How to Get Organized and Stay Organized - Strategy 5 Pictures

Have you found yourself watching home organizing shows on Netflix?

I love watching them, but I typically walk away with this vision in my head of what an organized home is supposed to be - perfection. Wonderful decor, all matching, fitting in the allotted spaces. The work they do on those shows is great, but I’ve found for myself and my clients, it ultimately demotivates most moms. It’s just not realistic to think that our homes will look like what they do on those shows. I mean it can, but then we can’t live life in our homes. We can’t play with our kids, we can’t let them paint in our kitchens, or build forts in our living rooms. Real life dictates that our homes will look lived in because they are!

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 looking to others on TV shows, Pinterest or other social platforms for motivation, you can take pictures of your own home organizing journey. In this episode I’ll share with you what pictures to take, why you need to do so and how to manage them in order to optimize their effect.

First I’m going to explain the hierarchy of home organization to you.

If you understand this hierarchy then what I’m explaining with the pictures will make more sense.

At the top level you have your Home Organizing Journey. Your journey encompasses everything required to get started, get organized and ultimately stay organized. Next within your Home Organizing Journey you have many different areas. I would say these are all the rooms within your home. Such as kitchen, pantry, living room, basement, game room, bedroom, bathroom. Does that make sense? You have your overall journey and your journey is broken down into multiple areas. Then each area is broken down into right sized projects. In the last episode I went into detail on what right sizing means and how to determine the right sized home organizing project to start with. You will have MANY home organizing projects. 

I’m explaining it this way so that when you’re taking pictures or videos you’ll know what to take. 

Documenting your entire Home Organizing Journey would be extremely encouraging and motivational to you during the course of it but also potentially encouraging to others. You can show your progress as accountability with a friend, with me and even just with yourself and your family.

Let’s talk about what pictures to take.

Before you start your home organizing journey you’ll want to do a video walk through of your entire home. You can even do a little commentary along the way. Include things like how you’re feeling, what is frustrating or how you envision the various areas.

Next as you tackle each area or room you’ll take a series of before pictures from a specific angle or multiple angles. Perhaps standing in the middle of the room towards each wall or corner. Or from one corner standing on a chair. The goal is to capture before pictures of the room in a defined way so that you can take correlating after pictures.

So, you have a video walk through of your home and pictures of the area you’re going to tackle. As you dive into your right sized home organizing projects you can take before pictures, but at this level of the hierarchy I recommend taking in-process or during pictures as well. This is only in the event that you are interrupted or get pulled away unexpectedly.

Why bother doing this? Taking before and after pictures? Maybe even in process pictures?

Pictures of your own areas and projects are going to show you how far you’ve come. The work that you’ve done, not someone else. This will motivate you to continue. These pictures can serve as a reminder to yourself that you can get organized. It is certainly human nature to focus on what is left to do instead of what you’ve done. These videos and pictures will help you remember.

If you take a bunch of pictures but don’t have a good way to find them when you want to look at them, there of no use.

I have a free pdf that you can download that will help ensure you’re taking all the needed pictures and a way to keep them organized. Sign up for The Secrets to Lasting Home Organization at www.homeorganizingforbeginners.com .

You’ll want to note the date you took the video and pictures, what the area is and where you’ve stored them on your device. I recommend creating a home organizing folder on your phone and making sure you add them to it.

Taking pictures is simple and simple equals sustainable. This is a part of your overall home organizing journey that should not be underestimated. Being able to depend on your own work as motivation is a game changer!

You can dive deeper into taking and managing your home organizing pictures with me by your side. Sign up for The Secrets to Lasting Home Organization at www.homeorganizingforbeginners.com .

Join me next week as we dive into strategy 6, Sort. I share what sorting is, why you sort your stuff and how to do so effectively.