What NOT to Do When You Organize

Do you feel overwhelmed by your home and every time you get an urge to declutter and organize your home it seems hopeless and you cannot do it? I’m telling you that you can actually do it, and here is what you need to stop doing first.

The trap of “perfect or nothing”.

Give up on being perfect. If you’re looking on Instagram or Pinterest and think you don’t know how to achieve this cohesive beautifully organized space, so there’s no point even trying, then turn it off. Organizing is about functionality and convenience. Moreover, 90% of the time those pictures are heavily edited and in the real-world, it’s not all white, bright, and matching.

Doing it all in one go – wrong.

Rather than trying to do it all at once, start small. In fact, I’m going to recommend, you limit yourself. Focus on one specific task. For instance, a bathroom is a great place to start. A linen closet is another great one.

I love this picture I found on twitter. Small steps every day, will get you any result you want in life.

We have long to-do lists and then do a little bit of everything. At the end of the day, we were busy but didn’t accomplish anything.

Picture this situation. Your clothes are scattered on the floor in your bedroom, so you decide to clean it up and put everything back in your closet. You have the motivation and energy.

So, you start dipping into piles, and here comes the overwhelm:

• you can’t put it back because you need to wash it first
• there is not enough space to hang and fold everything
• the closet system sucks and you wish it was different
• the hangers don’t match
• you hate your clothes, and you don’t wear 80% of them
• you think you should declutter, but making decisions and letting go is too hard

As a result, it becomes too much. Now you feel stuck, you don’t know where to even start.

Do you see what happened here? Instead of doing just one thing “put everything back in the closet” you made a whole list in your mind of things you should do and you gave up.

Keep it simple.

There are so many crappy organizing products in the stores. In my experience, simple sturdy bins, dividers, and shelves are mostly what you’ll need.

• Canvas or wicker bins for closets.

• Plastic or acrylic bins for kitchens and bathrooms

• Clear plastic bins with latches & sturdy shelves for garages and basements

If you need to deal with a pile of papers, check out our Paper Organization Chart to help you decide what to keep and what to toss.