It is important to focus on one area at a time in order to achieve your dream of an organized home. First, identify your most anxiety-driven space and apply these steps: Sort your items — otherwise you’re just moving stuff around in a never-ending cycle.
Purge: You must evaluate and be ready to part with excess items and old, rarely used stuff. An easy way to approach the purge is to make three areas: keep, donate, and toss.
Step three is Organize: Establish new and more practical systems that are scalable for your home. In the kitchen, for example, your most used items should be reachable and at eye level. If you have kids, make sure their dishware is in their reach. Heavy items, like pots, pans, and kitchen appliances, should stay low, to avoid dropping on yourself.”
—Carey Karlan, Last Detail Interior Design
Establishing a launching pad in your home is an excellent way to keep the items that are important and needed on a daily or weekly basis. This can be a small space in the foyer, mudroom, or kitchen. Items like keys, backpacks, and shoes can be placed there, so everyone in the family knows where they are.
A calendar can be there, as well, so everyone can keep track of the family schedule.”
—Lynn Palumbo, Lynn Palumbo Organizing LLC
The first thing I do when approaching a space with a client is to go over what they like and do not like about the current situation, so we can search for solutions that will work for them. No two clients are the same, so what may work for one person may not work for another.
Coming up with a system is the first step toward getting organized. Once the client has a vision for the new space and system, they get excited to declutter and donate.”
—Elizabeth Lulgjuraj, California Closets
