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 The world from a short person's POV - not Australia or New Zealand. |
Random thoughts, pointed comments, and whatever else crosses my mind 
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| "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." Helen Kelleryzed and You've analyzed and strategized, and now you're ready to put on some comfortable clothes, roll up your sleeves, and begin transforming your space. Here is a logical method of approach that can work for any area: SPACE It breaks down as follows - Sort, Purge, Assign a home, Containerize, Equalize. The key is to do every one of the steps, and most importantly, do them in order. Don't let your new found enthusiasm for organizing get ahead of you. SORT. If your space is disorganized, you may have items scattered in different areas of the house, making it difficult to find what you need when you need it. It is also difficult to determine what you really have. Remember when we talked about organizing the pantry. If you don't group like things together, you probably will buy items you already have. So here is where you go through each item and create a sense of order. It is critical to handle everything. Don't ignore those large piles of stuff in corners or scattered throughout the house or office because it may seem intimidating or you think it will take too long to process. As you sort, focus on the following: What is important to you - focus on the items you currently use, love, and that are important to you, not those that used to be important or might be important in the future (unless you know when and how you are going to use them). Group similar items together in related categories that reflect your associations, not someone else's. Rember, this only has to make sense to you; it should be intuitive and natural to you so that you can find things and put them away again without too much thought. Especially, if others will be expected to occasionally use or work with the items, you will need to keep the categories as broad as possible so you or they will have fewer places to look. To achieve the best results in the shortest amount of time, attack the visible first. What's most visible probably is the most relevant and used by you on a daily basis, so sort and categorize it first. Then you can see how much space you will need and where. Next, you can work on drawers and cabinets knowing you only need to keep what is most important to you now allowing the right space for the right item. Don't belabor your decisions; keep moving through your stuff quickly. Focus on identifying items and categorizing them. All those unanswered phone messages, articles you want to read or other started projects, now is not the time to work on them. Put these aside and schedule an appointment with yourself to look at them again later. Don't work back and forth from one room to the other. This is called zigzag organizing and does not produce the results you are looking for. Rather, work on one area or section at a time. Complete one room before going on to the rest or work on organizing your closet with items needed for the current season before dealing with out-of-season items or work on organizing your desk before tackling the file cabinet. If you find something that belongs elsewhere just set it near the doorway. That way you will be forced to deal with it once you have finished the room you are working on. PURGE: Here is where you decide what stuff to get rid of, and how. You have several choices. You can give it away, sell it, store, or repurpose it. Ideally, you would set out bins labeled with these options and start. If you are working on a child's room, I encourage you to include them in the process. You may have to do some negotiating, but this is also helping them learn what is important and what is just "stuff." (Doing this with my granddaughter over the last few years has created the most organized eleven-year-old you will ever meet.) It can also help to involve a friend or family member who is not invested in the items you are considering purging. Hopefully, they can remind you of what you will gain by following through on this step - making space for the things you really use and love, save searching through drawers, bins, closets to find a needed item, feeling good about sharing items you no longer use with others. For good items of clothing or toys, why not drop them off at the local woman's shelter. If you are removing items from the house, plan to do it within a day or two. Don't think about the items once you have made a decision, JUST DO IT! ASSIGN A HOME: Next take all the items you're keeping and decide precisely where you are going to store them - wich shelf, which drawer, which side of the bed, which closet. Avoid being vague and indecisive about where to put items by giving each item a single, consistent home. This is the key to maintaining your system. You can use the following guidelines in assigning homes: Match the size and number of items to the size of storage space. For example, socks or scarves in a shallow drawer, sweaters in a deep drawer. Don't mix categories within a storage space; it makes it too complicated to remember where a certain item is, much less, ask someone else to get it for you. For example, put t-shirts in one drawer and jeans in another. Be logical when grouping items near each other. For example, scarfs and hats near outerwear, measuring cups and spoons near the mixer, hot pads near the stove. Make items you use all the time easy to retrieve. Don't stack them on shelves that you can't reach without a ladder. If the items are heavy, make sure they are on a sturdy shelf that is easy to reach. For example, if you are short like me you will want to put plates, glasses, and cups on lower shelves, as well as, every day serving bowls. As you put items away, you may discover that you don't have enough space for everything. Your options are either to reevaluate and purge those "maybes" or increase the storage area. If you visit a home store or do-it-yourself center, you will find ideas for expanding storage. Look at what you want to keep and where you need to store it and BE CREATIVE! That is part of the fun of organizing. Containerize: Containers make it easy to keep your items grouped and separated within their assigned homes so that retrieval, cleanup, maintenance are a breeze. This also helps to limit how much you accumulate in any given category. You can only save as much as the container will hold. This is where you can get creative and have fun infusing your system with your style. You may already have containers that will work for certain items in specific areas. If not, make an inventory of what you need to containerize and go shopping (and who doesn't like a reason to shop). You can find different types of containers at the dollar stores or flea markets; they don't have to be expensive. I have used baskets that came as part of a gift to house magazines, doggy toys, and bath accessories. EQUALIZE: About two weeks after you've finished, make an appointment with yourself to evaluate how well your system has been working. Are there any rough spots that a quick review of your needs assessment might help to iron out. Once you have a system that works for you, then integrate a daily, weekly, monthly maintenance program into your routine. "Tune-ups" are essential to keep your system working as your needs, goals, possessions, and priorities change. Since handling all the paper that accumulates in your home/office is a major cause for disorganization and clutter, we will tackle this next. |
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Fire dancers!!! Wow! What fun! You really are in Paradise! So happy you for you! 
But I wish I loved it. That would be SO HANDY! So, I've been working on positive self-talk regarding cleaning. I smile when I say these things and I say them out loud if I'm alone or in my head if I'm not. I say things like, "I love to clean. Cleaning is fun. Cleaning makes me happy. I enjoy a tidy space." Blah, blah, blah...
Sure, it's dumb, but if it works, it doesn't matter. 
). 
I'm the prime example of someone who needed her own advice over 40 years ago. 