Having a messy home may not mean that you have a messy life, but it can be a pretty good reflection of your mental state.
While a lot of us may have resolved to clean up our homes as our New Years resolution, how many of us have actually followed through? Not many, I bet – or a lot of us started the project and just got overwhelmed by the scope of the project – and instead of breaking down the organization into manageable pieces, saw the immensity of the whole and gave up. That’s not a good way of starting a project now, is it?
If you’re looking to really organize your life, here are some tips on how to get through the enormous project of organizing your home, and therefore, beginning the process of organizing your life and mind.
Goals and Ground Rules
Before you even begin to tackle whatever mess you may be looking to clean up, you need to set your goals and ground rules – what are you looking to get out of this – and set a concrete number for a concrete, achievable goal. Don’t say, “I want my house to be clean” – it will never be completely clean all the time, that isn’t a realistic goal. Something like “I want all the items in my home to be ones that I plan on using this year” is a more realistic and achievable goal.
But you need to stick to that goal! If your goal is to only keep items that you have used or plan on using this year – you can’t keep items that you may use. Be ruthless when it comes to purging items that you aren’t sure of.
You’re also going to want to decide beforehand what you are going to do with those items you decide you don’t need to keep – donate, garage sale? Whatever you do, make sure you have all the wheels in motion for the end game as well so that you have less time to waffle on any decisive choices that you made.
Budget Time…and Location
If you think that you don’t have the time to really get organized, budget an hour a day to clean and organize and de-clutter. You’ll probably be amazed at what you can get done in that time.
And as your time is precious when you’re budgeting time to clean up your home – narrow your focus. Not even to just one room of your house, but one section of your room. Maybe that bookshelf in your family room.
You’re also going to want to organize your organizing, and not let organizing those files on your desk distract you from actually organizing your desk. You’ll want to keep boxes (or trash bags) at the ready when you’re organizing – one for things that need to go into another room, another for things that need further organization, yet another for things that you don’t need and are going to donate (or somehow otherwise going to get rid of) and finally one for things that you are going to keep.
Once an area has been de-cluttered, keep it as such, especially if you’re only tackling one part of a room at a time. Don’t add to the mess that you just got rid of. And if you live with family or roommates, make sure that they are aware of this restriction as well.
Deal With the Clutter
And last but not least, once your timer goes off, you’re going to want to immediately deal with your “get rid of” items. Those things that were cluttering up your space and you decided that you don’t need anymore have no reason to still be in your home.
Plus, as I mentioned earlier, this stuff should be dealt with immediately as it gives you no time to second guess your decisions.
These three easy guidelines should put you on the way to having an organized home and a more organized life.
Jessica McNeal is a writer who works often with a company that sells animal tags – but shes seen them put to all kinds of uses! From acting as organizational labels to being used as firefighter ID tags, with a little imagination you can put the tags to any use! She hopes that everyone finds creative and useful ways to organize their home and breathe a little easier.
