If you’re ready to organise your home / life / anything in fact! you’ll be wanting to get started ASAP. But don’t. Before organising you need to have done one specific thing first. Here’s what that is, and why it’s so crucial…
When I start organising, I want to make things look perfect as soon as I can.
I dream of those stylishly sorted out spaces, colour co-ordinated / filed / displayed..
But I know that if I start to organise without doing one crucial thing first – then it won’t last long.
So – what is it?
Simply, it’s to declutter before organising ANYTHING (rather than trying to do them at the same time).
This is so important because if you try and do all things at once, it’s a recipe for disaster.
My A.D.O.R.E method for sorting out any space is clear on the order to do things around your home for the best success and the best chance of things staying organised for the long term.
That order is to ASSESS / DECLUTTER / ORGANISE / REAL LIFE / EVALUATE.
As you can see, decluttering comes between planning and organising any space – and it’s important to realise that they’re distinct jobs in their own right and should always be done in this order for maximum results.
Although most people will plan out their organising before getting started (knowing what to sort out, and where, and how) – it’s all too common to bundle the decluttering in with organising, rather than make sure they’re very separate tasks.
You may be thinking now ‘But WHY is it so important to declutter before organising?’ and it’s something I hear a lot.
So let’s look in more detail at the reasons why it makes sense – and hopefully you’ll be on board by the time you’ve finished!
Reason #1 – You Don’t Know The Space You Need
Think about a cupboard that’s crammed full of stuff.
You’ve set yourself the task of sorting that cupboard out, once and for all.
So, you set about putting everything neatly in boxes away, and by the time you’ve finished it all looks very neat and tidy – but what have you actually achieved?
If you purely concentrate on that cupboard, then you may or may not be organising the right stuff.
There may be items around the rest of the house that belong in this space as well, or there may be stuff in the cupboard right now that doesn’t need to be there (it belongs somewhere else in the house or it doesn’t belong in the house at all).
You simply don’t know whether you’re organising the right things in the right place until you declutter and see exactly what you have in each space.
If you try and organise it without decluttering then you are organising all that stuff and will assume you need that much space to do it.
If, however, you decluttered first, you may well find that half of the stuff in the cupboard isn’t needed to be stored in that space (or needed at all).
Decluttering first means you really know what you are dealing with. You can find the perfect storage solutions for what you DO need to keep in any space, and you will be able to use every area wisely.
Reason #2 – You Won’t Waste Money
One of the nicest parts of sorting any space out is to get lovely storage/organising products that will help keep everything neat and tidy.
I’m a sucker for a good IKEA trip!
BUT – if you try and buy stuff before you know exactly what you need to store (i.e. before you have decluttered), then you will likely be wasting a lot of money and creating more clutter as a result.
Organising products may not work for the space they are needed in, there may be too few items to fill what you have bought, or too many.
As with reason #1 – if you declutter each space so you know exactly what you need to store in each space, then you will only buy storage items that suit that space and the items you want in it.
Perfect!
Reason #3 – You Won’t Waste Your Time
Oh how I hate wasting time…
I don’t like the idea of doing more than absolutely necessary. After all – life’s busy enough.
So – spending time organising that which you may not actually need to keep seems a little crazy to me.
If you organise BEFORE you declutter – this is essentially what you’re doing.
So – declutter first.
Find out what you need, and then work on organising it to how you want – and you’ll ensure the minimum work for sorting out the space.
Sounds good, right!
Reason #4 – You’ll Be Less Overwhelmed
I’ve mentioned this briefly at the start of this post, but it’s such an important part of getting organised that it deserves its own section.
We are all easily demotivated when a job feels too hard/too much for us – and getting organised is a MAMMOTH task when you start to think about it.
If you do follow the method I love (that ADORE method!), then you will be able to move from step to step in a clear way, avoid the overwhelm, and (fingers crossed) enjoy the process all the more…
Reason #5 – You Won’t Have Excess
Decluttering successfully is to work methodically through your home, finding items that don’t belong where they currently are – and moving them to the right place (whether that be in your home or out of your home).
When you do this BEFORE you organise things, you’ll see where you have too many of any item – because you will be collecting them all together as you work around the house.
For me, this is things like toilet rolls, pairs of jeans, and washing up liquid (don’t ask – but it’s true that we had around 15 bottles at one time a few years ago, all lurking in different places!).
You can then work out what you really need, and start to use the excess.
If you organise each area without seeing the house as a whole, then you’ll likely organise lots of little areas of the same item – and STILL not realise how many you actually have.
You’ll feel organised, but in reality you won’t be as organised as you could be, had you decluttered first…
(Also – you won’t have excess storage solutions because you have too much stuff to organise. You’ll know exactly what you need, how it needs storing, and everything will have a place. I can breathe more easily just thinking about it!).
Have I sold you on the best way to declutter – i.e. decluttering as a separate task BEFORE you get things organised?
I hope so!
When you declutter right, you’ll only be left with what you truly need, in the right space in your home.
THEN you can go through your home and make things organised (pretty storage, setting up routines and schedules etc…).
And, as a bonus, you’ll probably see that this is the best way to declutter – and decluttering properly will start the organising off for you without you even trying.
It’s the only way I sort a space out now, and I hope you can see why!
