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Last updated on March 19th, 2023 at 08:46 pm
Let me begin by saying I don’t love posts about “how to organize your entire home in X days.” It’s too much to take in. I love organizing, and I get overwhelmed as I scroll through those posts.
(I’m not saying those don’t work for people. They don’t fit my personality, and perhaps they don’t fit yours, either.)
In my experience as a Pro Organizer, the biggest problems in organizing an entire house are:
- Getting started
- Staying motivated
- Making time
If you fall into any or all of these categories, stick around.
In this post, I’ll cover the 5 insider questions you MUST answer to organize your entire home.
WHY do you want to organize your entire home?
If you can’t tell me why you’re decluttering, you won’t get very far. (“I just want to be organized” doesn’t count.)
I’ve heard a lot of great “whys.”
Here are some examples: personal health, a better functioning family, creating a loving home, or the ability to wholeheartedly welcome guests.
And, yes, if you need to organize your home for your own sanity, that counts as well. Personally, I need an organized home so that I stay calm. As a result of my demeanor, I can be loving and caring toward my family. As Bonnie Landry says, “Chaos undermines kindness,” so I work hard to prevent chaos.
WHO are you organizing your home for?
Too often we strive for standards that the anonymous “they” create. We think about organizing and decorating our homes for anonymous people on Instagram or who knows where.
Instead, of focusing on “them,” create a home for the people who *actually live there.*
Home does not exist to impress people we don’t know. Home is where we make an impression on the hearts of those who live there.
WHERE should YOU start organizing?
There are a lot of opinions out there about where to start decluttering. Some say the bathroom. Others say a small shelf.
My opinion?
Start where you’ll get immediate impact.
If your laundry room is causing all the grief and anxiety, that’s where you should start —not to give you more anxiety, but to bring you relief.
If your arm is bleeding, I’m not going to put a bandaid on your foot. I’m going to treat the arm!
Starting in an area that makes no difference to you won’t motivate you to keep organizing. The gratification you get from tidying up an anxiety-inducing space will inspire you to tackle the other problem areas of your home.
WHAT will you declutter?
It’s hard to declutter when you don’t know what to declutter. Much of the anxiety around decluttering centers around decision-making. Setting up decluttering guidelines eliminates a lot of this anxiety.
I mentor my clients & students to use the phrase “Should I keep this?” rather than “Should I get rid of this?” This positive mental shift lifts a lot of the anxiety.
There’s a whole list of questions here for deciding what you’ll keep, but a good guideline that many people use is this quote from William Morris:
Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
WHEN will you organize your home?
Time is a valuable resource. I understand not wanting to use your precious time doing something that you’re afraid may not last.
But the thing about organizing is that the more organized you are, the more time you have.
Paring down to only what you need means you’ll spend less time stacking up piles and looking for places to put things.
Taking time to think through where you’ll put your items makes way for a system that works for your family.
It’s like caring for a garden: all the work of preparing the soil, watering, and pruning yields beautiful blooms and bountiful harvests. It’s a lot of work, but the effort is worth it.
Putting in the time and effort now means more time for enjoyment later.
That being said, if you think you don’t have time, make time. Set 30 minutes aside in your calendar to declutter 1 or 2 drawers at a time. Organizing those small spaces, little by little, will encourage and motivate you. (And you won’t get burnt out trying to do it all at once.)
HOW do you declutter & organize?
Decluttering & organizing is formulaic & methodical.
- Keep
- Relocate
- Toss
- Recycle
- Donate
- Sell (if you want)
Sort items by:
Then sort the “Keep” items by similarity and store them where it makes the most sense to YOU.
If you answered the first four questions, decluttering & organizing is a simple, repetitive process. There’s nothing mind-blowing about it.
Answer these 5 questions to organize your entire house:
- WHY do you want to organize your entire home?
- WHO are you organizing your home for?
- WHERE should YOU start organizing?
- WHAT will you declutter?
- WHEN will you organize your home?
- HOW do you declutter & organize?
Get this entire post (including the decluttering & organizing frameworks) in the newly-renovated Where To Start Decluttering Mini-Guide. Get your copy here >>>
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