We take a break from the Baby on a Budget bonanza and get back to the nitty-gritty of organizing.
To be honest, I almost didn’t share this organizing project. I had a slew of “Pinterest-and-blog-land” reasons (that Stacy outlined perfectly) which caused me hesitation. All of the pictures were taken with a camera phone and it also doesn’t culminate into a “finished” product wrapped up in a bow. It is a work in progress. But in truth, most organizing projects are works in progress. Projects take time and they evolve, so in the name of keeping it real, let’s dive in!
It all started with a distress call from my sister-in-law. She had just walked by her cluttered office for the last time.
It is hard to blame this poor office though. It’s trying to serve triple duty, functioning as an office, a utility closet/dressing room and storage space all with very little practical storage to support its many roles. Needless to say, the room was paying the price and clutter was taking over.
Sort
The first step to any organizing process is the sorting. Try to view this first step as a quick sort and don’t spend too long on any one item, especially if you are working within a large space. This means skipping over most of the paperwork. Stay with me here.
Trying to start with paper is one of the biggest mistakes people make when organizing. You want to start organizing the easiest stuff first because it goes A LOT faster than paperwork. Once most of the space is organized, you get that extra push of motivation that goes with a job well done. And you’ll have the space you need to actually make a dent in those paper piles.
Let’s be real– organizing paper is hard. Not only does it take longer to sift through, but it also takes a lot of mental energy. Each piece of paper represents a decision to be made. It is easy to look around and feel defeated because sorting through paper goes slowly. You may even create a bigger mess than what you started with, but only at first.
When you start sorting and organizing the “stuff” first, the light at the end of the tunnel becomes clearer and brighter. It can pull you through the daunting task of organizing paper.
All that being said, we did quick sort the paper in to four categories: keepsake army paperwork (my brother’s), personal paperwork, career paperwork and trash.
Along with paper, the “stuff” was sorted into quickly labeled containers on the ground. As a testament to the rooms many functions and their collateral materials, we quickly ran out of containers and made do with piles, leaving room for the kitties to nap of course.
Defining Function
Part of the reason this room was often in disarray, was its role as a utility room/ dressing room. My brother is a deputy sheriff and after working long hours he needed a place to unload and store all of the supplies that come with his job.
He has general uniform supplies that include boot shining and gun cleaning equipment, and various supplies that are housed on his belt. These items needed to be accessed on a regular basis and previously had no permanent home meaning they often landed on the floor all muddled together.
When you are searching for storage items that will work, start by thinking about function first. How does this space need to be used?
In this case, open shelving with open labeled containers were the way to go. This system will mean easy to access storage. It was unlikely my brother would want to keep up a system that required muss and fuss. No matter how tired he is, he can quickly and easily toss an item into its labeled home. And when more than one person is accessing a space/ storage solution, labels can help to keep people accountable for putting items back where they belong.
I love open containers for items that are used regularly (daily or weekly basis). Toss the lids if you have to so they don’t stand in between an item and its home! You’d be surprised at how the seemingly simple added step of opening a lid can mean the difference between putting something away or leaving it on a counter top.
Though, perhaps you won’t be surprised if you currently have items floating about waiting for their return trip or even if you have ever watched kids clean up.
To sum up, there are 3 rules to use for the containering process, especially if you struggle with organization
- Use open and clear containers
- label containers
- Keep containers easily accessible
The open shelves and clear containers made a huge difference in getting things off the floor in this room, along with moving the laundry basket to a more prominent place.
Remember, it is all about function here. Keep that before picture of your room in mind as you organize or you will be back to a messy room in no time. Organization needs to work for you and not be a huge chore to maintain.
Allow for Loose Ends
No matter how much you try to do it all in a day or even a week, there will be a few loose ends after any organizing project. Tasks that take more time to complete need a specific time designated for them to be done at a later date. Keep a note pad with you to jot down to-do items you come across. If you stop for each item, you’ll get sidetracked or you might never get through the space at all.
Unfortunately, my brother was not able to be there for our organizing session, so we created a small pile of future to-dos. These consisted of simple questions about whether or not he wanted to keep something or regarded more involved tasks of electronics to be repaired.
If you are postponing organizing a space because you are having trouble syncing up your schedule with your significant other or roommate, see what you can accomplish on your own. By being respectful of the other persons belongings and keeping aside items that they will want/ need to weigh in on, you can still make a lot of progress on your own.
Because organizing time is limited, sort longer task items together and add them to a trusted to-do list to conquer at a later date.
In our case, we also delayed the sorting of some of the paperwork. After the initial quick sort, we were able to organize household papers into the system my sister-in-law already had in place.
We also stored away army keepsake papers into the garage into a container already earmarked for that purpose. The function of the office area is to store current reference papers. Keepsakes needed to be moved to permanent storage and in this case that was in the garage.
The current career paperwork was grouped together for my brother to go through at a later date. As much as I wanted to stay one more day to organize these papers, I had to leave it undone and focus on how far the desk had come.
You can see the plastic tubs on the right of this picture that contain the papers still to be organized. When the time comes, it will be a little easier for him to create his own files now that the jumble of household papers and keepsakes are removed.
We came a long way from the before.
A full day of my sister-in-law and I working together got us to this point. What I love most is that everything now has a home, including the paperwork to be sorted.
Take organizing projects one step at time instead of expecting an overnight transformation. It often takes months for all of the clutter to build up so give yourself a similar time frame to sort through it.
The room is functional and has plenty of space to conquer the tough task of sorting paperwork. If you’re ready to tackle some paperwork of your own, check out Space for Living’s Paper Sort Challenge.
Do you have an organizing project you’d like to share with Space for Living? Share it with us and we’d love to feature it here on the blog, loose ends and all.
