Organizing? …Start small

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Organizing the entire house was my goal this summer. Everything was going to have its own spot, be readily available, and of course look beautiful! Did that happen…? Not exactly. I will say, I am pretty awesome at organizing. After teaching elementary aged kids for 16 years, organizing has become second nature. I’ve taught 5th grade, 4th grade, Kindergarten, and K-5 as an Art teacher. I know a thing or two about placing items to be visually appealing as well as accessible. AND easy to put away… being that kids had to do all the clean up. So organizing the house should have been a breeze… right?! Wrong. My mistake? I needed to organize by starting small.

Lofty Goal

Now that summer is closing, I realized my big mistake. The goal of organizing the entire house in one summer was too lofty. I should have begun by creating smaller goals. Small goals are easily accomplished. They give me momentum and encouragement. A feeling of success.

Start Smaller for Quick Success

So, I’m starting to organize in smaller areas. An example that came to mind was my medicine cabinet. Last year I organized it. Every medicine from all our history was shoved into the cabinet. After emptying the entire cabinet, going through each item to see if it was expired, and then sorting each item into categories I was able to begin making it pretty.

I knew after sorting, how many categories and how many items in each category. This made purchasing clear bins easy (I knew how much to order). And creating these little labels was easy too. Now that it’s all said and done, it’s been a breeze to keep it this way for the past year. What is the old adage? “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”

If you like these clear storage bins or oval labels I used, check them out on Amazon below. The bins even have little dividers to keep “everything in its place!” #ad

Or… Start Even Smaller!

Maybe your medicine cabinet may have to wait until you have an open Saturday. You could also start even smaller, with a drawer, or a shelf. I decided a few days ago to do just that and organize only the shirts on my husband’s side of the closet. Not his pants. Not his shoes. His shirts only. It took me 10 minutes max.

Did he ask me to? No… But, a long time ago I organized my entire closet by item and color and it has saved me so much time when choosing what to wear. Also, randomly he came out the the closet looking quite handsome in a light blue Lululemon polo I’d never seen him wear before! When asked about it I got, “It’s just been in the back of my closet.” No more ignoring shirts! They were going to be organized by type and color as well! I think he appreciates it. 😉 Here is the before:

As you can see, everything is pretty random. No wonder I hadn’t seen him in his light blue polo before! I created three categories. Casual (t-shirts and Henley’s), button up (first short sleeved and then long sleeved), and lastly polos. He doesn’t have a huge amount of color either, mainly blues, whites, and grays. This made organizing a breeze. Here is the after:

Now I am confident that when he needs a work polo, or a dress shirt, or just a plain comfy shirt he will easily be able to find what he needs. You may not believe me, but this man does his own laundry. I know! He’s a keeper. So I am also hopeful that he will be able to keep the organization as well.