some trial and error on your part. To work in sections means you need to understand how much you can trust your brain to tackle the most meaningful spaces. For me, when I clean or organize, I have to tackle the largest task first, then I can tackle the smaller tasks. For example, in my bedroom, I have to make sure my bed is cleared and made. Then I can tackle the dresser or nightstand. The reason my brain likes this is because all too often, I’ll organize an out-of-sight space (for example, under the bed). I spend all my focus under the bed, and then when I am tired, I look at the rest of my room and I feel frustrated because it’s still a mess. Same thing can happen in a kitchen when we focus on the insides of the cabinets or drawers before we declutter the countertops. However, this is what works for me. Prioritize your space first by asking yourself, what would make me most happy right now if I made this space clean?
Finally, throw away perfectionism. Flylady, the first professional organizer I learned from, has a wonderful saying: Housework done incorrectly still blesses the family. This statement has helped me have more grace with myself, and hopefully you will feel it as well. When we organize and clean, all too often we have the catalog/social media images in our minds and that sets the standard for how our space should look. Personally this is a huge struggle for me, one I battle today. Deep down, I know that these influencers stuck all their extra stuff off camera, or that those bedrooms in the Sears catalog as a child didn’t have real children with toys living in them. So, I understand that battle completely. How I try to balance this perfectionism is to ask myself, do I feel lighter in my space, is it tidy, will my family enjoy this space. I have to bring in my family members, because it helps me lower my perfectionism into a realm of things that are realistic.
Throw away
Put away
Work in sections
Get rid of perfectionism
PS– remember, you’re about to create more space when you declutter and purge. Don’t give into the mindset that just because you have empty space, you need to fill it with more things. Just move forward with purposeful purchases– make sure you’re not chasing the dopamine by shopping and that when you do buy new items, you know they will have specific purposes.
If you feel like you need a hand in decluttering and organizing your space, let’s work together. You’d be amazed at how much can be done in a 3-hour block. I would love to work with you!
You’ve got this. I believe in you! –April
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