The number one question in home organizing:
“Where Do I Start Organizing My House?” I am frequently asked this question by clients and friends alike. And while I have some practical answers in this blog post, the real answer is not what you expect.
Selecting an area in your home to begin decluttering can vary. But in the end, your struggle to keep your home organized will continue if you don’t start with the most important place—your mindset.
That’s right. The first place that needs to be cleared out is your mindset regarding your belongings. Evaluating how you have reached the point of having an overwhelming amount of things will help prevent you from going there again after you have minimized your belongings.
Swiping and clicking our way to clutter
It is so easy to fill up our homes with excess items. Our emails and social media feeds are full of ads, making swiping and buying simple. It is way too easy to buy things we don’t need. A recent documentary on Netflix called “Buy Now!” explains how we are pressured to buy, and some of the human and environmental costs of our purchases.
I have worked with clients living in studio apartments in New York City, and with clients in homes that are several thousand square feet with huge amounts of storage space. What they have in common is more items than they can comfortably hold.
Our homes are our “containers”. Some people have bigger containers than others. Bottom line: a container only holds so much. We can find a balance between maximizing what our container will hold (such as adding organization products, using the insides of doors and cabinets), and removing the excess. Removing the excess ensures that our “container” holds the things we use, need, and love.
Tips to help you start to look differently at your stuff:
- Using my 5P’s Organizing process, evaluate each item from the space you are organizing. Some things will be easily separated into keep or donate, but what of the things you are unsure of? Keep them…for now. Ideally, you can keep them separated in a bin. Mark them with a date no more than 6 months ahead. Any items you haven’t retrieved by that date can go straight to donation.
- Evaluate your long-term storage areas first. How long has it been since those items were used, or even looked at? Start with items that haven’t been used in at least a year. Items that are being kept “just in case” often will never be needed. If they were needed, would they be able to be found?
- Put a limit on amounts. Want to keep some extra nails, screws, pens, etc? Absolutely, you should! However, keeping more excess than you could use is clutter. Want extra nails and screws, totally fine. Just limit it to a small container’s worth.
- Baby & Kids clothing. Unpopular opinion. After six kids, I don’t believe in saving every baby item that you have. Mostly because a lot of the clothing does not store well. Even after washing, formula, spit up and baby food often cause staining when things are stored long-term. And so often clothes are stored for years and never used because they are the wrong gender, wrong size, or wrong season. Save your absolute favorites or things that don’t get a lot of use like raincoats, boots, and hats. A lot of everyday items should be passed on or donated. When the time comes and you need baby gear again, it’s often very easy to find someone who is passing on things their children have outgrown. I believe we should be normalizing passing on and sharing baby gear.
Dealing with sentimental items. Why do we hold on to “keepsakes”? Those items that maybe don’t have a useful purpose, but belonged to a loved one or remind us of a good memory. Oftentimes, we want the memory the item triggers and not the actual thing.
- Consider taking a photo of the item, or find a photo of it being used. If you have a photo of you holding a trophy you won could replace keeping the actual trophy, for example.
- Baby clothes and souvenir t-shirts can be made into functional items, such as throw pillows or blankets. My cousin made a precious Christmas stocking from her children’s baby clothes, it was such a terrific way to preserve the memories of those favorite outfits.
- We often keep things that were cherished by loved ones, even if it isn’t something we necessarily want for ourselves. If that person is no longer with you, it can be really hard to let those items go, I know. If you choose to keep them, do your best to honor the items by using or displaying them. A sweater your grandmother knit for you when you were born can be framed in a shadowbox and used as decor in a nursery. If you keep your mom’s china, use it for more than holidays. If you choose not to keep a set, keep a few cups or small bowls and use them as drawer dividers.
To sell or not to sell?
Often I am asked if items that may have value should be sold instead of donated. Possibly, but there is another mindset shift that has to happen for this to be worth it.
- You want the space, not the item. Price your item for a quick sale, not necessarily what the item is worth,
- It can be hard to recover what you paid or what the item is worth. There is just too much out there.
- Give yourself a time limit to get the items sold. If they haven’t sold within a few weeks at most, lower the price significantly for a quick sale, or give the item away.
- It has been very rare that any of my clients missed something they gave away or sold. And even more rare that they missed it enough to replace it.
Conclusion
Where Do I Start Organizing My House? No matter where you decide to start decluttering in your home, first start by changing how you look at the things in it. Everything in your home carries the weight of responsibility. You have to either store it, maintain it, or clean it. Make sure the items you keep are contributing value to your home. Don’t keep the things that get in the way of what you use, need and love.