Home Organization Tips - Organizing Without Torture

For some, being organized is simply not something that comes naturally.  We want to be organized, and we know that if we could get more organized, it would actually make our lives easier in the long run, but alas, we still find it hard to figure out how to get organized or how to find time to fit organization into our already busy lives or how to make it a part of daily home life.  So, if that organization gene has passed you by and there seems to be clutter all around and you know you just have to deal with the clutter and get more organized before the clutter takes over your life, then here are a few home organization tips to take some of the torture out of organizing so that you can actually manage to get it done.  Hopefully, if the process of getting organized becomes a more pleasant experience, you might be more inclined to do it more often so that your ‘stuff’ doesn’t get too out of hand in the future!

The secret to organization without torture is in keeping it fun, distracting and as easy as possible.  So with that in mind, here are 7 home organization tips that will hopefully make the task a bit more pleasant and easier to tackle.  Good luck!

7 Home Organization Tips:

1. Tackle only one area at a time.  You can’t decide that Saturday is the day to organize your whole house, or next week you’ll take care of everything that’s been piling up for years.  Just take it one area or one type of clutter at a time to keep the task more manageable and to keep you from getting too overwhelmed and giving up before you’ve made any real progress.

2. Get rid of the obvious trash first so that there’s less to deal with.  It’s a great feeling to see progress being made and progress motivates you to keep going, so get rid of the items that are obviously on the way out the door anyway.  You’ll see trash bags filling up and your pile dwindling before you’ve even had to make any difficult decisions!

3. Designate three areas before you begin to sort through items.  Make one pile for trash, one to keep, and one to donate.  Depending on what type of items you are organizing, you may also want to designate one pile for items to be recycled.  And if there are items that are really giving you a hard time in deciding what to do with them, you can designate one pile to revisit later, but try not to make this pile too large and make a deadline to deal with it.

4. If you are storing items in storage containers, it makes it easier to sort if you label storage containers before you begin sorting through the clutter so you’ll know exactly where you are putting everything.

5. Need to organize piles of papers that have been building up?  File papers while watching your favorite show on TV.  Keep a trash or recycling bin nearby and try to only read papers once and put in appropriate piles.  Shred any sensitive documents.  This makes good use of time while enjoying a guilty pleasure.

6. Turn on some music!  A few good tunes make any task seem easier and more enjoyable.  The music may even energize you to keep on going long after you might otherwise quit.

7. Enlist a friend or family member or two.  Sorting through clutter is not a fun job – who’s kidding who?  But if you have some help and another person to talk with and laugh with, the time goes by much more quickly and the more hands, the easier.  This advice only works though if the person helping you doesn’t insist on keeping everything you designate for the trash, so choose your organizing companions carefully!

By following some of these home organization tips, you should be able to take control of the clutter in your life.  And the best piece of advice I think I can give you to help you to organize without torture – make a vow to keep everything as organized as possible once it’s done so you don’t have to do it again anytime soon!