Summary: So you’ve made the decision to get in and declutter and organise your wardrobe/bedroom/kids toys/garage/office. If you’ve followed the right process you’ve done the hard work already – sorted everything, purged unwanted items and have them ready to go to charity, family or friends, and have arranged what you’re keeping back in it’s rightful home. But what about those containers? Those lovely products that make organising seem worth it? Isn’t that the start of your organising journey? Absolutely not!! No journey starts at the end – it starts at the beginning. And the beginning of any organising project involves sorting, purging and arranging (three of five steps in Julie Morgenstern’s SPACE process). The fourth step is Containerising – and that’s where you decide if you need organising tools to support the system you’ve set up. I know I run an organising business and blog – and thus have a few skills in this area! – but I have been known to get sidetracked with all the amazing products on the market and would love them in my home (particularly some of the gorgeous stationery!!). So how do I keep myself in check? 1. I have these basic tools in my toolkit – and use them whenever I am organising any room of my home. 2. I get in and organise the room I’m working on – and then I have a good think about what tools I need to solve the problems that have arisen. Sometimes I don’t know what problem I need to solve until I’ve gone a little way through the organising process – and then bam! It hits me like a bolt out of the blue! 3. There are certain tools and products I always have on hand – hanging files for the filing cabinet, manila folders for the step file, plastic containers to distill dried food in the kitchen. This makes it much quicker and easier for me to get (and stay) organised. 4. If I don’t need the tool or product straight away I will wait and shop around. By doing this I usually end up with just the perfect thing! You can see I’m not really a marketers dream. I’m happy with that! I’d rather have organising tools and products that work for me in my home – not ones that don’t work, that I’ve wasted money on and are like trying fit a square peg into a round hole. I’m not saying I haven’t made mistakes and bought things I don’t use – because I have – but the way I approach organising tasks now is completely different to a few years ago. And my bank balance thanks me for it! Have you ever bought an organising product that just didn’t work for you or fit the problem you had? We’d love to hear about it in the comment section below. Until next time, happy organising!
