Take a lazy, rainy Sunday to clear your space and make a fresh start for the New Year.
1. Focus on only one area. You might start by organizing a bookshelf or a closet – instead of an entire room.
2. Set a timer and give yourself an hour to start. Promise yourself you won’t dig through old photos or read love letters from high school. It’s tough, but you can do it. The purpose of the hour is to organize – not to walk down memory lane.
3. How much space do you have? Be realistic about how much space you have compared to how much stuff. You should, of course, have an equal space to stuff ratio.
4. Find containers that fit the space. A “container” could mean a photo album for photos or a plastic bin for summer clothes. Get some colorful boxes (IKEA has cheap ones) to make the space look more attractive and hide your piles. Just keep in mind that the everything should fit into the space like a puzzle piece.
5. Organize your stuff into categories - and then put the categories in containers: put CDs in one box and old birthday cards in another. Label each box with a black Sharpie so there’s never any mystery about what’s inside. If you can’t think of a category for something, put it in a box marked “miscellaneous.”
6. Definitely create a pile in the recycling bin (if you know what I mean) and take lots of stuff to Goodwill. If you can’t decide whether to get rid of something, set it aside in a “maybe” pile.
7. When you’re finished, the puzzle should be complete… and everything else should be in a truck headed for a thrift store. Put the “maybe” pile in storage for a month and write the date on the outside of the box. In February, if you haven’t missed anything in the box, you will know that you can live without it.
If you need any help, drop me a line: mary@missorganizer.com.
Posted by marykblalock 
