As a Professional Organizer, I am always maintaining order in my home and office, however, there are times when clutter gets out of control. I have a system that I follow, but life happens sometimes. When I need to tackle my own space or a client space this is my process:
- First I take a deep breath.
- I start in one corner of a room, closet, desk, another surface, or container, then work my way around clockwise.
- I work with small sections at a time to avoid a big mess at the end of my session. This way I can stop at any time if necessary. Nothing is worse than creating a big mess and not being able to get back to it right away creating an even bigger mess.
- I always start with purging and don't even think about where the items I am keeping will go.
- My piles (either containers or sections of the room) include Trash, Recycle, Shred, and Donate. I typically don't sell much because I rarely follow through.
- I use black trash bags for donations and white ones for trash to avoid confusion. For fragile items being donated, I use boxes or bins.
- I never purchase organizing products until everything is purged and sorted. My goal is to avoid buying new products and use containers I already have on hand. Plus it is important to know what sizes are needed first.
- I always put function before beauty. I feel that a system should be in place for some time before investing in decorative containers.
Visit my previous Blog Post with the questions, you can ask to determine what to let go of.
