Mess equals stress! Organize your mess to reduce your stress, feel happier, and give you back your time.
How’s your stress level? Is your house, office, or car a mess? If so, you’re probably a little stressed out. According to an article on Shape.com, women who deemed their homes messy were more stressed, tired and depressed than women who considered their homes relaxing. It’s important to organize your mess to reduce your stress!
Clutter, unfinished projects, the inability to find things when you need them, and the embarrassment you feel when guests unexpectedly stop by are all stress factors that can be minimized by organizing your messy home or office. Organizing your home, office and even car (yes- I am talking to myself!) not only makes you happier, it gives you back your time. Think of how many hours you have spent looking for that missing shoe, pair of scissors, or recently in our family- the missing AirPods that were found under the back seat of my car! Time is a valuable commodity and when you are unorganized, you are wasting it.
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Here are 3 steps to organize your mess and reduce your stress:
STEP 1: Schedule your organizing projects
Organizing takes time. It can be overwhelming if you try to take on too much all at once. When organizing your home, office or car break it down into more manageable, smaller tasks.
Break it down room by room
Go room by room and determine what organization needs to be done. Physically go into the room and look at all of the problem areas (closets, shelves, bookcases, under the bed, dressers, etc). Make a list of all the tasks that you need to do to organize that room.
For example, in my son’s bedroom, I would identify closet, dresser and under his bed as his 3 main problem areas. Under the closet section, I would note to sort through his clothes and donate clothes that he no longer wears, donate or trash old shoes, and go through his old toy bins at the top of his closet. I would continue this process for all areas I identified in his room. Once I completed his room, I would move on to another room in the house.
Continue the process above until all rooms and areas you want to organize have been reviewed and outlined. Once that is completed, sit down with your notes and assign how much time you think each room or task will take. (Hint: it usually takes longer than you think so be sure to schedule in some buffer time.) Schedule days and times for the organizing to begin. You can use my project worksheet to help you breakdown your tasks and assign completion dates. Download the FREE worksheet below.
STEP 2: ORGANIZE each area
Some rooms can be done in an hour. Some rooms will take you days. Other areas will take you much longer (think garages and basements!) Please do not start another area until you have completed the current one you are working on. If you leave the room half done, you will have more mess and stress then when you first started! Don’t give up- stick with it and see it to fruition. Organize your mess and reduce your stress one room at a time!
Remember to use your bins, baskets and labels to give everything a home so that all of your hard work will not disappear as soon as you leave the room! An essential part of organizing is having everything in a designated place and having all family members know exactly where things belong too.
Bonus: Involve your family in the organizing process. Get your children’s input on where they would like things in their room. Getting their buy-in will encourage them to maintain the organization and help them establish good organizing skills.
step 3: Determine what to keep, donate or discard.
Organizing requires you to take a look at all of your stuff and determine if you really need to keep it or not. As you are organizing your mess, look at the items you are sorting and ask yourself these questions to help you determine whether to keep, donate or discard the item:
Do you still use that item?
Have you used it in the last 6 months?
Is it something you could easily replace if you discarded it today and needed it a few weeks from now (think replacement cost under $20)?
If you haven’t used the item the last 6 months, donate or discard it. You probably won’t miss it- just let it go! For the items you keep, use bins, baskets, shelving and drawers to create homes for those items. Group smaller and easily lost items such as art supplies, toys, and tools in bins or containers together. Make cute labels for the storage bins and baskets so that everyone in the family knows where the items belong.
You can do it!
Organizing takes time. Be patient and don’t get discouraged. Break your projects down into small, manageable bites, organize room by room and discard or donate any unwanted items. Celebrate each time you finish an area. As you complete your projects, you will feel so much better! Don’t give up. Organize your mess and reduce your stress!!!
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