So let’s see….many of you will have sorted your stuff into piles and thinking now what? Now you need to take inventory of what you have left and determine what type of zones you need to create in your space. Zones within a room help create boundaries, they help everyone in the household know where everything needs to go and makes clean up a zinch. Have you ever been looking for something and said to yourself “if I were my ______ (keys, scissors, pens, nail file, etc..) where would I be?” as you search all over the house looking in every nook and cranny. Well zones will help this. I have posted about a few of my zones in the past…for instance my backpack station, art centre and scrapbook central. Many of you are organizing multipurpose spaces in the 30 day challenge. For instance, Judi is organizing her bonus room and in that space she needs an exercise zone, a toy zone, a computer zone and a TV watching zone. She may even determine that her room needs to encompass even more zones than that. Give each zone its own space….some even find it useful to section off the space somehow using a divider of some sort like a bookcase to create a reading nook for example. Now place each of your newly created “keep” piles in the correct zone in your space and then work on organizing one zone at a time. The fun part is next….my favorite anyway. Containerizing!!! Within each zone you need to designate space for the different items. For instance, in my art centre I knew I needed a designated space for coloring books, glue, erasers, crayons, pencil crayons, notebooks, and scissors. I’ve added the picture below so you can see how I did this.
The green cady works perfectly for the pencil crayons, markers and scissors allowing the kids quick and easy access. The little four drawer unit holds the erasers, glue and notebooks and of course the two shelves hold the workbooks and coloring books. This is the ONLY space I have designated for these items. This is where they belong…period. If the kids happen to get new workbooks or crayons say on their next birthday and they won’t fit into my space, I get rid of some of the old ones. That is the way it works….boundaries are set! Of course there is some flexibility here but it comes at a cost….if I did want to keep the extra workbooks it would mean I would need a bigger zone and I would have to consider whether or not I had the money and space to allow me to do that….I have to ask myself is it really worth it for me?
I don’t want to get too far ahead so I’m going to go into more about containerizing in a future post but for now I want to hear about the zones you need and are going to create within your space and I can’t wait!!!
Anonymous says
Hi Laura, thanks for the motivatin! 🙂 We finished our closet, and it wasn’t very exciting; so I am going to make my project the hall closet…even though I haven’t started. It is funnier and needs to get done now. If I am ambitious I will add the play room. 🙂 That seems to be my ongoing project, and I really need you to fly in and fix it. Please? Ha ha!
The Lazy Organizer says
You’ve explained it beautifully!
I picked an easy project with only two zones! Swimming equipement and coats/jackets/bags. What I’ll do is label a couple hooks for each person in the family. I had pegs in my last house. It was a free for all and always looked like a mess. It wasn’t behind a closed door either. I think labels will help us out this time around.
Andrea says
I just did some zone work today. Originally the whole room was going to be craft, but now it will be a craft zone, book zone, and from your post I’ve been inspired to do a kids mini craft zone. Then the closet is a storage zone… but that’s a whole other project. I’m still unsure of the best placements of the zones. But that’s why I change furniture around all the time.
Anonymous says
Good information!
I guess that means that my room (office/playroom) will have at least 2 zones. I’m still going through my paperwork. I did not realize how much I had. I am seeing a little progress (someone may not see a difference, but I am).
I am also going to use your idea about only keeping enough stuff that will fit into space I have for it.
Thanks Laura
Anonymous says
oooohhhhhh a caddy!!! That’s brilliant!!!!!!!!!!
Air Force Family says
I worked on my project today! I’m making lots of progress. I’m hoping to have it finished today and I might just start another project. Have a great day!
Susanne says
These are so good Laura! I’ve been a little unorganized in getting pics up and posting on it and putting the button up, but I am following along and working towards the 30 days. I’ll probably end up posting the before and after pics in one big post. Sigh.
Anonymous says
Laura, I have a two year old and a child who is six and has autism. My problem is keeping everything OUT of their reach. This leads to a lot of clutter at the end of my arms reach. What do you do about that? The top of my fridge looks like that mountain that Richard Dreyfus made out of potatoes in ET!!
org junkie says
Oh Jan I hear you on little ones getting into everything. I have a one year old that is so busy, I even had to put a lock on my fridge! My only suggestion is storage solutions with doors and a lock! Those little ones can be pretty clever when they want to be can’t they. Maybe someone else can help us here. Thanks, Laura
Peggy says
I decided to work on my basement. My incentive is a new water softener when I’m done…never had one and soooooo looking forward to it.
I forgot to take before pictures and then I got one section all torn apart and developed a migraine….only the 3rd one in my life. So now my basement is even worse than it was, and I don’t know when I’ll get back to it. *sad huh?*
Anonymous says
How motivating you are my friend.I start my closet today when Miller goes down for his first nap. Maybe I will get some things accomplished.