The
PERFECTLY
ORGANIZED
Life
W
hen I talk about getting organized, I like to use the example of a grocery store. No matter which store you walk into across the country, they make it very easy to find things. How? Signs. Above every aisle is a sign that tells you exactly what is in that aisle. For instance, the cookie aisle. And when you get to the cookie aisle what do you find? Cookies! They go even a step further and label each shelf to help you find the specific type of cookie you are looking for: vanilla, chocolate, filled, etc. If there is a label on the shelf and no product you know exactly what is missing. How does this compare to other shopping experiences such as a big box store? Ever try to find what you are looking for there? Any signs to help you? They actually make it a part of their marketing strategy to move things around to keep you moving throughout the store. Now which world do you want to live in? The time efficient, well-organized, labeled grocery store? Or, the ever changing, time-wasting, confusing world that is the big box store where you can’t find anything?
Here are the 10 Secrets to Getting and Staying Organized
1. Have a home for everything. An item should live in one place and one place only. That place should be labeled and shared with everyone who uses the space. Nothing else should accidentally land in that spoteven if it is empty. 2. Put things back. Create the habit- every single time you use something, put it back. It may only take a second or it could take several minutes, but put it back. Create the habit of cleaning up after yourself. It takes 28 days to create a habit so this may take some work on your part, but it will be worth it, I promise! 3. Set Limits. One in… one out. Yes ladies that means when you buy that fifth pair of black sandals, 4
GettingOrganized | Fall 2011
one previously purchased pair must go. Determine what is reasonable for the space and what you can live with. Do you ever wonder how people wind up on the show “Hoarders”? Well, keep bringing things into your home without taking anything out and I can get you booked no problem. Reason states, that if something comes into the home, something must go out. 4. Contain items. Yes there is a store dedicated just to containers! There is a reason for that. Take everything in your junk drawer and put it all in containers. It may not be more organized, but it is taking up less space and is easy to find. Containers are very important in the organizing process. 5. Small steps = large gains. When organizing, the mistake most people make is to block out a huge portion of time or select an entire room to work on. Smaller steps will gain you larger results. There are two great ways to decide what to organize. The first, is to time gettingorganizedmagazine.com