You’ve got a bit of time off, you’re feeling refreshed- You’re so ready to up-end the entire house and start off the new year a better person!

Okay, cool. Me too, me too. Let’s take that one step at a time before you start scouring pinterest and loading up the online shopping trolley full of products.

Get your mind right

Being in the right mindset for decluttering is a subject I could easily write an entire article on itself. But the reality is, if you’re reading this, you’re probably craving calm and order. Here’s some things to keep in mind when organising:

Start small and warm up to the bigger, scarier and harder decisions if you need to.
Remind yourself that you can have the item, or you can have the space.
Ask yourself if that item really ‘earns’ the space it takes up. Is it currently useful, or much loved? Or are you scared of letting it go ‘just in case?’
You can keep anything. You just can’t keep everything.

Declutter and sort.

Ok here we go… Start small. Tackle a defined space or category within the home. Decluttering is a tiring process! Decision making is hard- especially if you have challenges with executive functioning. Your basic process is to get rid of the trash, sort everything into categories then declutter one category at a time, considering each item.

Make a plan and set clear guidelines for the process. What is your goal?
Stay within the physical space you’re working on, make a pile of things that live somewhere else or with someone else, and STAY on task!
I love listening to podcasts while I organise. You could call a friend who loves to talk or listen to some music too.
It’s not a tidy process. It will get worse before it gets better, and about 3/4 of the way through you’re going to have an existential crisis and wonder what on earth you’ve begun. You’re almost there- keep going!
Make categories and keep them relevant to how you live. They will be fluid throughout the process, but once you’ve finished- sticking to what you’ve defined is important. You’re not going to find a scarf in the box labelled ‘hats’ when you’re looking for it next year, but you could keep it in that box if it was labelled ‘Winter Accessories’. Also- LABEL.
Did I mention labels? You should label.

Dispose

One of the biggest challenges for my clients’ effective decluttering is knowing that unwanted items will go somewhere useful. Here’s a list I have compiled of great charities who can directly use your items, along with a list of sustainable waste solutions for some of those funkier items you’re not sure how to manage.

Most Professional Organisers, including myself; will take your donated goods away for you.

Plan the use of space

Now is the time to redesign your living. Think about the habits and pain points you have and how your organisation can work to support that. If your shoes have always lived in your closet but never get put away because you always dump them at the front door… Maybe they should just live at the front door? This is called organising for the ‘point of performance’. If you want to dive down that rabbit hole you can do so here.

Tough love moment- Don’t organise for the perfect future you who is going to suddenly do all of the amazing diets and plans and hobbies you’ve been dreaming of. Be realistic and it’s more likely to stick. Keeping up your organisation IS the good habit.

If you’re planning to buy organisational products or you’re already feverishly shoving things into boxes you already own- use this one rule. Leave 10% empty space. Something more is going to go INTO that container before it comes out, right? For example- You’ve organised and filled a box with LEGO. Then the next day you find a stash of LEGO creations under your kids’ bed. Nevermind! You go to put it away in the LEGO box… oh, it’s already full to the brim. Where does the LEGO go now? The system begins to fall over.

The sweetest craft set-up I created for a creative young lass. We simply used ice-cream containers my client had on hand. *Notice the 10% space availability!*

Now you can go shopping!

If you don’t have quite what you need to store and display your organised belongings; you can buy organisational systems pretty cheaply. Bunnings, Kmart, The Warehouse and Mitre 10 all have items that are good enough; you don’t need to shop anywhere fancy. Measure up and have a browse online for items that will suit your needs. Plastic gets a bad rap, and fair enough too, but it is durable, and I think it’s worth comparing to an non-plastic item that will disintegrate and become landfill in half the time. Some of the Box Sweden range from Bunnings is made from recycled plastic- I hope more brands pick up on this idea!

Some brands are starting to use recycled plastic as a ‘sustainable’ organising solution.

Make it stick

Hopefully, having followed these tips you’ve got yourself a beautiful little organised space. To make it stick there’s a few extra tricks!

Label like youre running a stationalry business. A label is an instruction to put an item away, and a clue as to where you might find something. It also means less questioning from other family members on where something is! Picture labels give younger children a head start and no excuses at tidy up time.
Reset frequently. If the system falls over a little, that’s okay; just reset by tidying things back into their designated spot or category. It shouldn’t take too long and will keep everything to hand once again.
Reflect on it. Give yourself a few weeks or a month to settle into new habits and routines that use your organisational set-up, and be open to tweaking the system. Like anything, it can evolve and change as you do!

How to Organise like a Pro