Best Tips for Getting Organized in the New Year
If one of your goals in the new year is to get organized, I applaud your resolution! Organizing your home gives you a new lease on your space and your life. When your home contains only the things you need and love, you feel more energized, refreshed, creative, at peace…I can keep going, but I know you want to get to the HOW!
Whether your motivation is to finally host that themed dinner party, or simply to collapse into your sofa sans dog hair, committing to your decision is half the battle. Then you just have to execute on it. And how to execute is often where people get tripped up. Here’s how to stop kicking that can down the road and just crack it open already:
1. Declutter first, organize second. If there’s only one thing you take away from me on my organizing soap box, let it be this mantra. Oftentimes the first impulse when getting organized is to throw a big Rubbermaid bin at a mess. But disorganization is often the result of owning too much stuff. When your home is littered with stuff you don’t like or use, it blocks access to the stuff you love and need. This is a critical step in the organizing process and can’t be skipped!
2. Chunk out your decluttering schedule. No one except Marie Kondo expects you to declutter the entire contents of your home in a day. It’s unrealistic, overwhelming, and often what sets people running in the opposite direction. Go easy on yourself and chip away at your stuff when you can. Declutter *one room* at a time and set a timer so you know you have an out (15 minutes is a great starting point). Keep a garbage bag handy for trash, a large empty bag for donation items (those crinkly blue Ikea bags work great), and a box for items you’d like to sell (box because it’s easy to ship stuff off in a box).
3. Sort your clutter. If you’re uncertain about whether something might be trash or donate-able, ask yourself whether someone else could really get use out of this thing. Old receipts from McDonald’s: trash. Broken and rusted flour sifter: trash (recycle!). A hammock you bought in Honduras and have used exactly zero times: donate. An unused Kindle collecting dust in your closet: sell. If you have a difficult time letting go, which can be a major roadblock for many people, I recommend starting with the easy stuff: pens with no ink, random promotional t-shirts, newspapers and magazines from the early 2000s, sriracha packets covered in sticky sriracha, etc.
4. Know thy drop-off spots. So you’ve made it to the other end! To prevent this outgoing stuff from becoming lingering clutter in your home, it’s crucial to know your options and drop-off points. Your local Salvation Army or Goodwill are wonderfully easy places to drop off donation items. If you have some items you want to give to friends/family, plunk those things in an “outgoing bin” by your door (just make sure they don’t sit there for six months). Throw those “sell” items up on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Send those sell-able clothes off to The Real Real or thredUP. If you’re realistically not going to do any of those things, ask a friend/family member to help list your stuff. Now you just have to get those boxes and bags out of the house!
5. Scoot your stuff out the door. Keeping bags full of stuff in your entryway doesn’t count as decluttering. If you’re the indecisive type, you might be tempted to rifle through those bags, undoing all your hard work and making even more of a mess. Task a pro organizer, a Taskrabbit, or a friend or family member to help you get everything out of your house. Constantly staring at garbage bags of junk by your entryway never made anyone happy.
6. Treat yourself! Eat a cookie, take a nap, or an hour long Epsom Salt bath. Decluttering your home can be seriously hard work, but once you emerge on the other end, you’ll feel lighter and liberated. When you get rid of piles of stagnant stuff, you’re setting the stage for new opportunities to come into your life. Consider phase one of “operation be more organized in 2022” complete. Stay tuned for how to STAY organized in the New Year.