New Year’s Resolution: Get Organized!
If organizing your closets, pantry, office, playroom (or all of the above?!) are among your 2022 resolutions or goals, here are our top 10 tips for helping you realize your goals:
1. One space at a time. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do too much too quickly. It’s easy to become exhausted, give up, and leave things unfinished or even worse than when you started.
2. Take everything out and start sorting and editing. It gets worse before it gets better. Get everything out of that pantry or closet and start grouping like things together. Figure out what you can donate or throw away. And be tough on yourself! If you haven’t used an item in a year, you probably never will. Set aside at least two boxes—one for donations and another for trash—and use these appropriately while sorting.
3. Use sticky notes. During categorization, use sticky notes. These same notes can be transferred to your shelves to help you plan out where everything will go.
4. Strategize and plan. Really take a look at your space and think about how and how often you use the items you are storing. Less frequently used items may be placed on higher shelves; if young kids need to access something, consider storing those items lower. If you always use items together (like flour and sugar, for example), consider situating these in close proximity to one another. If you’re dealing with a heavy or an extra-large item, weight and/or shelf space may dictate where those things will need to go.
5. Use containers and separators. You don’t necessarily have to buy new bins or baskets, but it’s often helpful to incorporate products to contain, demarcate, or separate; you can use what you already have and get creative, or you can start with a blank slate. If you want to purchase new product, make sure to measure your shelves and purchase bins and baskets that will fit your space and accommodate your belongings.
6. Clean. Wipe down or vacuum the spaces you’ve emptied. Hopefully if you create a system that works for you, you won’t need to go through a dramatic organization process for a good long while, so let’s make sure everything is as clean and dust-free as it can be before putting everything back.
7. Label. Label. Label. Getting organized is one thing; staying organized is something else altogether, and we are strong believers that labeling is key to making sure everything gets put back in its proper place. People need cues and reminders, and labels are a great way to nudge everyone (including yourself!) to put things where they belong.
8. Be flexible. Even if you’ve done your best to create a first-rate plan or system, know that some things will need to shift around. As you live with your newly organized space, you will inevitably find that your system will require tweaking. You may even acquire new items that you’ll need to adjust and make room for. Tweak away. If you’ve planned carefully, minor adjustments should be easy enough to make, and they are to be expected because change is inevitable.
9. Schedule regular refreshes. Everything needs a little maintenance from time to time. Pencil in a time every few months to assess what you have and what you can purge; try to avoid adding without subtracting as not to disrupt the equilibrium you’ve achieved.
10. Ask for help. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Getting your family involved will take some of the pressure and responsibility off your shoulders. If it’s all too time consuming, exhausting, or stressful or if devising a system or plan seems daunting, consider hiring a professional organizer—we organize and transform spaces like yours every day, so we can quickly and efficiently achieve the transformation you seek without you even having to break a sweat.