Home Organization: Chaos Before the Calm

The home organization process should come with a disclaimer:  “Beware, chaos before the calm.  Please do not be frightened by the process as closets, rooms or drawers are torn apart.  It’s all part of the process.”  When I help a client get organized, I have the ideas and a vision for the work that we will be doing, what it will take to get there and what the outcome will be.  I have to remember to give people the above disclaimer as we get started.  Sometimes I don’t remember until I start pulling stuff out and realize what it must look like to the client now that their belongings are being pulled out, all of a sudden there’s a lot of stuff !  But it’s all a part of the process. 

When you are disorganized, you have probably shoved a lot of belongings onto shelves, into boxes and maybe onto closet floors.  In order to get to the bottom of it all, it has to be pulled out.  You have to see what you really have. Now, you want to make the amount of items that you pull out manageable and not overwhelm yourself and your time constraints, but you have to pull it out.  Here are some organizing tips to help you along the way:

• Just choose one section or area to get started.  If you get it done and want to continue, move onto the next area.
• Pull things out and place items of the same type or “like” items together.  Place decor with decor, place shoes with shoes, place wrapping paper with wrapping paper, etc.  When you see how much you have of each item, it will make decisions about what to let go a lot easier.
• Once you part with the excess, then place what you are going to keep into labeled bins or baskets and put them back for storage.

Decluttering and organizing can look a little crazy at the start, but in the end it’s worth it when your space is calm and neat again.  It’s all part of the process.

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