Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - How to Organize ANY Space in your Home | Clutterbug Podcast # 101

Episode Date: January 1, 2021

In today's podcast, I share a fast and simple method for organizing ANY space in your home, from papers to photos and everything in between. You can take the FREE Clutterbug quiz at: http://clutterbug.com       You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking about how to organize any space in your home. We're going to talk about photos and paper, but these techniques will work for any space that you have so you can really get organized for 2021. Hey, Clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast and Happy New Year. I wanted to share about organizing today, just like jumping right in, talking about how to actually organize any space. But we're going to be talking about how to do it with a macro of place. approach. And if you've listened to me in the past, you know that I don't believe that organization is one size fits all. I truly believe that everyone has a different organizing style. You can take the quiz if you don't know yours on my website at www.com. But I have to say that so many times

we need to just start. We need to just start somewhere. So I'm going to share a technique with you an organizing sort of technique that works really for anyone and you can modify it for your organizing style. You can go back later and make little adjustments and little tweaks. But for now, let's just create homes for all our stuff. Like let's actually learn how to organize. And I've been doing something really naturally for a long time that I realized I never talked about. And I think I was doing it intuitively just after working with my own home for so long and like trying and failing and then working with clients so I could do it quickly because they're paying me by the hour. So I had to learn like the fastest way to organize. And so I was doing something without even realizing

what I was doing. So I haven't talked about this before. This is something that I do to organize every space that I literally have never shared with you. So I feel kind of ridiculous saying this. but it's necessary and and I'm sorry for never mentioning this in the past I didn't even realize that I was doing this until recently when I was talking with Don and from the middle of the mom and Dana from the Slop comes clean we were like just talking about organizing and I realized like I always have predetermined categories in my mind before I even start the sort and so let's roll back it's time to start organizing hopefully you've already done some decluttering I definitely I mean hands down it's easier to organize your house when you've gone through your home and you've filled boxes and

bags always start with trash just finding trash in your home that can go then I love the idea of going through and doing the Easter egg hunt method to like hunting for things that can just leave so we're not sorting we're not making piles we're not going through things we're just looking for obvious things that can leave your home. But when we want to start creating homes for things, when we want to start actually organizing, what does that look like? How do we do it? How do we start, especially if everything is a crazy mess? And so here we go. My advice is to always start in one small area. But then what you have to do in that area, whether it's a pile or a drawer or a closet, something in your home that you want to organize, you do have to pull everything out.

And I know you're like, ugh, this makes a huge mess. And I think where people go wrong is they're starting with too big of a space, too big of an area to start with. When I say pull everything out, I mean one small tiny drawer or one shelf in a closet. I never want you to be overwhelmed and get to a point where you're like, I don't know what to do next and be left with a bigger mess than what you started with. So starting really small. Then the secret, the secret that I do with the predetermined categories, I didn't even realize I was doing. So here is an example for you. Let's talk about your bathroom closet, either a bathroom

drawer, maybe it's a closet where you have all your medications, maybe it's where you keep your makeup. I want you to take a look at this space and know that the one space that you're organizing is the container. So it is as much space as you have for the things to go back in. And I want you to kind of glance at what you have, grab a piece of paper if you need to, and think of what type of categories do you want stored in here. Now you micro thinkers, you detail-oriented perfectionists, I don't want you to get like lipstick and eyeshadow and mascara. I want you to think big, broad categories like makeup, maybe vitamins, medication, big categories. What big categories are going to go into this space? And if it is just makeup going back in here, then that's awesome.

Then you can break that down into a few categories. I want you to pick like five categories or less. Like maybe it's lips, eyes, and face, right? Those are three categories of makeup. When you have these predetermined categories that makes your sort so much easier. You have it in your mind, even if you're just grabbing like a piece of paper and you're writing those three categories onto it. You're going to take everything out and as you're taking it out, you're sorting it into these categories, whether it's piles on the floor or you've already measured the space and you know what size containers are going to fit back in there and you've purchased the containers before you, you even start organizing. This is okay too. What I like to do is have sorting containers always

on hand so that it's just a general size from the dollar tree. I get all white baskets and I have them on hand and I reuse them over and over again. But it just gives me an initial thing to sort into. You can use Kleenex boxes. You can, you know, whatever it is that you have your Amazon boxes or you don't even need a container at all. You're just doing an initial. sort, but the predetermined categories stops you from overthinking, stops you from making too many small piles, which is why I think people get really overwhelmed. You're keeping your categories really broad, really macro, and you're sorting into those categories. Now what you do is once you've had things sorted, if you're already sorting into containers, you need to have the container

be the limit. So you're still pulling things out, but your face container, but you're, you're is full. Now you need to look at what you're pulling out and say, okay, what can go that's in the face container to make space for this one foundation that I actually want to keep or this one blush that I actually love? Right? What can go to make space for the things I want? So really easily, you're going to have a donation bag close to you and you're just going to do a swap. You're going to do a swap until everything for your face fits in face or all the makeup fits inside the makeup container. And the container needs to be based on your space, not your stuff. Space, not our stuff. We always organize for our space, not our stuff. And if you're

like, Cass, I don't have a lot of storage. All my stuff wouldn't possibly fit. The reality is, then you have to have drastically less stuff. We don't organize for fantasy us. We don't wait until we can afford a bigger space or new shelving or some fancy something or other. and we don't worry about the dollar amount that our stuff has. We're just determined to live a life that is simplified and that is easy. And that means using everything we own and having an easy home for it so it's easy to put away and it's easy to find. So you're going to have to be really ruthless. But again, like Dana says from a slob comes clean, the container is the bad guy, not you.

you know, you're not telling yourself what you can keep and what you can't. The container, whether it's the shelf that you're putting things on or an actual container or a box or whatever you've determined to sort your categories into, that's telling you what you can keep and what isn't. So having these predetermined categories stops you from oversorting. It stops you from taking one big mess and making 30 tiny little messes. and it gives you the ability to really declutter even more because it's putting a limit on what you can keep. And so I want you to sort into these predetermined categories, whatever they are, it works for any space, and sort into the container. And once everything is sorted, you probably have purged more than you thought you would, which is amazing.

Feel good about that, celebrate that. Then you simply put the categories back into the space. So whether it is your the bins and and when I do this, I always sort into the sorting bins that I've had from the dollar tree. They're all generally the same size. They're 12 inches by 12 inches and I also have six inches by nine inches ones that I keep for smaller spaces. And I'll just throw those in there for now. I'll slap a sticker on it like a like a handmade label and I don't care if you use packing tape and a marker, whatever you need to do. And I'm done that space. it's better than it was, I then can take a look and say, okay, do I want beautiful containers for this space? Now I know what size I would need. I have a rough idea of what works and what doesn't. Now I can make a plan to tweak this and make this organizing really what I want and really what I envision. And maybe that's not today, but for today, at least it's organized. I can always go back and make it perfect later. And this is how I got organized in the

first place. I started with this approach to every single area of my home. It was with Kleenex boxes. It was with no containers at all, just things, at least where they belonged. I used lots of different diaper boxes were like my jam for linens and beddings and toys. And then once I was done, then I went back through and got to do the fun part of making those spaces beautiful. And I knew if it was working or if it wasn't. I didn't have to spend a lot of money in the beginning and then find out it didn't work for me and waste all of those containers.

Having the predetermined categories also allowed me to live with a more macro approach to see where I wanted it to be a little bit more detailed. Was I going to take the time to always put my mascara with my miscaras and my eyeshadows with my eyeshadows or was I going to toss everything back into the makeup bin? So starting with a macro broadestine, category and then going back and tweaking it later whether it's next week or next month or next

year it doesn't matter next decade at least you have an organized home for everything now so when it comes to photos i wanted to give you a quick tip and this is always how i sort photos i've had clients who have boxes and boxes and boxes when i did my grandmother's house we had four boxes filled with photos including photo frames 85 years 85 years worth of grandchildren great-grandchildren children children and her mom's photos, her brothers and sisters. So many generations of photos never organized at all. And we did it all in an hour. And the reason we were able to do this is because we had the predetermined categories.

And for her, we chose generational categories. So we had memories from her where she was younger or even before. So we had photos for like her parents. And then we had photos of when she, like, like she was married to my grandfather and they had kids so that generation and then we had photos of like her kids as they got older their generation and then her great grandkids generation and so maybe it wasn't just photos of great grandkids but if it was in that generation that time frame it went in that generation box and we sorted all of these into photo boxes just regular photo boxes but you could also

get the larger, the larger just cardboard boxes. They're pretty. They're pretty. They have them at Michaels. They have them all over the place. You can find them. If you do have photos that are like eight and a half by 11 or those larger photos so that everything fits. And we just put them in a box. We didn't go crazy. We didn't sort. With clients in the past, I've always lined these boxes with acid-free paper. You can find acid-free tissue paper from Amazon. This will stop photo. especially those older photos from yellowing and, you know, the quality of them getting damaged or anything like that. So the acid-free paper just put your mind at ease knowing that even though they're not in an album, even though I'm doing a quick macro sort of my photos, that they're still

protected and they're still safe. And then you put the lid on and you label the outside and you're done. You can go back and put them in albums. You can go back in microsort. You can go back and do whatever kind of really detailed photo system you want later. This is how we macro sort it. We plow through the photos is by having those predetermined categories and having the containers right there that we can sort into immediately. And having those containers also means, okay, when I'm doing the great grandkids, oh my gosh, the box is full,

but I still have other great grandkids photos that have to go in. That doesn't mean we get another box or a bigger box. It means we have to make decisions, the one for one. Okay, this is my limit. I've reached my limit. What can go from this box? What isn't so special and what is special? So do that quick sort.

And it's going to be so much easier because, again, the box is acting like your limit. The box is being the bad guy, so you don't have to get emotional about it. And you can organize years worth of photos in minutes using this technique. having the predetermined categories and maybe your categories are not generation maybe your categories are like trips family um like you have one for travel and one for family and one from when you were a baby i don't know what your categories are but i am going to suggest that you don't have more than five five categories which means five containers we are macro sorting we can always go back and micro-sort it later, but the more categories you have, the longer it takes, the more overwhelming

it begins. And the more decisions you have about where something goes, the more overwhelming it feels. And that's going to lead to procrastination. That's going to lead to you getting overwhelmed and stopping the sorting process. So this is about dedicating a home for things, getting it good enough sorted so it's protected it. Say if you know where things are, you can, they're there, you can easily find things if you need to. It's not about perfection. And we do the same thing with paper. When I'm dealing with clients and going through a ton of paper, big piles of old papers, I use the five categories, reference, memory, long term, short term, and action. And so reference means anything that you don't necessarily need to keep forever, but you don't need to take action on,

you're not sure what to do with, maybe it's a coupon, maybe it's a receipt for something you've bought, but you're not sure if you're going to return it yet. Maybe it's a quote that you got for, I don't know, new flooring, but you're not sure if you're going to, you know, do it or not. This all goes into reference. Memory is something that's sentimental. Maybe it's pictures, maybe it's something that you've come across a handwritten note from your grandmother, something you're like, oh, this is so special I want to keep it. We're going to put that in memory. Then we have long term. Your long term papers are things like contracts, taxes, things you need to keep forever, or at least for seven years. So medical information or your mortgage papers, things like

that short term are the papers that you don't need to keep forever. Those are monthly statements, bills you've already paid, things that you've already dealt with, but you don't need to store forever, right? And so that's going into your short term, and then action. Action are those papers that you have to literally take action on. I have to pay this bill. I have to return this call or mail this letter. Action. Things you have to do. And so if you've taken notes at a conference or something like that, I would suggest you just let those go, but if you really feel like you want to hold on to those, those are going to go into reference.

If you come across some artwork from your kids and you're like, oh, it feels special, I want to keep it, that goes into memory. If you come across a contract that you signed with a business partner or something and you're like, oh, this is important, I really have to hold onto this. That goes into long term. If you come across an electricity bill from three months ago, but you've already paid it, that goes into short term. So having these five predetermined categories means you can sort your paper really fast, really fast. And then once you've sorted, you're going to just put your reference papers in your reference file.

Maybe it's a basket. Maybe it's, I don't know, you're going to create something for that, some place that you know to look for all of those papers that are referenced. memories are going to go into your memory bin and hopefully you have a memory bin for each family member and if not that's okay for now just set those memories somewhere and make a note i have to create a memory bin long term are going to go in your filing cabinet or your file box and short term we're just going to put in a short term filing system never mix your short term and long term papers ever like ever ever ever don't put bills that you've paid in monthly statements and stuff like that in a filing cabinet that's like a recipe for disaster. I just use a basket and it's like the year and then I go through

it at tax time and I shred anything that I don't use for my taxes or that doesn't have to be transferred into long term. You don't need to keep your electricity bills long term. You don't need to keep monthly statements long term. Those type of things can go and then the action file I put in my action file. If you don't currently have an action file, you know I like to also call it a command center or something like that, that was the perfect time to create one. But it's having those predetermined categories that makes sorting and makes organizing so fast and so easy and no longer overwhelming. And you can apply this same technique for every area of your home, whether it's spices, whether it's your baking supplies, whether it's your pantry, whether it's your dishes. I don't know, whatever it is.

Looking at the space where you're going to start, taking everything out, looking at your stuff and saying, what are the predetermined categories that I'm going to sort into, then sorting into those macro categories and asking yourself, does this category fit back into the space? Or do I need to edit this category back down? And so having bins and baskets, while this helps, it isn't necessary. You can use this system, this organizing method for any space in your home. It makes it fast, it makes it easy, it makes it attainable. So happy organizing my clutterbug friends and happy New Year.

And we'll see you guys next time.