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Expert Advice: Clutter Busting
Organization expert Laura Leist offers 10 steps to get you started.
Was “get organized” one of your New Year’s resolutions? You’re not alone. It’s consistently one of the top three resolutions set every year.
Here’s a brief description of my recommended 10-step plan. This process will work — whether you want to organize one junk drawer, a stack of papers, one room or your entire home.
1. Dedicate time. If you simply say, I’ll get organized “someday,” then “someday” will never come. You need to plan for this and schedule the time.
2. Gather supplies. No, this is not a shopping step; it’s one where you gather the garbage can, the recycling bin and boxes for items you will be eliminating.
3. Establish a staging area. If the area you’re working in is small, spread out to another area where you can temporarily use the space for the next step.
4. Sort. The goal is to sort things loosely into groups of “like” items, so you can begin to see the quantity in each group.
5. Purge and eliminate. During the sorting process, you will more than likely run across items you no longer treasure and that you can eliminate by donating, selling, recycling or pitching.
6. Group like items together. Most likely you started this already in Step four. Now it’s time to be more specific about groupings.
7. Examine your space. Is there enough room for what you are organizing? Do you need to take measurements so you can look for organizing products or systems?
8. Shop. And you thought you’d never get to this step! Time to shop for products or systems that once installed will to help contain your groups of like items. Don’t forget to take a list of needs with you, including measurements of spaces where products will fit or of items they need to accommodate.
9. Install products. This could be as simple as putting things in a new container, or slightly more time-consuming, like installing a new closet organizing system.
10. Maintain. Devote the five to 10 minutes it takes each day to ensure your new organization systems continue to work for you and your family.
As you work through this process, establish a home for everything you have. Once you’ve done this, it’s important to review your new organizational systems with all family members. After all, you don’t want your hard work to go to waste. When you are finished, give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done, or better yet, treat yourself to something, such as a movie, lunch with a friend or a massage.
Notice I didn’t list anything that would add clutter!
About the author: Laura Leist, CPO, is an organizing and productivity consultant, speaker and author of Eliminate Chaos: The 10-Step Process to Organize Your Home & Life and several books on organizing with Microsoft Outlook. Based in Seattle, Laura is the founder of Eliminate Chaos (eliminatechaos.com) and the president-elect of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers).
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