Updated on February 1, 2024
Project Organize. My quest to organize and declutter my entire home. I will share organizational tips and tricks with you to help you get organized, too!
Lately, my life has been feeling chaotic and out of control. Is anyone else feeling this way? I am constantly scrambling to maintain order in my home and failing miserably in the process. I jump from project to project, not really finishing anything.
My perfectionism/Type A personality keeps me from even starting some jobs at all. I find myself stressed out, and it is even affecting my sleep. Add in the fact that I am prone to depression and deal with this as an underlying issue off and on, and it all equals a huge recipe for disaster.
What Does This Look Like In My Home?
A lot of yelling at the kids, feeling frustrated with myself, and ill-content in almost all areas of my life. Trust me, I am being honest here, and it is not pretty.
Cluttered surfaces, rooms, and schedules have a direct influence on my depression and mood. The messier it gets, the more my depression gets worse. The worse my depression gets, the messier it gets because I am not doing even basic maintenance. It is a vicious cycle that can quickly spiral out of control. Not good.
It’s Not Working
I am great at writing lists, creating routines and schedules, and organizing. Implementing them is where it all seems to break down. Part of this is a motivational issue, and part of it is feeling so overwhelmed about where to start that I become frozen.
Do you need me to come to organize you? I would be able to do it with no problem.
My own stuff is filled with emotion and sentiment and value that somehow makes it all more than just stuff. I don’t want to feel stuck by feelings of – “But, I paid so much money for that,” “Someone dear to me gave us that,” or “I might need that someday.”
These are common hang-ups for decluttering, and I know I am not alone in these feelings. I am finally ready to only have things in my home that we truly use and love.
what Is Project Organize?
The only way to make progress is to start. Somewhere. Anywhere. Small baby steps lead to big changes.
I would love to snap my fingers and have my entire house spic and span and organized, but life doesn’t work that way. I know all too well it is an ongoing process. Enter Project Organize.
I plan to go through each area of my home and organize EVERYTHING. I don’t know how long it will take, but I plan to do a little bit every day. There is going to be a lot of selling things and donating.
I will push myself to use what I have without buying more containers, bins, and boxes. I will share pictures of the before, during, and after to share with you here on the blog and on Instagram stories.
My spaces may not be magazine-worthy. They may not be perfect (gasp!). But, hopefully, everyone in our family will be a little happier and more at peace. Perhaps with downsizing all of the things we have in this house, we will have more time for the truly important – each other.
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So tell me, what is your favorite organizing tip or trick?
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DebraK in FL says
Oh Laura, I truly feel your pain. It brings on more ailments than just depression. Your idea about not buying any more boxes, bins and such is a good one–I am going to try that one myself. I have tried many methods over the years. For basic cleaning issues, I have a spreadsheet for each room, every single thing that needs to be done, along with an estimate of time for each, and how often (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc) it should be done.
For meals, (when my kids were young) I had a menu I created from a spreadsheet (common denominator always for me) that had the entire month filled in. To fill this, I had other spreadsheets of food categories to choose from. So it ended up being relatively easy to create a meal plan. I also had grocery lists for every 2 weeks of the menu. This made meal planning more mindless, less thinking time used. It helped me concentrate on other areas.
For thinning down ‘stuff’, I have a bag or box near the door to the garage for Goodwill donations. I often just put stuff there and then have hubby drop off as it gets full.
When my kids were young, I had these large bins with handles for them to walk around the house and gather their stuff. Now I use them to load stuff that is in the wrong room to deliver there. There’s also times when I just load everything that is out of place in a bin and take it to the side of the house where it belongs, then separate it. That is a real quick way.
One thing that use to be a pet peeve of mine was when paper stuff piled up. I finally open all mail as it comes, separate into recyclable, shredding, bills, and ‘to file’ piles. Hubby does the shredding and does a good job of keeping up with me. I had SO MUCH paper junk but I won’t ever let it get that way again!!!
I don’t have any kids at home any more, but have 2 dogs and 2 cats, and hubby–all of which require my attention and direction on a minute-by-minute basis most times. Those times I have a hard time getting to sleep, I just take a Gaba Calm and it helps me clear my mind to get to sleep–great idea from my daughter. I think you need to get a good nights sleep to be able to tackle the big stuff in life, no matter what it is.
My final suggestion is this: hire a maid service once a month until you can get caught up. Daily stuff takes enough time on its own without having to attend to the non-daily stuff
Sorry for taking all this space up writing… good luck with your venture. I am interested in following along with you…maybe we should just swap and clean each others houses…hehe
Lauras Crafty Life says
These are all really great ideas, many of which I use or have used myself! I realized lately my problem has been that I have been trying to keep up with some sort of routine and schedule, but I can’t stay on top of it because of the clutter. Especially with little kids at home, it just seems to multiply. Basic maintenance takes so much more time when I have too much stuff, so I thought that is really where I need to start! Thanks for following along. Later today I have some tips on how to get started. :)
Heather says
I don’t have a tip, but I could have wrote your post! I will definitely be following along. Maybe I will actually make a dent this year (by following you). Bad part is we have lived in our house for 20 years so we have a lot of stuff that needs to be gone through. Good luck and hopefully all of us can keep each other motivated.
Lauras Crafty Life says
That would be great Heather! It is always better to have a group to cheer each other on. You can do it, you just have to take it a little bit at a time. Tomorrow I will be sharing a few tips on where to start.