There are multiple stages you might go through when organizing your home. Here are ideas to make decluttering your house easier according to the phase you’re in.
Organizing your home is a marathon not a sprint. It takes a while for you to reach your destination. You may take several wrong turns along the way, need to retrace your steps and go again.
Today, I want to talk to you about the three stages of home organization that I’ve noticed. Figuring out where you are in the process can help relieve some of your frustration. Know that you’re not alone and pretty much everyone goes through the same stages in their quest to become organized.
So, let’s get into this.
3 Stages When Organizing Your Home
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1. Complete Overwhelm
The first stage is complete overwhelm. There is no organization whatsoever and stuff is everywhere. It can be just one room that you shut the door to and pretend it doesn’t exist or it may be your entire house.
When you’re completely overwhelmed by clutter, you often don’t know where to start. You may end up doing nothing at all—ignoring the problem while it grows worse every day.
If you’re in this stage, the key is to stay calm and try not to get frustrated. Start small. Really small.
Pick one corner of the room or house. Grab a trash bag and just begin picking up the garbage from that space. After that, move on to items that you know already have a home. Put those away immediately. Then, tackle things you don’t have a home for.
There’s no need to worry about fancy systems in this stage of organizing your home. You shouldn’t even think about organization at this point. You just need to focus on clearing surfaces so you can actually see them again.
Related: Reasons For Clutter- How To Let It Go For Good
2. Implement Systems
In the second stage, you already have some organization in place. You may still have areas that need organizing systems but your clutter is manageable, not overwhelming.
Go through the clutter and purge. Sort out what you want to get rid of, things to donate or sell and items you would like to keep. Ask yourself these ten questions to aid this process.
You may find that it’s difficult to let go of some items especially those with sentimental value. While I recommend being ruthless and making quick decisions when purging, I would hate for you to regret getting rid of something. It’s okay at this point to keep some items you’re truly struggling to let go of.
Place them in a separate bin for a few months and return later to see how you feel about them. It might just surprise you that you didn’t miss them at all and you’re completely fine with letting them go. If that’s the case, then great! If not, at least you still have them.
3. Refining Systems
The third stage of organizing your home is when you have organization implemented but your systems need tweaking.
In this phase, when you do decide to purge and organize, it only takes a few hours instead of days or weeks. Everything has a home so you can invest in some nice organizing solutions that are functional and also decorative.
It takes a while to get to this stage. You may go through a lot of your life in phase 2 while building a family and creating a home. Then, when you do make it to the final stage of organizing, you may need to repeat it several times.
Organizing your home is not a one-time-and-done kind of thing. There are no quick fixes. It takes time to figure out what works for you and your family. And when you find a system that works, your needs may change and you need to start all over again.
That might sound scary and annoying to you and well… it can be. But, when you find an organizing system that works, it’s like discovering gold. The more organized your home gets, the less time and effort you’ll need to dedicate to it.
Now, I want to hear from you! Tell me in the comments, which stage of organizing you’re currently in.
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I would say I am in stage 2. I have just retired so a lot of things that I just didn’t have time to organize are getting done now. I love to be organized! It makes me feel good when I can open a closet or a cabinet and everything is in order and I can find just what I want. I also don’t like clutter! It makes me very uncomfortable and anxious, so that makes me go through things often to keep the clutter down.
Hi MaryJean,
It’s great that you have identified the stage you’re at and know what you need to do next. Being organized definitely helps to reduce your stress level. At least now you will have more time to get to stage 3—that would be exciting!