Organizing Ideas and Tips
When it comes to Organizing Ideas and Tips my motto is Go Up, Not Out! I always tell clients to get as many shelves going as possible in their homes and offices.
Where space is an issue, employ hooks, hooks, and more hooks! Anywhere you can stick a hook, whether it is on a wall or ceiling, under a counter or in a cupboard, if it doesn’t look too bad, I say do it. Not only will you save space but you will also make things easier to find when you need them.
Elastic bands, plastic cords, twist-ties, plastic ziplock bags, permanent markers, paper clips, and tape saves a lot of time and aids greatly in becoming organized. Post-It Notes are really helpful for temporarily organizing items into boxes, bags, and piles. I often keep moving items from container to container, until I find I am finished organizing. Using the little sticky labels is a big tool for keeping things labeled until you’re ready to pull out the permanent marker or create permanent labels.
Just making a list can be an important step to bringing your world under control. Not only is it helpful to remind yourself of tasks, but I find that the act of writing something down gives purpose, and often starts alleviating the stress built up over an overwhelming amount of tasks. It can be the first step to taking control of a situation.
Always have functionality in mind when cleaning up or organizing. Even if it involves baby steps, meaning you separate things into old and well-used cardboard boxes, at least you are allocating the space required. You can always resize the container and upgrade. Jumping in with rudimentary steps, allows you to plan a room, and access your needs. It also helps with an ergonomic design when you gradually see what is required to pull a room together.
Be prepared to create chaos before order. Sometimes you just have to empty that entire drawer, cupboard, or closet onto the floor, or bed before you can go back in and carefully put things away. This, of course, allows you to clean the surfaces before replacing items, and also provides an overview of what you are dealing with. It is the perfect time to purge, group items, and store seasonable items.
When it comes to documents, recipes, pictures, and other paper items, be ready to scan. Data files take up so little room compared to hard copies, that is worth the effort of going through the process of scanning. I suggest you back up your scans if you are ditching the hard copies though. You never know what could happen to your precious information and memories.
Vertical files may be tedious to set up, but invaluable when you want to find something. They can also be great space savers if you have enough documents to warrant the cabinet to hold them.
If you are able to purge items and clothing, make sure you have the boxes and/or bags on hand to do so. It will make the process less painful. Know where they are going and it will make it easier to part with them. This means finding worthy people or organizations to benefit from your charity. It is better to research the sources to ensure that your donations are going to help the poor and not line the pockets of a retail organization. Read more on the subject: Here’s where your donated clothing really ends up.
Being organized is worth every penny and minute you spend getting it all together. You’ll benefit from your efforts in areas of time savings and being more efficient. Your space will look better, be easier to clean, and hopefully, you have worked out a better ergonomic system for yourself. Most importantly, it will help your psyche. You will be less daunted with tasks looming over your head and depression is less likely to creep in if one lives in a streamlined and organized space.
If you can’t get it done yourself, ask for help. It is often easier for people to pitch in and help when it is not their own huge task.
For organizing ideas and tips on saving space, cool gadgets and storage bins, etc. check out the Facebook page for Inventive Organizing.