Your Questions Answered: Where To Begin?
I LOVE to hear your ideas and what YOU want to read about. I recently received an email from someone who was wondering WHERE TO START. Many of us have dreams of organizing, but even the thought of organizing is overwhelming. So where DO you start?
In order to organize any area, you need to first go through everything. There is no point in resituating everything when really what it needs is a good sorting through.
This is an easy 7 step process to use for every room of the house:
Choose a place
Write down your goal
Sort through each item
Decide whether to donate, sell, keep, or toss what you don’t want
Clean area
Organize and put everything in its designated place
Donate/Sell/Toss/Fix
Here is an example of where to start:
Choose a Place: Closet
Goal: Get rid of what I don’t wear and organize drawers
Sort: Questions to ask about EACH piece of clothing:
– Does it fit?
– Do you wear it?
– Do you like it and enjoy wearing it?
– Does it need fixing?
Decide
*Have 2 boxes
– Donation Box
– Garbage Box/Bag
1. Collared shirts – Missing buttons? Do they fit?
2. Sweaters – Are they too small? Too big?
3. T-shirts – Do you wear every single one of them? Stains?
4. Long-sleeve shirts – Are they too small? Stretched out?
5. Jeans – Are you saving a few pairs for when you lose weight? Do any of them have holes? In general, do they fit?
6. Sweatshirts – Do you wear every single one of them?
7. Exercise pants/shorts – Do you wear them all? Or do you wear them just because they are an option?
8. Tank tops – Stretched out? Faded? Stained?
9. Dresses – Do they fit? What occasion would you wear it for? Will you ever have an occasion like that again? Is it a multi-purpose dress?
10. Socks – Do they have holes? Are they worn out? Do you have too many pairs?
11. Underwear/Bras – Is it stretched out? Worn out? Itchy?
12. Belts – Any of them worn out?
13. Shoes – Worn out? Still fit? Do they squeak? Dirty?
CLEAN the area by wiping down the shelves and drawers. Vacuum if necessary
Now that you have gone through all of your belongings, it is now time to ORGANIZE, but where to start?
A. You can easily organize all of your items into your closet or drawers, using a 4-6 drawer system.
B. Organize drawers with most worn items towards the front (this way you know what you wear most often what needs to go the next time you organize!)
1. Take all of the items you put on hangers. Organize them by type:
A. Collared Shirts
B. Sweaters
C. Pants
D. Dresses
2. T-Shirts/Short-sleeve shirts
A. Put them all in one stack – either put them on a shelf or on one side of a drawer (they should NOT take up a whole drawer
B. Put all of your short sleeve shirts in this drawer as well
C. **FOR YOUR SHIRTS – Fold as normal, but then fold in half again so that they can be put into a drawer like a “file.” This allows you to see EVERY shirt you own, just by pulling the drawer out
3. Long-sleeved shirts
A. Put them all in ONE drawer if you do not hang them
4. Tank tops
A. Fold into quarters and combine them possibly with long sleeve shirts or exercise shorts
5. Jeans
A. Stack them in a pile or put them on one side of the drawer
B. On the other side, put your exercise pants
6. Shorts
A. Put in one drawer
B. You could also put your exercise pants in this drawer as well
7. Socks/Bathing suits/Nightwear
A. Fold them in half, and then in half again (to prevent losing a sock) and line them vertically in the drawer
B. On the other side – neatly fold bathing suits (in sets) and nightwear
8. Underwear/Bras
A. You can choose to fold your underwear or not – put on one side of the drawer
B. On the other side – Bras (fold cups in together by twisting in middle) and also line up sports bras as well
9. Belts
A. Hang on a nail
B. Or…lay over the bar in the closet, so when you need to grab one, it just slides off the bar
10. Scarves
A. Hang on a hanger
11. Shoes
A. Invest in a shoe rack if you can. Line them up and the key is to put them away when you take them off!
Donate/Sell/Toss what is in the boxes. Do not wait to do this because those boxes will only pile up. Dispose or donate of the items immediately. If time permits, fix what needs to be fixed!
I hope to do more posts on “where to begin organizing”!
I hope you now have a DECLUTTERED, CLEAN, and ORGANIZED closet!
I would love to continue to hear your ideas! If you have any topics and thoughts on what you want to hear about, please feel free to submit your idea under the contact tab on the top menu bar. Thank you!
