Donna's Place For Everything

Does winter have you blue with nothing to do?  Are you depressed because the holidays are over and the long cold months ahead are upon us? Are you looking around your drab home in need of freshening wondering where to begin? Well, snap out of it!  February is the best month to get the billion things in your house organized that you have put off for the last billion months!!

The key to your organizational success is having a plan. Be realistic. There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. Add to the mix a family, job, school, cleaning, shopping, appointments, eating and exercising. These additives are the exact excuses I hear as to why people can’t seem to get organized.  Too many distractions and not enough time.  Well, those are just excuses.  A truly organized person has time left over in their day to relax and enjoy things in life that we work and live for. Understand tho, that in order to lead a successful organized life, you need to change habits and adapt to them to ensure you maintain your new systems. An Organizer can make anything pretty, but if the new space is not functional, then it really is not organized. Where to begin?  Here are five steps to help get you started.

Step 1 –  write your wish list down.  List all the areas of your home or life in need of clutter reduction and organization. Be honest.  Do not feel bad if this list runneth over. This is an important part of the cleansing process.  Once you see it on paper you will say “This isn’t so bad.” or “Oh my gosh!  I am a mess!”

Step 2 –  rank these projects in order of importance. Which will reduce your stress? Save you money? Create harmony in your home?  Teach kids to respect what they have?  Once you rank them, highlight the top three and file away the rest.

Step 3 –  create a realistic timeline when you want to complete each project. Everything can’t be done yesterday so give yourself a true guide as to when you want each task complete.

Step 4 – schedule time on your calendar to start each task based on your completion date.  Highlight  and treat like a hair appointment.  Nothing in the world should cause you to miss this appointment.

Step 5 – remember the 5 steps to completing any organization project: Sort, purge, create a plan, execute the plan, and most important, maintenance.

(Step 6) – if this is all overwhelming and you just can’t seem to figure out where to begin, hire a Professional Organizer. That is what we are here for!

Once you get started and see results, you will quickly spiral into an uncontrollable organizational frenzy! Before the month ends you will find you actually have time to relax with your family, pour yourself a martini and toast those in pre-spring organizational panic.

Cheers to a fabulous organized February!