The first 2 steps to organization discussed so far have been Purge and Pair. We must first purge unnecessary items from the space, then pair like items, or items with a similar purpose, together. The 3rd and final step is to Place items back in the space.
This is the step where you have to think about the purpose of the things being returned and how they will be used in the space. What you don’t want to do is haphazardly put everything back in the room. Think of the room as having zones. If this is the family room, you may have a game table so all of the games should be located near the table. If you have a comfy reading chair in the room, there should be a place to store the paper, magazines or books. If this space is also used for T.V. watching and gaming, then all of the movies and gaming equipment should be grouped together in an orderly fashion near where it will be used. If everything is easy to find and has a designated home then it increases the chance that things will be used more often and then returned to their proper home. This method of zones will work in every other space in your home too.
So over all, the 3P’s to organization are pretty simple but require time and patience to tackle each step. Remember to create small goals and reward yourself once each is accomplished. Nobody wants to tackle a big job without some sort of payoff at the end. Make it the process fun by enlisting a spouse or friend and play some upbeat music and go to it. If you have to tackle the process alone ask a friend to check in with you periodically to keep tabs on your progress and give you that accountability to keep on going. If you are the competitive type, you might even try setting time frames to accomplish the small goals and try to beat the time. Do anything that will make it more motivating for you so that you reach that final goal of a well organized space.
For more information on organizing visit my other blog topics or check out my website at www.enuffwiththestuff.com.
