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Day 7 of the 7 Day Organising Challenge

Leave a Comment / Events, National Organising Week / By littlemisssorted

Welcome to Day 7 of the 7 Day Organising Challenge.

If you’re just joining us… you’re my kind of person. You heard the champagne corks popping yesterday and came running! Please feel free to join us in a glass, although it may taste better if you keep scrolling and complete Days 1-6 of our Challenge. Plus, you’ll have MORE room for champagne somewhere in your house. Winning!

If you’ve been with me since the start, you’re my hero. So far you’ve completed the following to transform an area of your home:

Day 1 – Chosen one area to declutter & organise

Day 2 – Created a vision for the space

Day 3 – Decluttered

Day 4 – Organised

Day 5 – Contained & Styled

Day 6 – Labelled

And now,

Step 7.

Maintain. I can almost hear the audible groans from here. Yes, it’s true. Organising is not a once in a life time event. Sorry folks. But the good news is, you now have the structure in place that should make maintaining the space much easier.

Before we move on too quickly, I want to remind you of the pile of stuff you said you were going to sell back on Day 3. Now is the day to make a start on this or admit you’re kidding yourself, as well as actually carrying out the delivery of items you bagged up to be donated.

Top Tip: Depending on what you have to donate and where you live, you may be able to call a local charity and arrange for a free collection. Check out the Resources page on my website for lots of sustainable ways to move on your unwanted stuff.

Now, when it comes to maintaining your space more generally, you need to allow time to maintain your home and keep it organised. Sounds basic but BASICALLY NO ONE DOES IT. You don’t necessarily need huge blocks of time but you will if you neglect if for too long.

For the smaller, day to day tasks, a little done frequently is best. Just like it takes time to maintain a garden, or do the housework, so too for staying organised
Consider scheduling the bigger tasks. How often do they need to be done to stay manageable & how long will it take? Then make an appointment with yourself in the calendar to get it done. If you use an electronic calendar, make it a recurring appointment
Enlist the people you live with to help you. At the very least, show them what the purpose of the area is, and tell them what does and doesn’t go there

Some organising principles that you might find helpful for maintaining your home include:

Don’t put it down, put it away
Never leave a room empty handed. Always take something with you and put it away
Establish a permanent “out” box where you can place items you no longer want. Drop it off to your local charity store when it gets full
Remember the One In, One Out rule. If you come home with a new shopping haul, what can you let go of to make space?
Say “no thanks” to freebies
Put a No Junk Mail sign on your letterbox
Stop shopping for stuff you don’t need
Go paperless wherever possible
Create destinations for everything that is staying

So that’s it! Congratulations on getting sorted. Are you off to tackle a new area or will you take a break for now?

Whatever you decide, enjoy your new found space and time.

A label maker, a bottle of Champagne and one of those annoyingly organised people walk into a bar…

Leave a Comment / Events, National Organising Week / By littlemisssorted

Have you heard that one? Welcome to Day 6 of my 7 Day Organising Challenge. You gonna LUVVVVE today’s step(s).

If you’re just joining us… hooray! We’re so glad you made it. Keep scrolling to read the tasks for the previous Challenge Days in the posts below which outline the path we’ve followed to get here:

Day 1 – Choose one area to declutter & organise over the next 7 days

Day 2 – Create a vision for how you want that space to be

Day 3 – Declutter

Day 4 – Organise

Day 5 – Containerise & Style

Today we’re up to

Step 6.

Labelling. Depending on the area you’ve been working in, you may or may not require labels. The reason I’ve given this process a whole day to itself is because very few people I work with get to this point on their own and some areas REALLY need it. So if that’s true for you, read on! If not, you may want to read on anyway because… CHAMPAGNE.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

So, if for instance, if you’ve been working on your underwear drawer this week, you’re probably good to go. But if you’ve been dealing with paperwork, your pantry, digital files or a myriad of other areas, it really is worth taking the time to label things properly.

First, decide whether you need to label.

Second, decide the best way to label. Would a printed label on the top edge of a drawer work for discreet labelling? Or would you prefer hand written labels that are quick and easy to add to moving forward? Or maybe your pantry would look fabulous with customised labels from that online Etsy shop you’ve been stalking?

There are lots of options, none of them wrong. The main thing is you do the labelling.

Top Tip: When sorting offices, I find it helpful to use a pencil and paper to give my proposed categories and labels a trial run. You can play around until you’ve gotten it working like a well-oiled machine, and then switch to more permanent, robust or designer labels.

Try to keep things simple. Don’t overthink, oversort or overcategorise your stuff… you just create more work for yourself and ain’t no-one got time for that! When it comes to categorising and labelling, it’s best to channel your inner Goldilocks and settle on a label that is just right.

A label that is too general is meaningless. A label that is so specific that you need thousands of them is equally pointless. For example, a tab inside a folder labelled “Miscellaneous” might as well be no tab at all. Likewise, having labels so specific (e.g. Jane’s Birth Certificate) that you need 1,783 of them in a folder to cover the variety of items you’re storing there is also not advised.

Once the last label is applied, I want you to take a moment. Step back and take in your handy work. Celebrate your newly tamed and beautified space and don’t forget to take the AFTER photo and compare it with the BEFORE photos you took on Day 1. (This is where the champagne comes in, if you’re wondering).

So, if you were able to skip this step, lucky you. If you weren’t, let me know how you get on. When people call me, it’s often at this point where they get in over their heads and simply can’t decide on what system they need to organise things most efficiently. Having a Professional Organiser to help set this up in the first place and show you how to do it in the process is something they have found to be often life changing, and money well spent. And I offer both virtual and in-person appointments, so it doesn’t matter where you live.

Now you may also be wondering what Step 7 could be if we’ve already celebrated on Day 6. Make sure you come back tomorrow to discover what our last Day of the Challenge entails.

Enjoy your glass of bubbles!

Day 5 – Unleash your creative beast!

Leave a Comment / Events, National Organising Week / By littlemisssorted

Boy am I glad to see you. Today is a good, fun day. You’ll see why soon.

But first, if you’re just starting your challenge today, no problem! Keep scrolling to read the tasks for the previous Challenge Days in the posts below which outline the path we’ve followed to get here:

Day 1 – Choose one area to declutter & organise over the next 7 days

Day 2 – Create a vision for how you want that space to be

Day 3 – Declutter

Day 4 – Organise

Today though, we’re up to

Step 5.

Contain & style.

Yesterday the aim was to make the space practical and functional using whatever you already had around the house. Today is about taking your space to the next level; to make the most of your space, make it sparkle and inject your personality. Afterall, a space you love and are proud of is way more motivating to maintain than your secret (or not so secret) dumping ground.

So, whilst it’s completely fine to skip this step, it’s no fun if you do. I encourage you to be as creative as possible and utilise what you already have in the house. You may need or want to hit the shops and that’s fine, but this step doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. It’s AMAZING what you already have that can be used in new, different and unexpected ways to solve a storage problem.

Some of the things you may want to tackle today include:

Ensuring you are utilising the space well. A classic example is wasted space in cupboards when there aren’t enough shelves. In this situation, you might ask yourself:
- Can you put in more shelves?
- Can you put items in stackable boxes to make the most of the height?
- Can the cupboards be easily remodelled?
- Would the space actually be better off storing something else altogether?
- Could some portable shelf inserts or steps help?
- What about hooks?
Ensuring the items you are storing are needed, easy to access and more importantly, easy to put away by everyone, not just you
Considering what organising tools might help you to maintain this space more easily. Perhaps smaller boxes inside a drawer to create separate sections, for example. Or open boxes or trays that can be used to store a group of items that can be pulled out when in use, and quickly put away again when you’re done. Hooks, racks, folders… I’m sure I don’t have to tell any of you where to go for organising inspiration!
Remembering how you wanted the space to look way back on Day 2, when you were creating your vision and making sure you’re on brief. Would some matching storage help to elevate the space? Probably doesn’t matter so much inside a drawer but makes the world of difference on an open shelf.
Have fun with it! A splash of colour or well-chosen design can really change the feel of a space and add to the vibe you’re trying to create, often in a much cheaper way than, say, furniture or art. Investing in matching storage can take a space from practical to practically perfect whilst also helping to streamline sizes, making a space more flexible and easier to maintain.

An important thing to remember as you go through this process is that it often takes a couple of goes to find the best solution for a space. Be ok with trying something for a while and changing it up again if it’s not working well.

Enjoy the creative process!

7 rules for organising your stuff

Leave a Comment / Events, National Organising Week / By littlemisssorted

Well look at you… you’re nearly half way there!

If you’re just starting the 7 Day Organising Challenge today, no problem. Keep scrolling to read the previous days’ posts in full below.

Day 1 – Choose one area to declutter & organise over the next 7 days

Day 2 – Create a vision for how you want that space to be

Day 3 – Declutter

For the rest of us, it’s time for…

Step 4.

Organise.

Top Tip: Hold off on any urge you may have to go out and buy storage solutions at this stage. In most cases, you’re much better to start the organising process using what you already have. Trust me! By the end of the process, you’ll be able to see exactly what you need, how many and in what colour. At the moment, it’s really just a guessing game.

Now, the organising process will be different for each of us depending on what we’re organising. But regardless of whether you’re working in your garage or in a wardrobe, a cupboard or your digital files, there are a few organising principles that will steer you in the right direction. Here are 7 of the best:

Everything needs a home, or it will become clutter
Store like items together rather than having them dotted around in various locations
Keep things as close as possible to where they are used, wherever practical
Put your most frequently used items front and centre, with lesser used items up higher, down lower or towards the harder-to-reach backs of cupboards
It’s usually best to store items wherever your first instinct is to put them, because that’s inevitably the place you’ll look for it later
Utilise vertical space wherever possible, be that walls, peg boards or simply a magazine box to reduce horizontal piles on a flat surface
Set limits. It’s often when you’re putting the items you want to keep away, that you realise you’ve still got way more stuff that you need, want or can maintain. A lot of the people I work with find it helpful to look at the space available and decide how much of it is worth dedicating to a particular category of item. Because at the end of the day, the hard truth is, you can either have the stuff or the space, not both

Remember to refer back to the answers you came up with on Day 2 as you go about reorganising the space. There’s no point creating a system that you’ve tried before and you already know doesn’t work for you.

Likewise, you need to organise the space in a way that anyone who is likely to be using it is going to be able to both find what they need and put it away again without needing to bug you about it each time.

Once you finish organising the space, you’ve done the hard yards. The next few days will be much easier, I promise! Having said that, it’s often about this stage in the process when people realise they need help, so if that’s you, send me a message or your questions and let’s chat.

You can totally do this! See you tomorrow.

Day 3 of the 7 Day Organising Challenge = DECLUTTER

Leave a Comment / Events, National Organising Week / By littlemisssorted

Woot!! You’ve made it to the fun part… Day 3 is Decluttering Day.

If you’re just joining us, here’s a summary of where we are up to so far:

Day 1 – Choose one area to declutter & organise over the next 7 days

Day 2 – Create a vision for how you want that space to be

If you’re in catch-up mode… Welcome! It’s never too late to start decluttering. You can read the previous days’ posts in full below. Just keep scrollin’ or use the links above.

For the rest of us, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get stuck into today’s step.

Step 3.

Declutter. It’s important to declutter before you organise so you know the volume and type of items you’ll be needing to find homes for. Make sure you have some tubs or baskets at hand to help contain each item as you determine its new destination.

TOP TIP: It’s best to plant yourself in the room and focus just on the task of deciding about each item, rather than wandering from room to room putting things away as you go.

Pick up one item at a time, decide whether to “Keep”, “Donate” or “Discard” it and pop it in the designated container. Or if you’re an overachiever like me, you may like a few more categories to reduce having to re-sort items later on, such as:

“Move” (i.e. it needs to stay but not in this space)
“Sell” (but be very picky and realistic about what goes in here)
“Recycle” (kerbside)
“Redcycle” (soft plastics)
“Shred”
“Landfill”

You may also have a variety of destinations in mind for your donatable items in which case it’s good to separate them into their own boxes or bags as you go for easy distribution later on. If you need some help on where you can take the various items you’ve decided to pass on, check out the Resources Page on my blog.

You may notice I don’t have an “I’m not sure/maybe/let me think about it pile”.

That is deliberate.

They are illegal.

You’ll thank me later.

In all seriousness though, if you’re debating over whether an item should stay or go, this is the time to revisit the answers to your questions from Day 2. If the item in your hand adds to the Vision you have for the space, it can stay. If it detracts from the Vision, move it on.

Keep going with your sorting & decluttering until either:

You’ve finished
Your “Move” container is full
You’ve been going for a while and would benefit from a short break

Grab your “Move” container and drop off the items requiring re-homing to their proper rooms before returning to restart the sorting & decluttering process with an empty container.

Repeat this process until the job’s done, then:

Give the area a good clean
Bag up the items leaving your home and wherever possible load them straight into your car so they’re one step closer to gone
Choose a reasonable deadline for completing any selling activities and dropping off donations and add it to your diary or calendar to help keep you accountable
Stand back and admire your work!

That completes Day 3 of the 7 Day Organising Challenge. Well done you! Now, go and put your feet up because tomorrow, we Organise!