I love the maintenance phase of organizing. The initial process of organizing a cluttered area can be overwhelming and you probably can’t bear the thought of doing it again. But see, once it’s done, all you have to do is maintain it and it’s really quite simple. You just have to view organizing in a different way.
The thing about organizing and becoming organized is that it’s much more than a one-time cleaning affair. It’s a process. Processes have steps and once you learn the steps and follow them…it’a a piece of cake. As a former instructor, I relied on the principles of learning. Two of these principles are: the Law of Recency and Law of Repetition. Basically, the more often you do something and the more recent it is that you’ve done it, the easier it is to remember and do it. The same principles apply to organizing…the more you do it, the easier it is to do and the more proficient you become!
To make it even easier, I break organizing down into a 3-step cycle: Assess, Purge, Organize (I’ll do a more in-depth post on this later).
Notice I call it a “cycle.” That’s because it’s a continuous process. With that in mind, it was time for me to go through the cycle again and do a little “maintenance work.” In my last post, “10 Tips to Control Clutter,” one of the things I talked about was starting small and organizing one space at a time…so, I set my sights on my closet. Well, let’s do a little math: 1 walk-in closet + 1.5 hours = 3 bags full of clothes! I had successfully purged and reorganized my closet. Folks, I even got rid of my high school softball jacket that had my name embroidered on it. I haven’t worn it since, well…um…high school! Hopefully, there’s a softball player named Vanessa out there who’ll find my jacket at a steal while shopping at some thrift store! My wedding dress almost made it to the “donate pile” too but I wasn’t quite ready for that one yet. It was so fast and easy that I even tackled my dresser drawers which bumped the total to 2.5 hours of work and 5 bags of clothes! It felt great! How did I do it? By using the Assess, Purge, and Organize 3-step cycle. Here’s how I used it to organize my closet and drawers:
ASSESS: Decide what space you want to organize and ask: Is it being utilized the way you want it to be? Is it getting too crowded or cluttered? Do you want or need to reorganize the space to make it more functional for you?
- My closet was functioning just fine and I like the way the clothing was arranged, it was just time to get rid of some “stuff.”
- My drawers were the same…I just needed to “edit” but I also wanted to try a different way of sorting them.
PURGE: Start sorting and getting rid of what you don’t need. Ask yourself these questions: Do I wear this item? When was the last time I wore it? Will I wear it again? Why am I keeping it?
- I tackled one section at a time: casual clothes, business clothes, jackets, slacks, shoes and accessories.
- Sorted items in one of 4 piles: KEEP, DONATE, TRASH, DON’T KNOW (actually, I didn’t need the Don’t Know pile because I’ve gotten pretty good at the decision making).
- Items that I hadn’t worn in a year got tossed as well as items that didn’t fit or were uncomfortable to wear.
- Once I was done purging, I moved the bags of clothing out of the area right away. I put them in the garage and then took them to the Salvation Army the next morning. Of course, I got a receipt for tax purposes.
ORGANIZE: Start putting items away keeping in mind function and use.
- I organized my shoes by type and color.
- My clothes were then hung up according to color and then by type/length (ie: whites, browns, blacks, reds, greens…then sorted by length: tank tops, then t-shirts, then long sleeve shirts, and sweaters, skirts and pants)
- I divided my dresser drawers into sections: shirts, shorts, pj’s, workout clothes, socks, underwear, etc. Drawer bins and dividers come in real handy for this. You can use adjustable dividers, open boxes, even shoe boxes to sort and divide your clothes.
- I did organize a little differently this time. Instead of rolling up my shirts and shorts or stacking them one on top of the other, I folded them into the relatively the same size square and stood them on end….love it!
Here’s a bonus; this quick exercise not only allowed me to edit my closet and get rid of things I no longer needed, by donating the items they go to someone who DOES need them! Another bonus, I’ve rediscovered some items I truly LOVE and can now appreciate.
So…what space are you going to tackle? A shelf, a small closet, under the bathroom sink? Me? I’m gonna tackle my husband’s side of the closet.
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