One of the first steps to organizing your belongings is to plan. Have a goal and set a finite date or time you will accomplish your goal (we suggest starting out small with goal setting)--but then what? We'll guide you through the steps with these compact, collapsable containers after the jump.
Collapsable Green Cubes; $12.95
Padded Canvas Fold n' Hold $12.95
So you've already picked a place to start organizing--which for our clients is sometimes the spot that's the smallest (for ultimate satisfaction) or having a go with the corner of the room you can't stand to look at. It's up to you but what's important here is to just pick a place and start.
We like to use these collapsable containers from the Container Store to process items. They are larger than a paper bag and fold down flat when not in use. The biggest bonus of these sturdy containers is their wide opening that stays put. If you've ever tried to organize with trash bags or paper bags, you'll find rather quickly that you have to hold the trash bag open in order to toss items inside. It's super important to make the organizing process as easy as possible. That's why these containers are such a hit with our clients. You can also use the containers to store items that need to be returned to their proper home. Once the box fills up, distribute its contents and the container folds up to be stored.
Now that you know why we love these containers, we'll get going with how we start the organizing process below.
- First you'll want to clear an area of a room, a bed, or a table where you can process your belongings.
- Next you'll set up your processing stations. We have multiple categories when dealing with "stuff" on the first pass. Some familiar categories are keep, donate, recycle, can't decide and toss. We like to keep a set of index cards around to identify each sorting container. Since you're just trying to get used to making decisions, you don't want to get stuck on an item (hence the cushion category of "can't decide"). Once you start processing your belongings you'll notice you'll get into a rhythm and eventually process your "goal" area.
- Now you're ready to deal with the containers full of your belongings. Donated items should be taken to the car immediately. Then you're left with your piles of keep and can't decide. We like to take the can't decide items and put them aside for a few weeks. When you return to those "can't decide" items and find that you haven't needed them or used them they can be tossed or donated.
- Finally you're left with what you've decided to keep and use in your home. We'll cover how to deal with these items in How To: Start Organizing: Part II.
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those things are cool, but i don't have a bunch of money to spend on these baskets. even if i can reuse them later. is paper bags the only inexpensive option?
Here you go, oofs: Use the space in the room to make piles. If you are precise in establishing your goal, you won't be creating one big mess that you'll have to live with for days; organize the dresser during one set-aside period, don't be thinking you're going to be tackling the whole room.
Put the keepers on the bed, say; put the giveaways in your laundry basket on the floor; put the "i don't knows" in a corner of the room. Really, 3 piles are all you need to start. You don't need to get bogged down with "is this going to Goodwill or to Craigslist or to eBay."
Or check out Freecycle to get some medium-size moving boxes and work with those.
The collapsible mesh boxes are neat, but even the largest one doesn't hold as much as you'd think.
And I love the Container Store, Ikea storage, etc., but buying more stuff just so you can be a tad more efficient in getting rid of stuff?
thanks pammyfay, but one problem i have is that everything is already in piles from previous tries at cleaning/organization and there isn't anywhere to rework stuff. my apartment is fairly small compared to the stuff i have. actually i'm not sure i could fit even all the stuff i want to keep.
summary of the post: "hey, want to get organized? OK! BUY THIS STUFF!"
The first step to getting organized is to learn to resist veiled sales pitches in the form of blog posts. You'll buy less junk that'll need to be organized in the future.
I use large plastic bags with post-it labels stapled on. I have a bag for: dry clean/mend clothes, donate cloth (old clothes), and donate books, plus a box for donate household stuff. I keep them in my office. I add things to the boxes and bags as I need to. Finish a crap book? Donate books pile. Shirt stain still didn't come out after two washes? Donate pile. Not the prettiest set-up, but it hardens my resolve to empty the contents of the bags/boxes once a month so that I can actually use my desk.
But this is how professional organizers make money. They help you sort stuff into containers. Then you get more containers for the containers, and so on. I think once you get a set of boxes or bins, then use them, re-sort, throw away or give away, and be prepared to do this every couple months or so. Or, just don't save it, buy it, pick it up in the first place.
Most of us think we're lots more creative and crafty than we really are, and/or that we have time to make those cunning little placemats out of old car parts or pillows out of sweaters or that we'll write our books, after we amass all that research. I finally had to admit I wasn't going to do any of that stuff, and got rid of most of the junk I was saving.
AT loves posts about stuff.
When I've completed my fabulous organizing project, is there a container to put all the empty containers in?
Oh, there must be!
a friend of mine uses the term "stuff destiny" to help get rid of things. If you're not using certain things in your life, then they've outgrown their destiny with you, and it's time to pass them onward (through swap parties, donation, freecycle, etc.)so that they can find their new destinies with others.
palmetto...
as a professional organizer this is NOT how i make money.
i agree with most of the comments about this post that to buy anything to help you get organized before you've even started is counterproductive. i encourage my clients not to buy anything during the process until we see what, if anything they need after the purge and sort process.
i believe that containers and the like are just stuff and that most people don't need more stuff. they need to more conscience of what they have, how they use it and what new* things they are bringing into their lives. (*by new i mean anything new to you not necessarily purchased new, like free with purchase items)
i always start with their goals for the space which includes asking what functions does your space need to support, how do you want the space to feel, how do you want to feel in the space, what is really important to you (entertaining, cooking, fashion, books, arts and crafts, meditation) and if they had an end time in mind, which is not always the case. without knowing your end goals, it will be very difficult to know what to keep or get rid of.
starting in one area of the apartment or room and finishing the purge sort process before moving on to another area avoids having unfinished piles all over the house. once things are gone through and the unnecessary things are removed we can then begin to plan the space out accordingly. we move or repurpose existing pieces or in many cases, once the excess items are removed it is clear that what the client was already using is fine and nothing 'new' is needed. and if anything new is needed, it is well thought out and not something bought in the heat of the moment (on sale) to get "organized".