Let’s face it, organizing is one of those tasks that’s hard to even get yourself to start. Opening that cupboard, or closet, or drawer, and seeing all the odds and ends you’ve stuffed in there to deal with “later” can be so overwhelming that it’s easier just to close the door and put it out of your mind than to finally tackle it. That’s why I developed a system for organizing so that the task doesn’t feel too unbearable and “later” finally arrives. Below is the process I follow when organizing to help me break through all the clutter, an overall organization guide if you will. I will be using a kitchen cupboard I recently organized as an example but, each organization project you tackle will be unique and have its own challenges. However, the following steps apply almost every time I organize ANY area of my home.
THE ORGANIZATION PROCESS
STEP 1 – CLEAR EVERYTHING OUT
The first step when organizing any space is to clear everything out. This step is as simple as it sounds. Remove everything from the closet, cupboard, desk, dresser, or wherever you’re organizing. This allows you to see everything that needs to be organized and assess how much room you have to do so.
STEP 2 – CLEAN THE AREA
After removing everything, I like to clean the area I will be organizing. Wipe down the shelves, vacuum out the dust in the corners, Windex any glass… anything that gives the area a clean feeling. This helps put you in the mindset for a fresh start.
STEP 3 – SORT INTO PILES
Now the “hard” part, sorting through everything you just removed. Don’t panic though, it’s much simpler than it sounds and the following steps will help walk you through it.
The first step in sorting is to narrow down what will actually go back into the space you’re organizing. To do this, sort everything into four piles: throw away/recycle, donate, rehome, or keep to be organized.
THROW-AWAY/RECYCLE PILE
The throw-away/recycle pile is pretty self-explanatory, this is for things that you want to throw away. Broken items, expired food items, anything not worth keeping that you cannot donate.
The only thing in this pile for my example shelf was an empty matchbook.
DONATE PILE
The donate pile is also self-explanatory. This is for anything you no longer want to keep, but is still in decent condition and therefore can be given away.
There wasn’t anything to donate for my sample cupboard so this pile was empty.
REHOME PILE
The rehome pile is for all those items that wound up in the wrong space and belong somewhere else in your house.
For me, this included some BBQ accessories my husband uses and some serving bowls. All these things were rehomed to places in the house that better suited them.
KEEP-TO-BE-ORGANIZED PILE
The last pile is the keep-to-be-organized pile. This pile will likely be the biggest. It contains everything you would like to return to the space you’re organizing but in a much more orderly fashion.
For me, it contained a bunch of pans, baking accessories, and other kitchen supplies.
This pile, the keep-to-be-organized pile, will now need to be sorted more thoroughly. This time, sort the items into piles that make sense to you. Pick out a way of categorizing everything, such as by size, type of item, what it’s used for, how often it’s used, etc.
Then place each item into its respective group. The piles and categories chosen during this step are how you will organize everything in the space.
In my example, I sorted all the items into piles based on type/what it’s used for. The baking pans are together, the pie pans are together, the cookie cutters are together, the measuring tools are together, etc.
STEP 4 – MEASURE THE SPACE
After cleaning out and sorting the items, measure the space to organize. Write down the width, depth, and height of the space. If there are shelves, then take note of each shelf individually. Don’t forget to note any posts, supports, or other structural items that could affect the overall amount of space available.
STEP 5 – PURCHASE OR FIND BINS/PRODUCTS TO HELP
After sorting the items and measuring the space, it’s time to figure out what bins or products will help you better organize the space. That’s the next step in this overall organization guide.
Start by really looking at what items you want to organize and how to accomplish that organization.
Do you have a lot of medium-sized cleaning products? Maybe just a couple of bins will be perfect!
Do you have an excess of tiny office supplies? Something with a lot of dividers would work great!
Do you have a bunch of small bottles? Maybe a tiered shelf or a turntable organizer is the way to go!
Do you have a lot of flat items? Maybe a small stacking shelf will help!
If you’re unsure what will work best, just start with a few bins to get a bit more organized. Then, as the days go by, pay attention to the space and watch which areas remain organized and which become cluttered again. After pinpointing the problem areas, reorganize with the above five steps, but focus only on the cluttered sections. Hone in on what the problem is and find products that help fix the situation.
When picking out organizational products, keeping the space’s size in mind is imperative. Double-check the measurements of anything you’d like to purchase to ensure it will fit in the space.
If you happen to have unused bins or boxes, such as shoe boxes or old Amazon delivery boxes, lying around your house, feel free to use those as well! I repurpose old boxes like that all the time to save money and resources.
Once you’ve decided what products you want, purchase/gather them, and then get to work organizing!
STEP 6 – DRY FIT THE PRODUCTS INTO THE AREA
After all the organizing supplies have arrived, the next step in this overall organization guide is to confirm the purchased or gathered supplies fit into the space. By that I mean, I put the empty bins onto the shelves to check that they fit and slide in and out easily.
Sometimes there are large items that do not need to go in a bin to be organized. In that case, I will include these items in the dry fit to help figure out how to arrange the space best. I bought some bins for the smaller items in my example cupboard, but I just placed the larger items on the shelf directly.
After I’m happy with the arrangement, I begin populating the bins and other products with the items I want to organize.
STEP 7 – ORGANIZE ITEMS
Now it’s finally time to put everything back into the space. Look at your sorted piles and decide which piles belong in which bins, or on which products, to best fit in the space. Sometimes I have to combine some of my piles into one bin for things to fit best. Other times, I may split up a pile. It’s all about what fits best in the space while still making sense and keeping things organized.
In my case, I combined the baking supplies, candles, and cookie cutters all into one bin. This became an overall “baking” bin. I combined measuring tools, funnels, bag clips, and a cheese grater in the other bin. This became an overall “kitchen tools” bin.
Continue arranging the piles inside the bins, shelves, or whatever else, until everything is back in, but this time in a much more organized state!
STEP 8 – LABEL THE BINS
The last and final step is to label things! This step is not always necessary, but labels make it much easier for you, your roommate, your significant other, kids, or whoever else is in the house to know where to get things from and where to put things back. Plus, it also looks nice! 🙂
So what area of your space are you looking forward to tackling with this overall organization guide? Let me know in the comments!
If you’re thinking about organizing under the kitchen sink or organizing your pantry, then check out the linked posts to read about some of my favorite product choices for those areas!
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