Why is Organizing Your Home So Important?
Wasteful spending and lost production time can kill a business. Yet, many of us do not take into consideration that wasteful spending and lost production at home negatively impact our health, happiness, free time, relationships, and finances. If you are overrun with household chores, you have little time for yourself, your family, or healthy habits.
Today, our homes are bursting at the seams with a wide assortment of items. For instance, many of our homes have products or tools for the following businesses and professions:
- Landscaper
- Interior decorator
- Painter
- Home improvement contractor
- Nurse
- Home office
- Teacher
- Chef
- Barber
- Car mechanic
- Laundry mat
- Housekeeping
- Seamstress
Is it any surprise that keeping track of all of these items takes up considerable time and space?
Lastly, shopping is rewarding. Marketing campaigns are designed to convince consumers that a product will instantly and forever improve their lives. In reality, all of us have closets full of broken promises that we will instantly be transformed into flawless, confident, happy, and wealthy individuals. Many product marketing campaigns over-promise and under-deliver.
Think about the big picture. Why do you want to get organized? Do you want to spend less time doing chores? Do you need to reduce monthly spending? Like all chores, organization is a process that is never finished. However, you can make your time more efficient. Begin by writing your organization goal down and hang it on the refrigerator. This will keep it in front of you. Have you thought about making good use of your time while you are waiting for water to boil? You can surf the internet or organize one kitchen drawer in 10 minutes. If you organize one small space a day, in a week your kitchen will be much neater.
Declutter Your Thinking
Setting limits and lifestyle priorities is an important part of getting organized. When you think about possessions as useful items, part of an inventory collection, it is easier to set limits on how many items you use, need, and even want. Maintaining a huge collection of shoes while only routinely wearing five pairs takes time, money, and space.
Establish a new method of maintaining your household inventory. A business must routinely look at its supplies. Make shopping lists. Add products with the quantity needed as you see your stock getting low. Try to stick to the list and not buy on impulse.
When you look back years from now, the time you spent with your family and friends will be memorable. Clean floors, toys, gadgets, and personal items will be easily forgotten. Simplify and reduce your personal and household inventory to make quality time.
Declutter Your Home
Declutter low-value items before you organize. The goal here is to reduce unnecessary items. This frees up space, reduces the number of items you need to sort and organize, and reduces your overall inventory. Gather like with like so you can see your entire inventory. For instance, gather all your magazines to evaluate the entire collection. Will you read them again? How long have you had them? Be sure to check off each task as you finish it. This will give you a sense of accomplishment, especially as the to-do list shrinks and the completed list grows.
Recycle, shred, donate, or throw away these items.
- Old newspapers
- Old magazines
- Old books
- Old files (shred)
- Old office supplies
- Old cleaning supplies such as rags or mops
- Old or damaged home goods
- Old or damaged home decor
- Old or damaged toys
- Old or damaged furniture
- Damaged clothing
- Expired food and spices
Now that you have removed some of the excess, evaluating the remaining items is less taxing. When you have fewer items, you have less decisions to make. For each remaining item, you can consider whether or not the item is needed or wanted and where it is best to store it. While it may seem overwhelming to consider EVERY item in your home, some items are quite easy. For instance, you can make decisions about your current furniture very quickly. Most of your furniture is in use or storage. Items in use are likely items you want to keep. Therefore, when you are looking at bedroom organization, it comes down to just evaluating and organizing clothing, shoes and accessories.
The individual steps to easily organize your home are provided in Chapter 8. Whole home decluttering is addressed in greater detail in Step 2. You will also have the opportunity to address unused items in each room. The reason this is repeated is to create space for the items you enjoy by removing the items you do not use, want, or need. Too often, we will go out a buy a few new articles of clothing, increasing the number of items in our closet without removing the old, worn-out items we no longer use. You might be surprised just how many unused household and personal items you are currently storing in your home.
