How do I start organizing my home? Here are simple tips to home organizing

As the Corona virus is now forcing people around the globe to stay home, businesses slow down and our kids are at home, this is a good time to think about ourselves and our families. Staying at home is a great time to organize your home.

Any crisis has also some positives and lessons to learn. We now have time to refresh our lives and see what we can improve on. Organizing our home is a great example.

The hurdle for most people is "how do I start organizing?" or "how do I get motivated to organize?". You also might ask yourself "where do I start organizing?"

As a professional organizer, I'm here to help you with some organizing tips. Professional organizing has a lot to do with following a simple step by step system.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Start with small spaces

Like any task in life, it needs to be divided into simple steps. Otherwise, people tend to

become overwhelmed. Choosing a small space to start with is essential; choose one

closet to organize or a pantry or just a bathroom. Don't start with a whole room or a whole

kitchen.

2. Avoid thinking about the end result. It will stop you from action.

3. Take out all items in the space chosen.

You need a clear space in order to organize.

4. Start going through items taken out of the space and sorting them out into:

4.1 Items to be purged. Ask yourself: "did I use this item in the last year?". If the answer is

"no", it's time for this item to go.

4.2 Items to be donated. Use a donation box. Purged items, that are in good condition and can be useful for

someone, should be donated for a good cause. Here is San Jose California there are

so many people who need one's donations. I'm sure this is the case all around the

globe.

4.3 Items to be kept. Those are the only items that need to be organized!

5. Take the clutter, i.e the purged items, out of your house immediately to dump and donations. This will clear more space and help you focus on organizing.

6. Start organizing the items you want to keep. Put like items together. By doing this, you can start seeing groups of items. This will help you put items back in the space chosen.

7. Now that you have groups of items, think about functionality of each group. Then you can

start putting things back in place remembering where they are, so you can find them

when you need them.

8. Should I use storage boxes? This is a question I'm constantly being asked. I'm a minimalist and what guides me is simplicity. Sometimes those boxes help but sometimes they create more clutter and block accessibility to items. Try to use the minimum needed.

Most importantly, think about the quality time with our kids; we can sit with our kids and organize their rooms. Think about finishing tasks that were always put as last priority, such as dealing with paperwork and office organization. Wouldn't you be proud of yourself if this was done?

Lastly, here is a personal example; My home is organized, but still there's always more to do. I took the time to better organize my office. I went through all the binders content. It's such a good feeling to get rid of paperwork that is irrelevant. I also went through books and donated books that our family does not need.

Take a look for yourself and get motivated! Good luck:)

Stay safe and try to enjoy some time with your family.

Always here for you.

Hagit Koren