Declutter It!

One organizing step that many folks miss

by Jennifer on June 23rd, 2008

A lot of people start organizing projects by clearing out clutter - that’s an excellent place to start. Getting rid of items that won’t be included in your reorganization is key to a successful room make-over (or make up for the first time, say, if you just moved in).

However, there’s another important first step than many miss, and it’s super simple too.

Define your spaces:

Before you do anything else you need to define your space, or spaces as the case may be. Defining your space is vital because it allows you to decide which items belong in the space, and which can go elsewhere. If space is at a minimum, then space defining is even more important, because there’s no room to lose or spare.

For example, if I was to define some rooms at my house, here’s what I’d do. Grab a pad of paper and pen and park myself in each room and take some notes, and the end result might look like this:

Living room: Used for TV watching, reading, sometimes eating, and one of Cedar’s play spaces (although his toys don’t stay). Also, Cedar likes to dance in there and I’ll exercise with my exercise ball, which means we need empty floor space o’plenty.

Back office: Used for my FT work office, Cedar’s art project room, our homeschool project room, and my clothing goes in the big closet in the room.

Dining room: Used for prepping meals, eating, the fish live there, and sometimes we do art at the table, but it’s rare.

And so on for each room. After my initial list is completed I’d make some notes about the space, such as how much furniture needs to be in each space, for example, obviously at bare minimum the back office will need an art table, my desk, and some shelving.

Being VERY careful and thinking clearly and realistically can save you lots of time. I messed up my own planning when we moved into our current place. I had thought we’d use a corner of the living room or dining room for Cedar’s art station, but if I’d thought it through and measured some furniture, I’d have realized that plan was too cluttered. In the end, Cedar’s art station ended up in my office, but it started in the dining room. It was plenty of extra work to move everything around too - so I should have planned better.

By defining your space before each and every organizing project you’ll save time and trouble.

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