The Joyful Sort Top 5: Organizing & Decluttering Projects To Tackle While Social Distancing

Well, hi! How’s everyone doing? I hope that you’re safe, healthy, and cozy at home with your loved ones. If you’re one of the many that are considered essential and keeping the foundation of our communities up and running at personal risk to yourselves and your own families, THANK YOU again and again and again. You are appreciated more than you know.

I’m currently tucked away in our guest room while my husband takes a conference call from the kitchen table and my kids complete their remote learning assignments for the day down in the office. Our dog has never been walked more and has also never been happier now that all of his people are home 24/7. Our cat, however, is less than thrilled. We have plenty of food (and toilet paper), our Disney+ watchlist is stacked, and we’ve connected with friends and family through Zoom and FaceTime as much as possible. We’re slowly but surely adjusting to this new normal, but I still have moments and hours and days where I just can’t quite process all that’s changed and all of the uncertainty about what’s to come.

There already seems to be a little bit pressure to use this time at home to check those long-delayed projects off the ole’ To Do lists and, on some level, I get it. There are currently a lot of great decluttering and organizing challenges out there in particular, and if you’re raring to go I’m of course here to cheer you on, but I also want to say that it is absolutely, 100%, totally okay to not feel like being super productive right now.  Truthfully, I spent much of the first week of our self-isolation in a bit of a fog, but it quickly became pretty clear that having one or two small projects to focus on each day really made a difference for my headspace. In case you’re in the same boat, here are a round up of a few focused projects, a gentle Could list for when you’re looking for some inspiration and direction.

1. Junk drawer

You know you’ve got (at least) one! This is a great starter project for those days when you may be feeling “meh”, but still want to accomplish something. Check out a full How To post here and sound off in the comments with the most random item you find!

2. Spice drawer/cabinet

Back in the fall, my husband took our boys on an overnight Cub Scouts campout, so I did what any organizer/mom does on a rare night alone - poured some wine, cued up some old Real Housewives episodes, and gave our spice drawer an overhaul. I now have a little moment of joy every time I open that drawer…which admittedly isn’t that often because my husband does all the cooking in our family, but still.

Start by taking everything out, check expiration dates (one interesting thing that I’ve learned as a professional organizer is that people have very strong opinions about spice expiration dates - who knew?), make a quick list of anything that needs to be replenished or refreshed, and vacuum/wipe out the drawer before placing anything back in. If you want to be a little extra like me, add a riser and some matching glass jars with labels. We’re all spending a lot more time cooking at home these days, and maybe having to get creative with pantry staples, so why not add a pinch of YAY?

3. Seasonal clothing

Fingers crossed, warmer weather is on the way, so this is a good chance to get a jump on a seasonal reset. Pull out any springtime clothing items and ask yourself whether each piece was something that you actually wore and loved last year. For kids, I recommend doing a quick try-on session to make sure that they haven’t outgrown anything or won’t outgrow something a month into the new season. Take note of any basics that may need to be added or replaced, especially if the “add to cart” lure is especially strong right now with any added online browsing time.

4. School paper/keepsakes

This is a project that I typically recommend parents do during summer months, but with the high liklihood that kiddos won’t be returning to school anytime soon, now seems as good a time as any.

Round up all school papers, artwork, and keepsakes and sort into piles by child. Then, start the editing process by pulling any creations that are particularly special. A good rule of thumb is that a Keep piece should capture your child at that moment in time - a handprint, a story they’ve written about what they want to be when they grew up, a project or paper that they were particularly proud of. If you need it, consider this permission granted to send things like workbook sheets, coloring pages, and half-finished drawings straight to the recycling bin with minimal guilt.

Store anything you’d like to hang onto long-term into a file box like the ones pictured below, or turn photos of your Keep items into an easy-to-store memory book. Artkive is an amazing option for this - simply fill a box with your child’s art and they’ll turn it into a beautiful keepsake book or framed mosaic. Bonus: enter code JOYFULSORT at checkout for $20 off your order!

5. Photos

If I had to pick one area of life where I would self-identify as a hot mess, this would be it. It’s just one of those projects that we’ve repeatedly put off or lost steam on, which I think a lot of people experience.

When my parents moved a few years ago, I inherited a lot of my childhood photos and spent some time getting them in order, but my husband’s collection was still living a big box in our basement. Now that we’re remote learning, our ancient Mac desktop needed a serious tune-up, so we moved all digital photos over to an external hard drive. Basically, we’ve finally hit a point where we’re kind of forced to deal with organizing our photos once and for all, and I’m kind of okay with it.

For physical prints, start by sorting by family member and then age/time period/life event. Toss any duplicates or random blurry pictures of people you don’t know. Keep your memories safe with a storage case like this one, available on Amazon or through online ordering at Michael’s or The Container Store.

For digital files, try to get everything into one central spot like an external hard drive and then start sorting into individual folders, say by year or event or holiday. Just like with any physical organizing project, categorizing items gives you a chance to then edit in smaller chunks and make the project much less overwhelming. Delete duplicate shots just as you did with physical prints and flag favorites to print or create a book of.

We managed to get through all of our print photos over the course of a weekend while plugging through a mini Marvel movie marathon and have committed to at least two hours per week of digital cleanup during our time at home. It has been SO satisfying to finally get some traction on this, and looking back through all of our memories has been a bright spot for everyone as well.

Now more than ever, our homes should (and kind of have to be) a place of respite, even if that looks and feels a bit different depending the day. I’d love to hear from you, so please comment below with any projects you may or may not be attempting to finish during this time, or post some Before and After pictures on social media and tag The Joyful Sort so we can cheer on your progress!