905-642-5669
Get Organized in 5 Easy Steps
One evening I was looking up the definition for “organize” in the dictionary. Don’t judge, I’m a professional organizer after all! The definition reads, to arrange in a structured whole, but it was the synonyms for organize that caught my eye : put in order, arrange, sort, categorize, and systemize were just some. It then got me thinking about what we at ClutterBGone use to keep us on track through our process. The acronym “SPACE” is an easy way to remember our steps for a successful organization.
SPACE in our industry stands for Sort, Purge, Assign, Containerize and Evaluate and they’re the 5 steps we use and encourage with all our clients.
Sort
When organizing or downsizing the first step is to sort your belongings by category. 
If you were organizing in the kitchen you would sort all your pots, pans, utensils and such to see just how much you had of each. When doing a closet sort your shirts or blouses, dresses, pants, etc. You really don’t know how much you have of something until you see it all laid out in front of you.
Purge
Once the sort is completed the second step is the purge. Don’t confuse purge with getting rid of everything. All you are deciding here is what will stay and what will go. Go can mean donating it to a charity or giving it to a family member or friend. It can mean selling it through various ways or yes, by throwing it out. We find that the purge process is where someone really needs a third party to help. A third party, like a professional organizer, is non-judgemental and can help you make decisions quite a bit quicker.
Assign
Assign is the third step. This step is when you are going to assign a home for your item. You will want to do this based on the layout of the space, the space available and how often you need the item. ClutterBGone has the knowledge, systems and experience to help you make these decisions. You’ll love the systems we leave you with to keep your space organized. And we can usually find space that you just can’t see.
Containerize
Once you have completed the previous steps, you can store the items you have with containers you already own or purchase some new, clear containers to do the job. 
Remember to store items in containers using the smallest possible container that will house all the items in a particular category. Most professional organizers will carry an inventory of commonly used containers to save time.
Evaluate
The last step is to ensure you review the spaces you have organized and to evaluate if any changes are required on a regular basis. You don’t want to fall back into a disorganized space after all the work that you have put into it.
These are the five steps to go through in order to organize any space. We would love to hear how you make out or better yet, we would love to help you in your next organizing project. Just contact us here.
Organizing and decluttering isn’t a sprint. The clutter in your life didn’t appear overnight. Pick a room or a space that gives you the most grief and start there. Stay with that area until it’s complete. Now stand back and realize what you have accomplished. This will give you added energy to move on to the next space.
They forgot they had it or quickly need it and couldn’t find it, so they run off to the store to purchase another one and now have more than 2 or 3 of the same items. These items are easy to make decisions about. They are the perfect candidates to sell, donate or give away.
Do you want to have more time to spend with your family or friends? Do you want to reduce your frustration and anxiety levels when you can’t find things? Will being more organized improve your relationships? Will you save money on past due and interest charges and improve your credit rating? Whatever the reason, write them down and keep the list in a conspicuous place until the task is completed. It will be a constant reminder to you.
Being disorganized in your home office can cost you money with late fees applied because of lost bills. After a while your credit score can take a hit and that can cost quite a bit when you are refinancing a home or loan. ClutterBGone has organized small and large offices and we have staff that specialize in paper.
After living in your home all those years, you’ve surely accumulated a lot of items. There’s furniture and decorations to consider. Will all these fit into your new space? The sentimental items are the hardest to go through and decide what to keep. Emotions can sometimes take over and stop you from making the tough decisions. That is where a professional organizer like ClutterBGone can help. We are non-judgemental and don’t have the emotional attachment that you do.
Now that you’ve made the decisions on what comes with you and what doesn’t, what will you do with the items you no longer require? It’s an easy decision for the items that you’ve been storing for the kids. Call them up and have them pick it up. For the rest, determine what will be sold, what will be donated and what will be thrown out. Again, this is something that’s a lot easier with a professional.
Many people don’t understand just how much money you can save by being organized. Bills will be paid on time thereby saving late fees. Your credit score will improve as well. You won’t be buying duplicates of items that you can’t find but know you have somewhere. In more than one case we found cheques that were misplaced! Luckily, they weren’t stale dated yet.
Once you are organized you’ll find you have the time to do things you love or always wanted to do. You’ll have the time to hit the gym or meet up with friends or sometime for a quick walk at lunch time. Many of us don’t do these things because we “don’t have the time”. Let us help you find that time.
The shopping centers will confirm that a lot of you put off the holiday shopping until the last minute. Set some time aside to get it done earlier. Calendarize it if you need to and treat it like an appointment – no changes. Arrange a babysitter if need be or if you’re able to book an afternoon off work, even better. The shopping malls get crazy with each passing day, as you know. Last minute shopping is the perfect recipe for stress over the holidays and for purchasing items that tend to lead to clutter.
It’s easy to say the whole house but there is one room that is causing you the most grief. One room that is resulting in more misplaced items, more lost productivity, one room that became a drop zone, maybe even one room that looks the worse than the others.
Once the organizing process starts you are going to have items that you want or need to keep but rarely use. These items will need to be stored away. Do you have the space for the storage of items? Do you have the materials required to store items like shelving or containers? The area that you use for storing unused items must also be organized in a way that makes it easy to find and retrieve items.
You don’t want to be running off to the store during the project to pick up what you forgot to purchase. Plan on having a large trash can and trash bags, shelving if they will fit, hooks for hanging items on the walls and a few clear storage containers. We’ve worked on many garages with our clients and know what will be needed from start to finish.
If you don’t have enough space for free standing shelving, use the vertical space that you have. There are plenty of shelves and hooks that can accommodate almost any storage need on a wall. ClutterBGone has seen them all and carries an inventory of some of the most common ones.
Diarize this task if you need to. Take a look around and note what you haven’t looked at or picked up in the last year or more. That wedding book from ten years ago, the small appliances that don’t get used. They can be donated, sold or even put in storage to keep your small space organized and decluttered.
This works really well if you have 9- or 10-foot ceilings as most condos these days do. We’ve even put small dressers into a closet to increase the space in the bedroom which resulted in a less cluttered look.
905-642-5669
