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10 Essential Ground Rules to Clear Clutter and Get Organized

Clear Clutter Get Organized

 

Follow These 10 Essential Ground Rules to kick-off 2017 Clutter-Free

Are you ready to start the new year off organized and clutter free? Deciding to take control over clutter is great first step.  The next one is not so easy:  Where to start?  Below are 10 ground rules to remember as you get ready to jump in and finally get organized.  

1. Get your mind right:  Pretend you’re moving. The truth is, deciding to get organized and clear your clutter is very much like moving. It’s time to go. Some things are coming with you, most things won’t. Get settled with this idea before you get started.

2. Everything has a reason.  Everything in your home should have some value. Either because you use it, because it’s artful or because you love it.

3. Start exactly where you are.  What’s making you the most crazy? Your closets? The inside of your desk? Under the desk? The medicine cabinet? Just start. Start right where you are.

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4. Sweat the small stuff.  Every single thing counts once your get started de-cluttering and getting (and staying) organized. Look at EVERYTHING. Decide on everything.

5. Don’t work tired.  Set a time limit for yourself. For the next 15 minutes decide to work through your medicine cabinet, or call it an hour and do the closet. Just do not work tired. Go hard or go home. Seriously. Be rested, be fed, be comfortable, and be mindfully filled with purpose and intention. If not, please just go lay down, because it just won’t work. (Between you and me, this applies to every area of our work lives. How much patience do any of us have for people who work joylessly and in a constant state of exasperation?)

6. Know the drill:  Create some basic categories. Trash, give-away, keep, put away. Please don’t run out and buy a stack of new things. This kills me when I meet clients with enough organizing accouterment to rival the local Container Store.  Honestly most of these so-called ‘organizing’ products offer more opportunities to squirrel away clutter.  Keep it simple. You probably have all the items you need right there in your home.  KISS=Keep It Simple Sweetie.

7. Sing while you work.  Remember that old Sesame Street Song “Some of these things belong together, some of these things are kind of the same…?”  Group like items. For example:  in the drawer you frequent just before you leave the house, you might find:  keys, the dog leash, and a coin purse – but heads up if there’s dental floss wrapped around a tube sock in there!

8. FOCUS.  You can only organize one area at a time. Multitasking does not apply here. It will only leave lots of things, undone. Tackle one area at a time.

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9. Eliminate the trash.  The moment you call yourself done with your organizing session, get the trash out of your home. Immediately. Don’t wait until later, otherwise it will sit there; trust me. I know. Get it out of your home, now!

10. Phone a friend. Don’t be afraid to enlist help. We all need help sometimes and organizing requires perspective, which is sometimes difficult to find with your own things.  Reach out to a friend or hire a professional organizer to help.

Happy Organizing and let me know how it goes!  You can leave a comment below.