Organization 101 - Where & How to Begin an Undertaking

How to begin?

- Ultimately there is no secret as to where to begin, but to just start somewhere. 

Even if you put a few things together and move onto something else shortly after many times in a row, this could potentially help get the ball rolling. 

- Have a solid goal in mind when starting.

Try tackling one room / one area at a time. Once that area is complete, move on to the next one. It is better to build your confidence by seeing some progress and to help motivate you to keep up the momentum. Set manageable goals - whether it's "X" amount of hours or one space or closet a day/week, etc. 

- Enlist help.

Call in friends and family to help start the project off. If it's your stuff, I recommend a close friend or 2 to offer emotional support and accountability. It's also nice to have another opinion, especially someone that has no investment in the "stuff" you're working through.

If you're going through another family member's stuff, call the family together on a specified day and have them take what they want to keep. NOTE: If there is potential for family disagreements with this part of the process, I would recommend holding off allowing others to take things until everything has been reviewed by all and agreed upon with who gets what.

Where to begin?

- Start with the easy stuff first. 

"All the books are being donated to the library" Great! Box them up and place them near the door.

"All the papers need to be gone through." Perfect, put all the papers together and set aside for further review later.

- Start with the big stuff.

"There are clothes EVERYWHERE!" Ok, put all the clothes together and decide what is being kept, donated or tossed.

- Start creating piles. 

Set aside things to donate, sell, or to see if family members want. If it has outlived its usefulness, toss it out. When in doubt, create a pile to be reviewed later.

- Momentums or keepsakes. 

When beginning it's important to stay focused on the task at hand. If you come across a box of keepsakes, photos, or other collections that could potentially lead you astray, put aside and come back to it once you've completed the first few waves of general organization. It's better to handle the majority of things first and handle the more delicate items when you are in a more organized place.

- Gather together "like for like" items.

The act of starting can be overwhelming and the hardest step. Sometimes simply thinking of it as putting all of the same things together can be a helpful catalyst to start the process off. In the bedroom, collect all the shoes, pants, dresses, jewelry, etc. together. In the kitchen, consolidate all the glasses, baking, food items, etc. together. Put all the candles together, etc. 

I began, now what?

Manage the piles.

Remember the donate, sell, review piles? Now's the time to eliminate the piles and set the plans in motion.

Donations: There are so many places that will gladly accept donations of any kind - whether it's your local thrift store, Goodwill, or church - some will even pick up! Some libraries will take used books. After school programs are always looking for supplies. Look around the community to see how you can bless others.

Sell: Have a tech savvy relative or friend who can help? Ebay, facebook marketplace, Mercari or clothing websites like Poshmark and Thredup all offer platforms to sell items that can fetch a price. Some antique dealers will come to your home and assess items. Estate or Yard sales could be an option. Even old CDs, records and other media can be sold at places like Bull moose Music. 

Family Giveaway: Encourage family members to come take a look at some items you've set aside and see if anyone can use what's there.

Misc pile: Now's the time to make some hard decisions on the items you set aside while working on the big purge. Is this something you/others really needs / wants? Can you sell it and make money? Has it outlived its usefulness? Is it now trash? Decide which pile it should be in.

Photos: I recommend scanning in old photos (or having a service like EverPresent scan them for you!) so they can be shared with others. It's also one less thing to store, sort through or distribute.

Set a timeline.

It's easy to get sidetracked and for projects to become a lifelong endeavor. Set a realistic timeframe on when you want to accomplish specific milestones or the whole project (depending on the size of it) and stick to it!

Keep going! 

Sometimes the motivation to keep going is the hardest part. There's a point in the middle where you look around and it seems like there's more chaos now than when you began and it can be overwhelming. Keep going! Even small steps will get you there eventually.

When to ask for help?

Everyone is different. If getting started is the hardest and most overwhelming part, let others help you get over that hump! Let them start creating piles and designating what goes where. Once you get your feet under you and have a feel for the process,  you can take over and finish up!

If you hit the middle part and you have created more chaos than you can handle, there's no better time to raise the white flag! Better to find your path again in the process, then to become so overwhelmed that nothing is getting accomplished. The feeling that you're spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere can be demoralizing, especially when you have a large project on your hands. Allow others to support you.

Have you started off with a bang, muscling through most of everything, but you're fizzling wrapping the project up? Allow others to get the project over the finish line for you. Let someone else make the last trips to the donation center, figure out what to do with all the photos or misc items, etc. You made it this far, you should be proud of yourself!

Whether your project requires a few areas of support or assistance walking through all of it, there are others who are willing to help. You don't need to do it all alone. Do what you can and see where the process takes you, but above all - never be afraid to ask for help! Who better to ask than the experts who handle these projects all the time?

Sidenote:

It could be helpful to consider what items / areas are the hardest and let a professional help with just those things. Organized Bliss is glad to assist in any way we can and we hope the above is helpful!  Go get ‘em!