It’s taken me a bit longer than I planned, but my organizing challenge project is finally over! Yay! Every cupboard, cabinet, shelf, container, and every other inch of my first floor, living space and breezeway has been looked through and organized. Even all the loose papers stashed away in various containers and boxes throughout my home are all now organized and filed to where I can find them when I need them.
I’m so glad I made this challenge. It has made a huge impact in my life in general. I am more productive than ever before. And every area of my life has changed for the better.
If you are thinking about organizing your home or life, here are some things I did and things I learned during this challenge, that might help you as well.
- Choose an end date. Decide on a date you want to be done with the project. This is especially helpful if deadlines are important to you. Knowing that you have to be done by a certain date will keep you focused and on track. When picking the date, consider how much free time you have to work on this project. You might also want to choose a time that’s not too far away. The faster you get the project done, the better. Try to make it realistic, but don’t worry too much about picking the perfect date. Just choose something. It can always be changed if needed.
- Tell someone (or everyone) about your project. Telling someone about your plans will give you accountability. Tell a friend, spouse, or a relative. Post about it on social media. The more people who know about it, the more it might motivate you to complete the project.
- Keep a journal during the project. Documenting your organizing journey is incredibly helpful. That way you can see what progress you’re making or not making. It doesn’t have to be long and go into great detail. Keep it short and to the point. Write down what you did each day, how long it took, problems you had, and solutions. You can also add any additional information you think is important.
- Reduce time for other things in your life. Reduce the time spent on other activities. When cooking, plan meal ideas for a week or two, make simple meals, and prepare make ahead meals. When cleaning, have others help you. You can use a rotating cleaning schedule that limits the time you spend cleaning each day, while still allowing your home to get cleaned on a regular basis. Lessen the time you spend doing nonessential activities such as watching TV.
- Limit the project. Don’t take on too much at once. When I first started my project, I wanted to do everything: the house, the basement, the breezeway, and the garage. Near the end of the project, I realized that wasn’t reasonable and decided to make it just the house and breezeway. I could do the garage and basement another time. Just start with one part. You can do more when that’s finished.
- Break it down into small chunks. You can break the project into different areas. If you are organizing your home, you can divide it up into different rooms. From there, you can work on one piece of furniture at a time. If you are organizing papers, you can break it down into types- magazine articles, financial records, medical records, school papers, sentimental papers, etc. Start with one, finish, then move on to another. Doing this will make it abundantly more manageable.
- Enlist help. Have others help you with the organizing project. You may have to tell them exactly what they need to do. You could also have someone complete your other required tasks (such as cooking dinner) for you, so that you can spend more time on organizing.
- Make quick decisions. If you must make a decision, do it quickly and get it over with. Most likely, the consequences of a wrong decision won’t be drastic. Just decide. Then move on.
- Do something every day. Keep pushing onward. If you continue to do something every day, it will eventually get done. This is the biggest tip that helped me get done faster. There were many days in a row that I wasn’t doing any organizing. As soon as I started doing something, no matter how small, every day, the project started to go much faster.
- Create good systems. A system is a way to manage something in your life. Simply organizing isn’t enough. A system will help you to stay organized. You can create systems for organizing papers, keeping your scheduled organized, storing your jewelry, managing grocery shopping, and just about anything else in your life. When you organize your home, systems can help you find things when you need them. Things are only useful if you can find them.
- Tidy up after you are finished for the day. Always straighten up an area when you are done working on a project for the day. Cleaning up your supplies and materials will make the room look nicer than having everything scattered all over. It will also prevent accidents from happening if someone trips on the clutter.
- Get the things you don’t want anymore out of the house as soon as possible. When you organize, you are bound to have some things you no longer want. It’s best to get those things out of your home as soon as possible. If you don’t, they may get mixed up with other things in your home. Then you will have to start all over again to figure out what needs to go. Its best to box or bag up things to give away. You can mark the outside of the box or bag to identify the items inside. Then put it in your car. Also, mark on your calendar or to-do list so you don’t forget to take it where it needs to go. You can gather all the trash that needs to get thrown out. Put it where the garbage is stored until garbage day.
- Don’t worry about perfect. Trying to make everything perfect wastes a lot of time, not to mention it is usually impossible to do. Organize enough that you can find your things when you need them. Create simple systems. Then move on.
- Adjust your plans when needed. You make plans, then life happens. Everything doesn’t always go as scheduled. Family gets sick, vehicles break down, children move, jobs change, and many other unplanned events happen. That’s life. Don’t let a bump in the road distract you or stop you. Deal with the problem, then get back on track to where you were.
- Don’t give up. Sometimes the job is overwhelming. You may want to give up, but don’t stop. It will be worth the time you spend now getting your home and life in order. Being organized is freeing. Knowing where your things are makes you feel in control. Even if you have little time, you can still do it. Work on it every day. My organizing challenge took longer than I thought it would. There were many unplanned events that knocked me off course. But I got back on track. If I can do it, you can do it.
- End the project. After you have gone through everything, organized it, and created systems, STOP. Don’t be tempted to keep going through your things and reorganize. You might need new systems at some point when life changes and you have new organizational needs, but not now. Be content with what you’ve just accomplished. Say out loud, “it’s done” then go on to enjoy your newly organized life.
Organizing has many advantages. It’s a good feeling living in an organized home. I believe an organized life is a better life. So don’t keep putting off doing your own organizing project that you have been wanting to do for a long time now. Just start.
As for me, I need to work on organizing my garage and basement, then get back to my neglected blog and my blogging adventures. Good luck and happy organizing!
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