The Organizing PROCESS is Your Force…Use It
Is the chaos and clutter in your life driving you crazy? Do you wish you could get a handle on it but are overwhelmed and discouraged with where to start? Don’t worry, you are not alone and I can help.
At this time of the year I like to take a moment to introduce/remind readers about the organizing PROCESS steps I recommend to assist you on your organizational journey. It’s a simple but effective acronym that helps to keep you from getting ahead of yourself when organizing in order to create lasting change.
You see I truly believe organizing is a PROCESS rather than a destination. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on things it’s time to do it all over again. Life happens. Kids outgrow their toys and clothes, your responsibilities and needs change, you have another child, you get married, a new job, etc. With the right techniques though you can stay on top of these things, you can control your space rather than your space controlling you. Being organized allows you to quickly restore the situation when “life” gets a little chaotic and let’s face it, unless you live in a bubble, it’s bound to happen.
PROCESS is defined as a series of actions used to produce something or reach a goal.
PROCESS
That is what we want to do when organizing. Having a series of actions to follow will help you create a clutter free space with a system designed specifically for your needs that is easy to maintain.
Here are the PROCESS steps:
Plan of attack – plan your project – which area(s) do you want to address – make a list – evaluate present system, what is working, what isn’t working, devise new system – determine budget – develop timeline
Remove items – empty the space completely so you can start from a clean slate – this is much more effective than just shuffling everything around. Remove then sort & purge
Organize into piles – donate/toss/sell/keep/relocate – sort like with like – purge excess – the more you purge the less you have to find a home. Ask yourself some declutter questions. Your goal is to bring back into your space only what you love and use and can fit into the space you have available. Purge until it fits!
Containerize – find storage solutions – containers establish limits and boundaries – designate a space for items being kept – consolidate where possible
Evaluate plan – how is your system working for you – are you able to work your system? What needs to be modified? A good system should be easy to maintain
Solve/Simplify any remaining issues. Address anything that isn’t working for you – revise accordingly
Smile, relax and enjoy your hard work!
credit: mwoodard
Additional Organizing Resources
PROCESS Bookmark:
Download a FREE handy PROCESS Bookmark to help you remember each of the above steps (you’ll need to reduce the size to 100%)
Planning Questions:
1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?
2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?
3. What can I remove from the room?
4. What problems do I see with the room?
5. What organizational tools might solve those problems?
6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems?
7. What kind of a budget do I have to create the organized room of my dreams?
8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room?
9. What is my plan of action?
10. Who can I ask to help me with this?
Declutter Questions:
1. Do I love it?
2. Do I use it? How long ago did I use it?
3. Do I have the space to store it in an uncluttered manner?
4. Am I willing to give up something else in this space in order to make room for it?
Org Junkie’s Tips for Parting With Your Clothes:
1. If you haven’t worn something in a year then out it goes regardless of condition, price or size. Why a year? Because you cover every season in that period of time. If you haven’t worn it during the year, you probably never will.
2. If you have a piece of clothing that you wear but are annoyed with it every time you do, seriously stop it.
3. If it’s waiting to be mended and it’s been waiting for a long time then enough is enough already.
4. If you hate to iron and your ironing pile sits there totally neglected while you wear all your favorite clothing over and over again, why do you still have an ironing pile?
5. I’m not opposed to keeping your “skinny” clothes (and I know we all do it) but for goodness sakes you don’t need to keep all of it. Styles change, your tastes change, your body shape changes so chances are good that when you get back to that size you’re going to want new stuff anyway.
6. If you absolutely love a shirt but never wear it because you have nothing to wear it with, well guess what, a mate isn’t going to magically appear in the night. Follow the one year rule.
7. Sentimental clothes that you aren’t wearing shouldn’t reside in your closet. Either take a picture of it and preserve the memory or limit yourself to one tote of “clothes to show my kids so they can laugh their heads off at me someday”.
8. Don’t hang onto something that is “just alright” because you don’t have something better yet to replace it. Let it go now unless it means you go naked, that wouldn’t be right.
9. You don’t have to do it all at once. Try it in stages and be motivated by your success. One day you could do shirts, the next day shorts, etc..
10. Try everything on. This one I can’t stress enough. Do not hold something up and say oh this is so beautiful I’m going to keep it. That’s too easy and what you might not remember is that, although it’s beautiful, the buttons gape at the front showing off your woman parts. Nope we don’t want that now do we. Get rid of it.
11. You only have the space that you do. Jamming your clothes into the closet and fighting with them every single day to find what you need won’t make your closet grow in the night. It will only make you grumpy…every single day. It’s not worth it.
Purge Labels:
Use these FREE labels to help you quickly set up your purging station.
Download Purge Labels
I’m an Organizing Junkie App:
For iPhone and iPad users check out my organizing app to help you with your daily organizing tasks. Android version coming soon.
Clutter Rehab:
My book, Clutter Rehab, includes 101 tips and tricks to become an organization junkie and love it!
52 Weeks Series:
It’s not too late to start following along with the 52 weeks series I did last year. Check it out!
Organizing Challenge:
Also I hope to run an organizing challenge again in February similar to the one I did in 2010. Start thinking about which room you’d like to tackle and don’t forget to take before pictures!! I’m just in the process of pulling together some awesome prizes, whoot!
My Favorite Organizing Products:
Wanting to know where to find some of my favorite products? Look no further than my Opensky shop.
May the organizing force be with you! :)
Love the solve/simplify step! I am constantly trying to simplify everything to make organizing that much easier. The easier it is, the more likely I am to stick with it! Thank you for the great resources!
Thank you for this information, getting organized it is one of my biggest goals this year.
What a great post of a wealth of information! I love it and will share it!
Bernice
50 tips for busy moms
I love the word containerize! I also love when it slips into my everyday speech patterns and people look at me like I’m nuts :-)
Hahaha, me too!!
i am soooo excited about the organized room challenge coming up — i’ve got to figure out which room to do!
I can’t wait to begin organizing! My storage areas are so small as well as so few, and since I am not an organizer, I am hoping to get some advice. I have decided to put everything, even the smallest thing on my list. If I find that that looks too over-whelming to start with, I’ll go back and just put the medium and large tasks on my planner and go with those.