The Joyful Sort Top 5: Tips For Staying Organized
So you've organized your pantry, your closet, or even your whole house and it feels and looks great...now what? I often joke with my clients that if I've done my job well, we'll never see each other again. My goal is to create functional systems that are easy to maintain, but organization is a long-term habit that needs to continue to be cultivated over time. Read on for my top tips on how to keep the momentum going!
1. Deal with it.
If there are areas that can be addressed or tasks that can be completed relatively quickly and easily - sorting the mail, removing stray items from a desk drawer, filing this week's art projects or school papers into a keepsake box - make like Nike and just do it. Try setting a daily timer for 10 or 15 minutes and commit to focusing on one task or space during that time to help prevent everyday clutter from creeping back in.
2. Set (and stick to!) a routine.
Whether it's a quick daily tidy like the one mentioned above, an hour every other Saturday, or a seasonal deep dive, carving out time to maintain order in your space is so important to making sure that you don't find yourself starting from scratch six months or a year from now. So many of my clients have mentioned during our initial conversations that they've reached a point where the clutter just became too overwhelming to deal with (which I totally get because, hello, LIFE!). Breaking your organizational upkeep into smaller, more manageable chunks is a great way to make sure things don't pile up again.
3. Put it away, don't put it down.
One of the most important aspects of getting organized is giving everything a home and grouping like items or categories together. One of the most important aspects of staying organized is making sure that those items are actually returned to their designated spots when you've finished using them. I'm firmly and forever on Team Label All The Things for this reason: labels leave no question where something belongs at the end of the day. If you find that the layout you set up during the initial organizing process isn't jiving with your daily routine as much as you thought it would, don't be afraid to change it up. It's a good thing to be consistently re-evaluating your systems and routines so that they're as functional as possible for your everyday life.
4. Practice One In, One Out
Moving into an older home last year meant losing some closet and storage space (though I'll gladly trade smaller closets for our neighborhood's beautiful tree-lined streets any day of the week!). As I was packing up my clothes from the walk-in master closet in our old home, I realized that there were many items that I'd been hanging onto just because I had the available space. I've since shifted to a much more curated closet - not quite as strict as a capsule wardrobe, but I do try and hold myself to the One In, One Out rule. If I fall in love with a sweater, I can bring it home guilt-free, as long as I do a quick edit of the sweaters that I already have. I either select one that I'm willing to donate or I tuck one away in the "If not used by..." box that's kept in our guest room (the idea being that if I don't miss it by a certain date - say, the end of the season - it's okay to go). It's also so much more fun to shop my own closet when it's not crammed to the gills!
5. Recognize when good enough is good enough.
As one of my favorite no-nonsense professional organizers, Lisa Kelly of Organize 365, says, "Done is better than perfect." I'm guessing that one of the reasons you were motivated to get organized in the first place was so that you'd have more time to do the things you love most, not to continue to stress yourself out trying to maintain some Pinterest-worthy standard of perfection. Your home should be a source of comfort and pride and joy, and getting organized can definitely be a big part of that...but not to the point that you're stressing out about whether a few of your freshly labeled pantry baskets are out of place.
The most important thing to remember in maintaining an organized home is that small steps every day can make a big difference - you've got this!