Sounds silly doesn’t it to say I learned to organize from Sesame Street, but that’s exactly what I told my granddaughter while we were in the middle of reorganizing her and her sister’s bedroom.

I have been wanting to get my fingers into this project for 2 years, but I didn’t want to stick my nose into the job as long as my daughter was telling me that she and her fiance were planning on doing it. He picked a fight with her on Christmas day, got all pissy, then stomped out saying he was done. This time my daughter let him go.

I started to work on the bedroom since she still had to go to work during the week, and I figured it would just take me a couple of hours, but once I started on the job I discovered the “system” my granddaughter said she had to organize her room. Ha! The system was to just shove stuff into any avalable spot, so she really had no idea where anything was, nor what she had anymore.

I just started pulling stuff out of all the drawers and nooks and crannies. There was a huge pile and Miss T was doing her best to listen to my directions, but it did get the best of her, so there were some tears.

I reassured her that I knew what I was doing, that organizing is my strength, and that yes, I had learned to organize from Sesame Street! Do you remember the puppets singing “Three of these things belong together, one of them does not?” Don’t laugh! That’s the underlying premise!

I created zones, one for the beauty products, one for homework and crafts, one for sports equipment, and then organize the clothes. When she saw our middle of the room pile slowly getting smaller as we designated which zone each item needed to go into, she started feeling like we could actually do it.

We removed 2 garbage bags of trash, broken stuff, and stained things, plus another bag of give-away things. That was day 1!

On day 2 we worked on organizing each zone, plus I folded the clothes that were designated to go into the drawers, in a modified marie Kondo style. Where previously she was telling us she needed a bigger dresser to fit all her stuff, (her method was shove, cram, shove), with the easy folding method, but setting everything vertically, filing cabinet style, not only did we fit everything back in, she marveled at how she could see everything, plus her drawers were just 1/2 full. Of course, that was before we did all her laundry and added those clean clothes, but she was so happy to be able to fit everything into the drawers and not feel like she needed to stuff the extra stuff into corners of the closet.

Yes, it was a massive job, but we did it together. We decluttered and made sense of all the items. Miss L, the older sister was away at her dad’s, but she wasn’t any better at folding or organizing, so I did all her stuff.

Now the girls have a bedroom they can feel at home in plus they can feel pride of place, so keeping it tidy is easier. My daughter was very pleased with the result, and that took one item off her to-do list!

If you’re finding your own living space has gotten out of hand and you want to get yourself organized, you don’t necessarily need to run out and buy a bunch of organization stuff! In fact, I don’t recommend it!

I buy good quality baskets from Goodwill when I see them, because I put them to use when I tackle an organization project. Having a selection of sizes is very helpful. For larger baskets I will sometimes use smaller ones inside to break up the space if I need to.

I also look around the house to see what I can repurpose for my organization to create new zones. When I get a handle on what my new zones are and how much stuff needs to go into it, I might also purchase a shelving unit or storage unit to accommodate it.

Step 1

Pull stuff out of where it is hiding, separate into zones, and do a HEAVY purge!

If you’ve been accumulating stuff over the years, you can probably get rid of 70% and still have more than enough for your needs! The purge can be the difficult part, so don’t be afraid to enlist help to do this!

As you purge, put the trash into trash bags and get them out of the house immediately when a bag is full! If it is stained or broken, you aren’t going to use it, and neither will anyone else, so get rid of it. Usable stuff will go into donate bags or boxes. Put those into the trunk or back seat of your car.

Get that stuff out of the house as soon as possible. If you have been saying you’re going to sell the stuff or hold a garage sale and you haven’t been doing it, maybe it’s time to just let it go! If a friend is having a sale, maybe you can add some usable things to their sale.

Hopefully you can get this done by the end of day one! When this step is done, drive to a donation drop-off and unburden your vehicle. If you have more than one carload, make more than one trip, but get it out of your place!

Treat yourself to a nice cup of hot chocolate, tea or beverage from your favorite place! You earned it! If you haven’t eaten today, eat some yummy food!

Step 2

Now we go back to the piles of stuff that was separated into zones, it is time to organize those piles. I tend to organize my zones as I go, putting like with like. I try to find containers or baskets for stuff, and often change them around if I see it’s not big enough or too big.

This can be a tedious process, and it is also a great time to do a further purge, for who needs doubles or triples of the same things?

If you’ve been accumulating for a few years, you may have bought and rebought the same type of item multiple times, because you lost track of where it was! Time to purge, keep the one you love the best!

Be ruthless with things that broke even a little and you have been meaning to fix them! Will you really, or will they sit for another few years, because face it, you lead a busy life! Was this how things started to get out of hand in the first place? Why just rince and repeat?

It is time to fold clothes, hang up clothes, put stuff into baskets/bins/containers, not just to stuff back in, but to create purpose!

Do your best to put stuff away, keeping only what you need. No, your drawers and closets may not look like a dream, yet, but look around! If you have gotten rid of a lot of stuff, theoretically you should be able to fit it into the closets, dressers, cupboards and drawers you already have!

Pat yourself on the back! Good job! Well done!

If you want to go even a step further, you can enlist the help of a professional organizer if that’s in your budget or go watch Marie Kondo’s series or other organizer’s series to get inspiration.

Once you get some fresh ideas, it will be important to tackle only ONE zone at a time! Maybe you need a new piece of furniture or some lovely new baskets. Maybe you want to paint the walls or redo a piece of furniture to freshen it up.

The big job is over, no need to try to tackle all of it at once again! Whew!

Now that the big job is done, working on each zone is no longer quite so overwhelming, and you can actually see yourself finishing projects!

If you’re like Miss T, when you look around and no longer see all the clutter and mess, the new space will feel absolutely wonderful without all the visual noise!

Miss T had a hard time understanding the concept of what visual noise was or how it was affecting her, but once we got done and she was marveling at how nice her room looked, she could feel the difference the lack of visual noise made for her!

I’m sure you will feel the same way when you get done! Bravo to you!

I hope you’ll poke around my Archived Posts to find a wonderful trove of supportive and encouraging posts! Don’t forget to Like, Comment, and Follow my blog! If you want to become a Guest writer, please contact me and we’ll work out the details!

I’m sharing more posts that may be helpful for you:

• 10 Steps to Owning Our Happiness
• Setting “Boundaries with consequences”
• Making a change… “How do I take that first step?”
• Affirmation: Today is a new day! I can do this!
• As we practice being gentle and kind with ourselves, we actually help to speed the process of helping our lives become more positive!
• Always believe that wonderful things can happen!
• A healthy outside starts from the inside!
• Brain Rewiring

More good stuff:

• Teaching ourselves to like, even to love ourselves
• By changing our inner dialogue, we change EVERYTHING!
• Challenge: When a negative thought enters your mind, think three positive ones. Train yourself to flip the script!
• Red Ocean or Blue Ocean? How do you think?
• An answer to dealing with the Inner Critic!
• My top 10 most viewed posts, plus a few bonuses!
• A helpful trick to be able to overcome negatively Comparing Ourselves to others…
• Do you only accept yourself if you look a certain way?
• A new you! Is this possible?
• Start today, start tomorrow, just start!
• There is no enlightenment outside of daily life – Thich Nhat Hanh

Blessings!
Thank you for liking, sharing this post and for following me!
Tamara

I hope you’ll poke around my Archived Posts Main page divided up into 3 sub-pages: Mental Health and Rewiring the Brain || Healing and Developing Ourselves || Positive thoughts and Affirmations to find a wonderful trove of supportive and encouraging posts!
https://tamarakulish.com/

Developing Happiness When You Can’t Find It and How to Heal Your Life on a Deep Heart Level are available in paperback and Kindle. Audiobooks are available for the busy person!

Guided Journals help you work on a particular issue by answering questions to help see patterns and to find solutions:

Removing Inner Blocks,    Anger Journal,    Guided Anxiety Journal    Joy & Mindfulness Journal     My Boundaries Journal   My Inner Thoughts Journal   

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