Where to start?

When you want to start tackling any kind of organizing/ cleaning out activities, it can often become so overwhelming about where to start that you give up before you can begin. Does this sound like you?

Don't worry, we all feel that way. It's not just the junk drawer that stresses you out, but the clothes you have everywhere, maybe realizing you haven't actually unpacked from your last move, or that everything around you just seems like a mess and you can't find anything. Your solution to this as it continues to stress you out is usually this: to just ignore it because you think you will never find a system that works for you.

Don't believe it.

I promise you there is a way to organize your space that works for you. Not only will it work from concept, but one that works in the long term of keeping things organized. Sometimes this is a trial and error. So we must be patient as we begin to organize our space. We try one thing that seemed to work for someone else, but as the days and weeks go on, you can't understand how organizing this way ever made sense.

De-cluttering and organizing your space takes time and patience. Be patient with it, try a few different methods, and see what works and what doesn't work. There is no one right way to organize.

To begin your organizing project, my first recommendation is to go into it with an open mind, and the ability to purge. Some days it might be easy to just get rid of everything, and other days its hard to get rid of anything. You want to find the happy medium between these two things; you want to be a place where you can get rid of things, but not where you are getting rid of everything and then might regret it later.

Get in the mindset to organize.

Next step: clean the space. If you are purging your closet, empty it. All of it. Put it all on your bed, the floor, whatever works for you. The space needs to be empty in order to begin.

This is important for two main reasons: you can see the full space you have to work with and second, you can see everything that was taking up that space before. You probably found things you forgot you had or didn't know you even had.

Next: purge. Sort the items by kind (again, this works for me, maybe not exactly for you). You want to make the organized space your own, so maybe all your black t-shirts are together, maybe you organize by outfit, it's your closet, you need to do what works for you.

Now that you've finished purging, you see what made the cut to stay in your life.

Next comes the extremely individualized step. Actually organizing the closet. This step can be really quick, or it could take trial and error.

Find what works for you and your life.

Organizing doesn't have to be complicated, and although it can be overwhelming to begin, once you begin, it becomes less overwhelming.

Good luck getting started!

-Shannon