How to Get Organized and Stay Organized - Strategy 2 Home Organizing Plan

How do I get organized and stay organized? This is a question I hear a lot and it’s a question I used to ask myself too. I was so tired of organizing the same spaces over and over again. It happened often enough for me to name the cycle the hamster wheel of home organizing.

We have a set of lockers in our entryway coming in from the garage. I lost count on how many times I got this space organized only to have it be a complete disaster again within the week. Oh my gosh I would get so stinking mad! I’d just feel defeated. It’s the worst because that’s the space I’d walk into as soon as I got home from work. And if you listened to last week's episode you’d know that in creating your home organizing vision you consider how you want to feel when you walk into your home or a space. I want to feel peace, calm and joy. Not frustration, anger and defeat!

As someone who is or feels like they’re just starting their home organizing journey you want to be set up for lasting home organizing solutions, right?  In order to make that happen you’ll have to do something different than you’ve done before or what society tells us.

Instead of starting with cute bins and resolving to just get rid of everything, you can put together a Home Organizing Plan. In this episode I’ll share with you what a home organizing plan is, why you need one and how to create it.

I would recommend printing out the free download that goes along with this podcast so that you can easily put together your Home Organizing Plan. Go to home organizing for beginners . com and sign up. I’ll put the link in the show notes. You actually get a lot more than just this single download, you get access to all the downloads for all 8 strategies. They’re all in the free program called The Secrets to Lasting Home Organization.

So let’s start with what a Home Organizing Plan is and what it is not.

A home organizing plan is essentially a roadmap that will effectively get you from where you are today to where you want to be in terms of having an organized home.

Your home organizing plan is both big picture and detailed. It carries the right details so that you can move from one area of your home to the next in a thought out manner. 

What your Home Organizing Plan is NOT about is perfection. If you are a perfectionist like me, you may find yourself stuck because you’re trying to put together the perfect plan. This plan that I’ll teach you how to create will not be perfect, it is meant to shift as you learn and grow in your confidence of getting and staying organized in your own home. You’re going to build on your knowledge and that means the way you think about getting organized will change. And that’s a good thing. So, please don’t feel like this is a one and done situation where you create your home organizing plan and never change it.

A Home Organizing Plan will keep you on track. It’ll keep you making progress, moving forward, building momentum. This plan will help you pick up where you left off when life happens. We all have started something only to have a child get sick, a big project at work, things happen and you get derailed. Having a plan allows you to more readily and easily start back up. This plan is also going to remind you why you want an organized home and what it’s going to do for you in the long run.

And though creating a plan may seem like it’s a waste of time. Time you could be using to actually get organized, having a plan will actually save you time in the long run. Again, because when life happens you’ll know exactly where you left off and what you’re going to work on next.

Do you find yourself with a few spare minutes here and there and you think, I should get something done… but what? Where? How? And by the time you put together some ideas the time you had has passed. 

Now that you know what a home organizing plan is and why you want one, let’s make it happen.

Having the free download in hand will certainly help you here.

To create your home organizing plan, you’ll answer a few questions then prioritize a list of spaces in your home.

What will an organized home give you? Why do you want an organized home?

There is literally no wrong answer to these questions. If you want an organized home so that you can save time, great. If you want an organized home so that you don’t have to worry if people stop over, great. If you want an organized home to impress your husband, that’s great too! Literally no wrong answer!

The last question you need to answer and think through is this: What is the amount of time you realistically have to work on your home organizing journey? Time per day, per week, per month. It’s important to be realistic. I am not a proponent of making time to get organized. Instead, if you are honest with yourself about how you’re using your time you’ll likely see that you have time already and just need to allocate it accordingly. In a future episode I’ll touch on right-sizing your space, this is why knowing the amount of time you actually have will work, you’ll set yourself up for success when you are honest about it!

Last you’ll list out the areas of your home in the order you want to organize them. You’ll include who uses the space and how they use it. When you ignore who uses the space and how they use it you’ll be like I was with the lockers, organizing them over and over again! When you consider who and how, you’re thinking about how the space functions, right? And that is an absolute must in keeping our organized spaces organized.

You can dive deeper into crafting your home organizing plan with me by your side. Sign up for The Secrets to Lasting Home Organization at home organizing for beginners . com.

Join me next week as we dive into strategy 3, a decision strategy. I share what a decision strategy is, why you need one and how to make one.

Thanks so much and have a great day! I hope we have the opportunity to get to know each other better.