Steps To Get Started On An Overwhelming Organizing Project

It’s common for people to feel overwhelmed by the thought of organizing their entire home, especially if disorder has been a longstanding issue. They look around, and it seems like they’ll never be able to figure out where to start, in what order to work, or how to move through the process.

In these cases, I suggest starting with one category at a time. I also suggest starting with the areas that most affect your stress level. For example, this might be the entryway to the house - the last thing you see when leaving for work and the first thing you see upon arriving home. Or, it might be the bedroom - the first thing you see in the morning and the place that sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Let’s use the bedroom as an example. Do you struggle with clothes being strewn about on furniture and the floors? This is often the biggest issue in bedrooms, so if this is true for you, then I recommend starting with a project that specifically tackles clothing organization.

Consider these specific steps:

Gather all the clothes together

Collect one person’s clothes from all rooms, the laundry, and out of all drawers and closets. This is extremely important because most people don’t realize how much they have until it’s all gathered together in one location. As you’re gathering, simultaneously do the next step as well.

Sort into categories

Chose categories for classification that are narrow enough to clearly see how much of something there is but broad enough that you don’t have a bunch of categories with only one or two items. For example, consider using categories such as t-shirts, ties, and yoga pants, but refrain from using excessively narrow categories such as yellow t-shirts, paisley ties, and flared yoga pants.

Decide what is a reasonable amount

Make a decision about what represents a reasonable number of items for each category. Say you wear a t-shirt every day, never re-wear one before washing, and do laundry every 2 weeks. In that case it would make sense to keep 14-18 t-shirts. However, if you do laundry every 3 days anyway, you might decide that 5-7 is a more reasonable number.

Choose what to let go of

Once you have chosen an appropriate number of items, go on a treasure hunt to pick out your favorites for each category. A rating scale is frequently useful in making decisions. Use a scale of 1-10 with 1 being worst and 10 being best. If you rate an item 9 or 10 then you would choose to keep that item over a similar item with a rating of 7 or 8. You might need to do a couple passes through the clothing categories to narrow down even further if you are exceeding the limits you set or if you are unable to complete the next set due to lack of space.

Put the ‘keeps’ away

If you can, use slim profile hangers that grip the clothes so that they won’t slide off. Group similar things together so you can easily find them. For example, group dresses with dresses, sweaters with sweaters, and pants with pants. Shoeboxes are an easy, free way to contain items such as socks and underwear so they don’t slide around within drawers.

Remove unwanted things from the house

The final step is for the discarded items to leave the house. You went through a lot of hard work to make tough decisions. Don’t undermine your work by keeping unwanted bags of clothes in the corner of the room. There are lots of charity organizations that will pick up clothes (such as Salvation Army, Goodwill, and Big Brothers Big Sisters), and some municipalities may offer textile recycling. Try not to get too caught up in finding the ‘right’ thing to do with them.

While the above steps are for organizing clothes, they can be adapted for most other categories of items in the home or office.

If you’ve been thinking about tackling a home organizing project on your own but have been feeling overwhelmed, know that it is possible to be successful. I hope that the above general guidelines are helpful. If you’re still struggling to get through it on your own, consider reaching out to a qualified Professional Organizer (in home or virtual) to guide you through the process.