Simple Effects Blog: Organize Your Personal Life

So often our "dream home" is the place we are going to live in the future.  But why not create your dream home right where you are?  Sure you might move on in a year or two, but in the meantime, you can LOVE the space you are in.

Stop thinking about what you’ll do if you ever live in a bigger house, or when the kids move out, or when you can afford your own place.  Make the most of what you have today.

Pass along those things that don’t work for the space you are in NOW and focus on the unique and positive things about your current home.

If you have no vision for your current space, check out Decorating Books, Magazines and Websites. You might even choose to hire a Decorator and/ or a Professional Organizer to give you lots of ideas for maximizing the space you have.

Don’t live in tomorrow (it may never come), enjoy what you have and where you are today!

Want to declutter a room in your house but don’t know where to start?   Well, get yourself a trash can, a recycle bin, a shredder, a laundry hamper and 5 boxes which you will label, "Belongs elsewhere"  "Donate"  "Repair or Sell" "Keep" "Important Papers".

Clear enough space to place all of the above along one wall of the room.   If the room is just too cluttered for this, line them up in  the hallway or an adjoining room of the house. 

Now,make your way around the room starting with the floor and working up to horizontal surfaces and pick up one item at a time and make a decision on it. 

Will you trash it? Recycle it? Shred it? Launder it? Donate it? Repair it or Sell it? Keep it?  and so on. 

Keep going for as long as you can and then stop.  Even if you only spend 15 minutes a day sorting through a room in this fashion, you’ll eventually get through it all.

Once a box is full, here’s what to do with it.

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Don’t agonize. Organize.

–Florynce Kennedy

Once you have decided what you are keeping, sort like items with like.

You may be surprised to see how many bottles of salad dressing you’ve got stored or how your mugs have multiplied.

This is your second opportunity to part with things. Choose the best of the best in each grouping and keep only a “reasonable” number of like items that you know you will truly need/use.

You will likely come across non-kitchen items in this process. Take things that ‘belong elsewhere’ elsewhere.

Make a list of your remaining large groupings. For example:  Baking, Cooking, Snacks, Cleaning,  Holiday ware, Dining etc.

You may want to break the big categories into a few smaller ones for example making 2 categories from "Baking" so that you have one for  baking "supplies" and one for baking "pans". 

The next step is to find places to store your sorted categories.  We’ll talk about that in step 3.

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. “ 

– E.B.White

Blinds to Go will take your old aluminum or vinyl mini-blinds and vinyl vertical blind slats.  No matter their condition or where they were purchased, Blinds to Go will recycle them.  Just drop them off at your nearest Blinds to Go store.

You can also return any old blinds or shades that are in reasonable working condition and they will be donated to World-Vision International.

Read, Action, File, Toss — the RAFT system for processing your paperwork will help you organize your incoming paperwork.

Paper can be recycled so make sure your "toss" box is your paper recycling box that is clearly marked so you know that the paper in there is good to go OUT.

Any paper that contains personal information (account numbers,  names and numbers of others etc.) should be shredded before being recycled.  Be sure to have a good quality shredder plugged in next to your sorting table so that you can simply shred as you go. 

If you’ve accumulated a large volume of documents that need to be shredded,  consider using a professional shredding service to get you up to date quickly.

You’ve got your Read items in your Read Box

You’ve listed your Action Items on your to-do list and calender

Now it’s time to deal with the File pile. 

This is an easy one. You simply FILE these papers in the appropriate file folder in your filing cabinet.

If you don’t have a filing cabinet or desk top file box it is time to buy one.   If you don’t have a filing system set up to store important documents and papers, it’s time to set one up.  Make sure that your files are clearly labelled in a way and order that makes sense to you.

The Freedom Filer System is my favorite product for creating a color-coded system that  also tells you what files to purge and when it’s time to purge them.

Once a file drawer is more than 80% full it will be almost impossible for you to easily add or retrieve papers and files.  Keep your file cabinet functional by updating it regularly (at least once annually) by purging information that is no longer relevant.

I want to “live in grace” as much of the time as possible.

By grace I mean inner harmony, essentially spiritual,

which can be translated into outward harmony.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh — Gift from the Sea

"We need to be careful about the statements we make about things that implies they are alive:  

These papers keep piling up vs I keep piling up these papers;

My clothes always end up on the floor vs. I throw my clothes on the floor

The clutter keeps coming back vs. I keep making more clutter

Learn to take ownership and responsibility for the clutter!"

–Cindy Glovinsky, 

One Thing At a Time: 100 Simple Ways to Live Clutter-Free Every Day