When you understand the steps to organizing, it makes the process so much easier, more enjoyable, and actually fun! In today’s episode, I’m breaking down the 7 steps to organizing and how you can approach these steps in any order while still seeing results!
The Organized & Productive podcast is brought to you by The Organized Flamingo and hosted by Stephanie Y. Deininger! For those of you who love the thought of organizing & being more productive, but don’t know where to start or constantly up against hurdles that don’t let you advance the way you want to, this podcast is for you!
7 Steps to Organizing
There are 7 traditional steps to organizing, but before we dive into those, let’s disclaim a few things. While they are the most traditional for long-term change, you’ll find that different organizers approach them differently—as I share them, you’ll see that I put them in my own order, yet explain that they are interchangeable.
If you find that you need a little more support, I’m here to help guide you! You can always reach out to me for help!
Step 1: Assess
You can approach organizing from so many perspectives, but most organizers will teach you to step back and assess the situation. How much stuff is there and what is the plan? You can easily assess by determining what your end goal is, then working backwards.
The next four steps are interchangeable, yet presented in order of the most common approach.
Step 2: Sort It
When you get to the sorting step, you should be categorizing based on a common feature. Many of us have a natural ability to do this, yet many of us overthink this step with sub-categories. That’s where you can easily get overwhelmed. To avoid this, we encourage generic categories that allow for flexibility.
Step 3: Declutter
The declutter step is also known as the “Let It Go” step. Letting go does not mean it has to be thrown away. It is the action of taking things out of your space that no longer serve you. To remove something completely from your space, you can declutter through donating, selling, or throwing away. Find ways that are fun to you—make the process fast and effective.
Step 4: Designate a Home
To stay organized, your items need a home that they can live in. This doesn’t mean it has to be perfect or pretty, but each item you have needs a place it can be put away in; ex: shelf, bin, etc. This is the fun step of the process where you can get creative!
Step 5: Contain It
While we’re on step 5, many people often start here with contain it: picking what you’ll store items in. Most of the time, you need to know what you need to store before you start purchasing organizers. In this step, you’ll also need to set clear boundaries on the space of the item (and no more).
Similarly to the last 4 steps, the next 2 steps are also interchangeable.
Step 6: Evaluate
About a week or to after you’ve nailed down your system and let it work for you, it’s time to evaluate! Ask yourself the following:
Did you achieve the original goal you set out to accomplish?
Is it working?
Do I like how it works?
Step 7: Maintain
Once you have a system that works for you, you need to maintain it! This includes check-ins to make sure it is working for you! This helps with habit-building in your organization! If it’s not working, head back to step 1 and access!
Don’t skip any of these steps to get the most out of your organizing process! Happy organizing!
