April 14, 2009

• Organization

  I think I blogged on this one other time, but I wanted to share my tips about organizing.

  I've learned a lot of survival tips about organizing, and man are they worth it.  The biggest thing I learned is its okay to pray about a spot that's alwaysa  mess.  I learned this from my SS teacher in Joyce.

  I also learned don't organize everything at once.  Baby steps.

  I also learned organizing doesn't just mean putting things away.  It means puttings things away in a place that makes sense so it will stay there, and you can easily get it back there after you use whatever it is.

  If you have a spot in your house that's constantly a mess of course your first response is..

  "My house is too small."

  The second response typically is.

  "I don't have enough money to fix this mess.

  Both of which I say bologna too.  ROFL.

  This beautiful desk of mine cost $200.  And that is the absolute MOST I've ever spent on organizing.  Of course Rob built it, but still you get my point.

  I use Goodwill for organizational devices, or garage stores.  I love twenty-five cent baskets, or cool boxes.  In my bathroom I have a old plastic coke container box.  In my scrapbook section two of my boxes are clementine mandarine wooden orange boxes.  We ate the oranges I kept the colorful boxes.  LOL

  But first look at the space that's messy.

  What is it suppose to function as.

  What typically ends up on it.

  Why does it end there.

  Does it have a home that isn't working somewhere else in the house.

  Don't imediately clean it, just evaluate it while your doing dishes, or scrambling on errands, etc. 

  I knew yesterday I needed to finally stack my material, and school stuff.  I also knew there was a bunch of other detrious mixed in with it, that I had no idea what it was. 

  So I started making piles.

  This is big kid books,  these are little kid books, this is bathroom stuff, this is dirty clothes.  I filled the outside garbage can full of well JUNK!  *snicker*

  Now this is a trick in organizing.  YOu grab one big kid book and you take it to the big kids book shelf, and realize that needs to be straightened, and you never get back to what you were organizing first.

  DON'T!!!!! 

  Make a pile of big kid books. 

  Yesterdays goal was to get my bedroom organized by putting the stuff in my new book shelfs.

  So I stacked piles.  My kids showed up and asked if they could help--they like organizing its better then the routine chores.  LOL

  So I sent them to place the little piles in the home they belonged.

  "This goes in the bathroom, that goes in your room, etc."

  This narrowed it down to baton costumes that needed to be replaced, Rainee's birthday gifts for Monday that were rather here and there, and I placed all in one spot.  And so on.

  Now, for the most part they didn't put the piles away, they just took them to the places home.  You can do the same thing if you don't have kids.  Don't go to the book shelf and start organizing it.  That is NOT your project for today.  Just place it as neat as you can even if its on the floor beside it, until everything is out of your bedroom, and closer its true destination.

  This gives you the space to organize what is SUPPOSED to be in the bedroom.

  Once the little piles are carried off you can put away what's left.  Clothes to fold or hang.  Books that belong in your room, you get the picture.  And wala one space is totally organized.  You have a clean space.

  Now.

  STOP.

  Do NOT go organize the other little piles.  You've accomplished your goal, reward yourself with some computer time, a good book, a telephone call to a friend, etc.

  Enjoy the clean space.

  The biggest issue of organizing is getting overwhelmed, and never getting anywhere.

  You can tackle the next space another day.  Its been messy for awhile another day isn't going to kill you.  ROFL

  Any how I've tackled each area of my house this way, and it is so nice to have organized spaces...spaces that truely function.

  And about once every 6 months I go back to the space and fix whatever issues it has, or change it if its not working.  Get rid of stuff that isn't being used etc.

  For the most part once a space is organized it doesn't mess up again.

  The two exceptions to that are my computer space--it breeds paper.

  And my bedroom.

  I believe after the most recent purge my bedroom will stay clean.  It has space for everything that is needed in there, something it has never had since I moved in--due to me keeping craft stuff in there.  Its out of there, and that makes a huge difference.

  I'm still holding my breathe in regards to the computer space due to the breeding of paper.  I'll let you know if I finally have it truely organized in 6 months. 

  • 10:42 pm
  • 6 Comments