This post is a detailed overview of my 8 steps for how to organize your spaces.
I have helped quite a few people organize their spaces over the years. But the one above was total chaos. This office had become my client’s “catch all”. There was barely a path to walk into the room.
You can see some plastic totes on the floor. They had good intentions but didn’t really know how to get started. Below, I will give you my steps for how to organize a mess like this.
A Few Things You’ll Need For Your Next Organization Project
- Boxes or bins for donations
- Boxes or bins for items that will be sold
- Strong bags for trash and recycling
- Cleaning supplies
- Sticky notes
- Measuring tape
Steps to Organize Your Spaces: Planning
Step 1 Know what the end game is for the space that you’re organizing. Is it to cut down on old possessions? Perhaps it’s to make space for the car to be able to fit in the garage? Or maybe you’re tired of wasting time trying to find stuff.
Whatever the reason for organizing, it’s important to know WHY you’re doing what you’re doing. Otherwise you can get lost in the sauce. And you need every item to have its place.
Step 2 Schedule real time to work on the mess. And be realistic. Depending on the mess, it could take several hours or even days. If necessary, break it up and set small goals over several days. Because if you simply start it on a whim and run out of time, you could end up with a bigger mess.
Step 3 It’s almost impossible to organize a space without extra space to work in. Make sure you have some place to temporarily move things. For example, let’s say you’re organizing the garage. The driveway needs to be clear so you have some place to move everything. And have a rain plan. You might have to temporarily move things to a covered patio.
Steps to Organize Your Spaces: Cleaning Out a Cluttered Space
Step 4 Choose your starting point. It makes the most sense to go for the biggest bang first. Because big results can create the best domino effect. However, sometimes this is not possible because you can’t access that area. In that case, just start with the mess that’s right in front of you and work your way a little at a time.
Step 5 Remove EVERYTHING. And if you didn’t schedule enough time to remove all items. At least remove EVERYTHING from the target area you’ve set as your goal for the day. As you remove things, you’ll have at least 5 piles going.
(A) trash
(B) recycle
(C) donations
(D) sell
(E) what you may keep (sometimes you end up giving more things away as you get further into the mess)
And if there’s something you are not sure about, don’t spend too much time on it. You can come back to it later. Just start a new area for the “maybes”.
Steps to Organize Your Spaces: Sorting
Step 6 Once everything is cleared from your target area, bag your trash. And bag your recyclables. Start your donation box. Start your sell box.
Now you can REALLY see what you have left that needs to be organized. Start your first sort on the pile you may keep.
This is where you’ll need to be honest with yourself. Because you may find things that you actually don’t need in this pile.
Ask yourself some tough questions. “Would I have ever missed this item, if I would not have found it just now?” “Will I really ever use/wear this?” “Could it be more useful to someone else?”
You will either place the item in one of the other bags/boxes that are going away. Or it will go into a sub-pile.
Your sub-piles will be all the things you’re keeping. And this is when you are going to group things that are alike. For example, all the yard tools would be a sub-pile. All the yard chemicals would be another. Etc. etc.
Once you can see how big your sub-piles are you’ll be able to tell how much space they need in the newly organized area.
But let’s say you have maybe only cleared one table or one corner. That’s ok. You can save your sub piles until you are finished sorting the whole mess. Then in the end, you can assess how much space you’ll need. And you’ll be better able to decide what containers/bins (if any) will help you to reorganize what’s left.
Steps to Organize Your Spaces: Cleaning Then Putting Everything Back
Step 7 Now that the space is basically empty, you have an opportunity to clean all the surfaces and get a fresh start.
This is also the time to find or purchase your storage totes/jars/baskets/boxes. (If you purchase these things too far in advance, there’s a good chance you won’t have the right sizes.) Make sure to measure first before making your purchases.
Step 8 Packing things in your containers and putting them back in your clean space. Make sure to put the items you use most frequently in a convenient area. And the lesser-used items can be stored up high or behind other things. This is also where your sticky notes will come in handy and tape measure. You can measure areas and use sticky notes to help you get a loose grasp of how you think you should organize the space. Move the sticky notes around as needed.
How You STACK Matters When You Organize Your Spaces
Try to avoid STACKING clothes, blankets and sheets on top of each other. Instead, you’ll want to try to fold items according to the height you have available. Then stack vertically. For example, my sheets, throws and bath towels are stacked vertically. The hand towels and wash clothes would not work this way, so you can see they are stacked horizontally.
You can also vertically stack items in drawers. Again, you’ll want to fold items according to the height you have available. I fold my husband’s socks so they take up the full height of the drawer. This allows me to put more socks in the drawer.
And in the photo below, everything is still stacked vertically. But notice how I turned my husband’s swim shorts in a different direction. I did this because they fit better in the drawer this way 🙂
I recommend vertical stacking. Because it gives you the quickest access to the exact item you need – without disturbing the other items. With horizontal stacking, you end up making an unintentional mess when you need to pull from the middle. And that mess can be made worse when you need to pull from the bottom of the stack.
Organize Your Spaces and Make it Last Longer
Stick to the system you have just designed. Unless you find something is not really working. Then change it or fix it along the way.
Avoid putting things where they don’t belong. Your intention – that you’ll get to it later – is good. But we all know that time will NEVER come. It’s just a fact we all need to admit!
Discipline yourself to take the extra minute to put things away, where they belong, the first time 😊 Otherwise, the stacks and clutter will begin all over again.
Back to My Client’s Office Mess
There were office furnishings and large equipment in this office. So I could not remove everything (like I mention in Step 3). However, I did remove everything else. This is necessary so you have some place to work. And removing all the contents allows you to group things and assess all the things that belong together.
Here is the finished space.
Although you can’t see it above. I filed all the important papers and shredded the rest. I sorted the tons of photos and magazines (that I found all over the place) into the plastic totes, sitting on the floor.
Take Away
Even if you’ve never been the “organized type” it doesn’t matter. You can still do this! But it will take some discipline. There! I said it – discipline is really all you’re missing. Once you embrace the idea that you will need discipline, you’ll be well on your way. And the trade off will be amazing satisfaction and less stress.
Here’s to less clutter and more organization to start Making it Fabulous!
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