Organize and Declutter Your Home, One Drawer at a Time

Updated for 2019!
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​A Small Amount of Time Each Day Is All It Takes!

​How long have you been trying to motivate yourself to organize your home, your apartment, your garage?  Does your heart sink every time you look around and see piled up shelves, drawers that won't close and overflowing closets?  Is every surface within sight covered with papers, books, boxes and clutter?
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I know it feels overwhelming.  There is so much to do, so much STUFF, you don't even know where to begin.........so you don't.  You just keep living in the clutter and feeling despair.  I have the answer to this problem, and it only takes a few minutes a day.

What can you do that will help this huge problem in only a few minutes a day?  You can get started.  Do a little bit a day.  Sure, your house will not be clean and organized in a weekend, or even a week, but little by little it will get done......and in only a few minutes a day.  It is so much easier and less daunting to commit to 10 or 15 minutes a day, than to hours or days of cleaning, don't you think?

There are two ways that you can decide what it is you want to do on any given day:

1. an area, like a drawer or shelf
2. an amount of time, like 10 or 15 minutes

The first choice would be like a drawer, or a shelf a day.  The second would be to work for 15 minutes per day.  Personally I prefer the first choice, that way I can see the progress that I am making.  If you commit to cleaning and organizing one shelf per day, throwing away or donating everything that you don't need or use, then in two weeks your house will look appreciably neater.  In two months, you should have a clutter free, organized home.

There are a few things that will make this process go smoother and work better:

• Have a box for donations and a trash can handy.  Don't be afraid to use them.  Remember, the more you get rid of, the less you will have to clean in the future.
• Have a box or basket for "misplaced items" and when you find items that do not belong where you find them, put it in the basket.  Wrap up that day's cleaning session by returning everything in that basket to it's proper place
• Organization commonly uses smaller containers such as decorative baskets or bowls that help corral smaller items and keep them neat.  When organizing your shelves and drawers, if you don't have decorative containers, then use shoe boxes and tupperware bowls.  They will suffice to organize your items, and then you can put the appropriate decorative containers on your shopping list and replace the others when you have pretty ones.  If you prefer to save money, you can make your own pretty cardboard ones like these.

​The biggest challenge to this system of cleaning is your resolve to keep the organized and decluttered areas of your house in the clean and neat condition that you have put them in.  If you start piling clutter up again as soon as you organize an area, then this will all be for nothing.  Fortunately, the more you get rid of and organize, the less you will have to pile up and clutter the areas you have already cleaned. 

You can do this, as long as you follow through with your decision to make this effort every single day.  It will take some time, but it will happen, and think of how accomplished you 
will feel!

Have a great weekend!

Jade    :)

Image Credit:  ​https://www.flickr.com/photos/serenejournal/7559127822/sizes/l

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