Planning to organize: Baby Steps

The first step in the organizing PROCESS acronym I created is the PLAN of attack.
First thing you want to do is to pick an area/room.
Look around your home and think about what areas/rooms are causing you stress. What areas immediately make you cringe, close the door and walk away to avoid the space altogether? Don’t feel bad about your space, that doesn’t matter now. The important thing is you are ready to make a change.
Throughout the challenge, we’ll break it down into manageable steps. The idea behind not getting overwhelmed is to tackle it one step at a time. You have to be honest and realize that the area/room didn’t get like that in a day and you won’t be able to restore order in just a day either.
If you can commit to spending time on your space everyday or each weekend and resolve not to let it overwhelm you, then you are well on your way to accomplishing your goal!
However do be realistic about how much time you want to dedicate to your project….don’t set yourself up for failure….can you manage 15 minutes a day or 1/2 an hour a day, etc? Select your area/room based on the amount of time you can reasonably commit to it.
Next create an organizational plan:
You’ll need to ask yourself a couple of questions. I’ve borrowed these from a great article I found on About.com written by Sarah Aquirre:
1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?
2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?
3. What can I remove from the room?
4. What problems do I see with the room?
5. What organizational tools might solve those problems?
6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems?
7. What kind of a budget do I have to create the organized room of my dreams?
8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room?
9. What is my plan of action?
Read the complete article with descriptions of each of the questions here.
Finally ask yourself:
10. Who can I ask to help me with this?
Happy organizing!