Tips to Help You Get Organized and Stay That Way
Our lives are often busy, hectic and demanding. It’s easy to start feeling overwhelmed by everything you need to do, keep track of and take care of. Having an organized home can help you feel more on top of things so you are more productive, less distracted and more focused on the things that matter.
Often, getting and staying organized can feel like a challenging task. If you struggle to get and stay organized, with the right strategies and mindset, getting organized and maintaining that orderliness is achievable.
Whether you are looking to fine-tune your organizational system or are just starting to get organized, these tips will give you practical, actionable and realistic strategies to get and stay organized.
Tips to Organize Your Home
Declutter Ruthlessly
The more stuff you have to get and keep organized, the more challenging organizing will be.
When you have less stuff to manage, it’s not only easier to get it organized, it’s also a lot easier to keep it organized in the long run.
The first step whenever you are trying to get organized is to declutter ruthlessly. Get rid of anything you don’t use, need or love. Aim to only keep things you use regularly or love.
Organizing clutter is only a temporary solution to simplify your life. All that clutter is still in your home, needing to be managed, taken care of, cleaned, cleaned around, looked through, picked up etc.
Instead, clear the clutter first so that you are not wasting time, space and energy organizing clutter.
Give Each Item a Home
One of the best strategies to get organized is giving every item you own a home or designated place to keep it. When things don’t have a home, they tend to get left out on surfaces and floors, floating around the house causing mess and clutter.
When items have a home or specific place to keep them, it’s easier to put them away when you are done using them. You can find them again the next time you need them.
Declutter first so that you have fewer items you need to find homes for. You will have more space for each item rather than trying to fit a lot of stuff into the space.
Make each item’s home easy to access so it is easy to put something away as it is to leave it out. When things are easy to put away because they have clear homes and not too much stuff is getting in the way of putting them away, clutter and mess are less likely to build up.
Keep Like with Like
When you are finding homes for the items you own, get organized by keeping like items together.
When like items are stored together, it’s easier to find them when you need them and it’s easier to notice when you have too many or excess items and need to do some decluttering.
Give Yourself Space Limits
Giving yourself space limits is an excellent way to keep the amount of stuff in your home to a manageable amount.
Designate specific places for each category of items you own and give yourself a certain amount of space for each of those categories.
For example, designate one cupboard for mugs in your kitchen. Get a bookshelf to hold your books and make a space limit for how many books you can own.
Do the same for each category of items in your house. Let the space limit be your guide, telling you when you have too much and need to declutter. If it won’t fit in the designated space, you will know it’s time to do more decluttering.
Use Containers
Using containers to hold your stuff is another great way to get organized. Containers are great because they help keep like items together and act as a built-in-space limit too.
Be careful you are not using containers to store and hide clutter.
Always declutter first, then use containers to keep like items together and give yourself space limits for that category of items. You can also label your containers to help get your home even more organized.
Prioritize Your To-Do-List
A prioritized to-do-list helps ensure you do the most important tasks first. It’s easy to get caught up feeling busy doing a lot of less important tasks, while your most important tasks don’t get done. A to-do-list helps you focus on what matters most first so you can stay focused and work efficiently.
It can help to identify your top 3 priorities each day, or the things that are most important to do. This keeps your list from feeling overwhelming while also helping you focus on the most essential tasks for the day.
