 You’ve mentally prepared yourself to do what it takes to accomplish your organizing goals, and you’ve completed your “trash hunt.” It’s time to finally get things in order.
Choose a room or an area to begin, and in addition to the bag for trash, label another bag “donate” and another bag “file.” Start again in a clockwise motion around the room or area. Hopefully, you’ve still got your small reminder notes (“visual cues” from 7 Ways To Be Better Organized At Home—Part l) in strategic places.
If so, you may find you haven’t accumulated new stacks of newspapers, unnecessary work-related papers, printed e-mails of last week’s jokes sent to you by friends, pairs of shoes bought on sale that you didn’t need, or auto parts from the pick-your-part lot for the car you’re going to fix up and sell “someday.” If you have picked up a few new items, it’s not the end of the world, and certainly not a reason to abandon your organizing goals.
Begin walking around the room or area just as you did in for the trash hunt (from Ways To Be Better Organized—Part ll,) depositing in each bag either donations, filing, or obvious trash you happened to miss on your first go-around.
Set aside the objects such as statuary or knick-knacks you’ve accumulated. Since you have them, do you want to display them? If not, consider donating them or adding them to items for a yard sale to give you some cash.
When it comes to the papers, be especially careful with those you put in the “file” bag. Do you really need to keep all of them? Of course, there are certain papers you must keep. If you’re in doubt, check with a tax preparer and your bank, or other institutions/organizations to see if it’s an absolute that you keep and file certain papers.
If you come across dirty clothes during your organizing journey, put them in your hamper or clothes basket to be washed. Hanging up the clean ones may unveil some items you forgot you had!
Has this made you change some long held habits? It did for me. That’s part of it—not only managing the necessary papers and important objects in your house or apartment, but keeping unneeded stuff from coming through the front door.
If you decide, however, that cleaning out the clutter is not something you want to tackle on your own, there are options. Some are: asking a trustworthy and knowledgeable friend, relative or neighbor to help, or hiring a Professional Organizer. Even for one or two sessions, a Professional Organizer could help you over some tough areas where decisions as to what to keep or discard are especially difficult, and he or she could give you other organizing suggestions.
With a positive attitude and frame of mind, help from others if needed, rewards along the way, and perseverance, you will be well on your way to changing old habits and having more space and less clutter in your home. In short, realizing your organizing goals.
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