Mistakes You Make When Organizing

Let’s talk about the biggest mistakes people make when they are organizing. They are simple things that sometimes stop the process entirely, or at least impede it’s good progress.

Remember, the desired outcome is awesome systems that allow you to access what you need easier, so you are excited to organize the rest of your house!

As always, these are just a small nibble of the tips I give in The Organized Home. If you’re looking to make a change, it’s the course for you!

Biggest Mistakes You Make Organizing

Talking Yourself Out of It

Yes, organizing is HARD! I talked all about it in that post, but far too many people say

• They don’t know where to start >> PICK a place, and start there. There really is no RIGHT place to start!
• They are too busy >> I am writing this during quarantine, and I think we’ve all proved that being too busy isn’t why you’re not doing it.
• It will take too long >> Set a timer for 5 minutes, pull stuff out and get STARTED. I’m always surprised by how LITTLE time it takes!

Choosing Too Big of a Task

Yup, if you say to yourself:

Self, I’m going to organize the whole garage today

— Your silly self.

You ARE going to get overwhelmed, because that is a LOT of work.

I mean, you CAN organize your garage in a day, but it’s going to take some time and effort on your part.

I am also a fan of saying there are small tasks within each big one. Say to yourself, “I am going to start with these shelves, and then move to those shelves” — that way you are seeing progress and can stop if you’re overwhelemd (or keep going if you’re LOVING how great your garage looks!)

**I have to say that as I write this during the quarantine I am LOVING how organizing and cleaning gives me some control over my life. Just sayin’….

Not Pulling Everything Out

Ugh! I am always having the inner dialogue about how I don’t need to pull everything out, I can just sort of shuffle things.

NO, YOU CAN NOT DO THAT.

Just do the whole thing, pull it ALL out and then clean the surface and put it back.

It’s one of my steps in my free 5 Word Organization Challenge that I’d love to have you join:

Pretending Like it Will ALL fit

There is NO reason to pull everything out if you’re not at least going to declutter a bit while the items are out.

Be thoughtful of what you need and don’t need.

I will say that the BIGGEST organizing mistake is not decluttering. Pretending like all you have will fit. It’s what I get emails about time and time again. You don’t need a bigger space, you need less stuff.

Not Using Vertical Space

We tend to just organize on the horizontal surface, when in reality there is a lot of VERTICAL things we can do. It’s another thing I talk about in that 5-word challenge, I also talk about it in these posts (they might give you some ideas). I share how I vertically organize, I also love this post on how I organize dishes – and I also use vertical organizing in my favorite organization projects!

Whatever you do, get started. I tend to like to start on a wall or a corner — often farthest from the door. I get so many happy feelings from asserting myeslf in the change — and taking control of SOMETHING I just keep going as I can.

I hope you will too, because organization can make your life SO much easier, let’s get started together!