At Window World, in-home comfort is our specialty. Typically we help homeowners accomplish this with energy-efficient replacement windows, but today we have some tips for cleaning and organizing like a pro.
Self-isolation can be a chance to tackle all of those home projects you’ve been putting off, like cleaning out the garage or reorganizing the kitchen. If you’ve already watched everything on Netflix and baked enough bread to last a lifetime, and you’re looking for something to do, here are our top five tips to help you get organized at home:
How to Declutter & Organize Your Home Like a Pro
1. Create a Vision Board
This step is the most important and the most fun! Make a board on Pinterest or go old school and cut up old magazines for a collage. Whichever method you choose, create a board that reflects what you’d like for your space.
Think about “zones” or areas throughout your house where like-items are together. Do your research and try to come up with a well-laid plan for each space. Pay special attention to the functionality of the design and how it will improve your life. Be honest with yourself about what you can realistically maintain. You can always add more sophistication later, so start simple.
2. Make a Mess
That’s right: make a mess.
Pull everything out of every drawer, cabinet, and hidey-hole. Yes, it will be a mess and you will feel like you’ve made a huge mistake. That’s normal. Trust the process.
3. Sort, Then Purge
Sort like-items by category first. Put all those random cables and chargers together, all the books, DVDs, and CDs, your kid’s toys, the dog’s toys, everything in the room.
Separating like-items allows you to take full inventory of the things that you own. You’ll probably find things you forgot you owned and you may find that you have duplicates of some things. When they’re all grouped together, you can easily see what you want to keep and what to purge. (In making these decisions, you can go the Marie Kondo route and keep only what sparks joy.)
4. Contain The Mess
Now that you know what you’re going to keep, it’s time to get out the storage containers! This is where you start to bring your vision board to life and organize your home.
Take your time with this step, working slowly from one category (books, toys, etc) to the next. Organizing a room by category allows you to break down the project into bite-sized pieces. Try not to become overwhelmed by what you haven’t contained yet. Each category that you organize brings you a little closer to your new way of living.
5. Stay Flexible
Occasionally, even the best laid plans go awry. If a solution isn’t working for you or your family, don’t be afraid to change it up! If you’re having trouble changing your organizational tactics, ask yourself if you’re more attached to the idea or the solution. If you’re more attached to the idea, it isn’t the answer.
Share Your Before and Afters With Us
Did these tips help you get organized? We’d love to see! Share your photos on our Facebook page.