Organizing Projects You Can Tackle This Weekend
The holidays are over, the tree is put away, the friends and relatives have gone - what should we do this weekend? For some of us, this weekend is the first one without parties, people or other obligations. For those of you lucky enough, this may also be a long weekend because of MLK Jr Day. What better time to tackle a project in the house that you’ve been putting off.
Put away the stash-and-dash pile - When people are on their way to your home, some of us (err, most of us) tend to stow the unsightly things into a room/garage to be dealt with later, Now is later. Take all the things out of the bins and closets and under the bed and separate them into piles relating to the rooms of where those things actually go, then put them away properly. A stash-and-dash is where things usually get lost forever because you’ve temporarily put things together that don’t go together and in a place they don’t belong. That rubber mallet you KNOW you have but can’t find? It’s in a bin in your guest closet of course! Put that stuff away and you will thank yourself next time you need tools.
Work on a particular room - Most folks have that room, the one that’s the junk room. If we don’t know where to put something, it’s gonna be in that room. Soon the room gets so overwhelming that there’s nothing we can do other than shut the door and pretend it doesn’t exist. Instead of thinking “I’m gonna clean out this entire room today” - that may be outside of your particular scope for one day - consider picking out one category. Here’s what I mean by that. Go into the room and look at what’s there. Let’s say that our room contains a few categories - paper and mail, cardboard boxes, clothing that the kids have outgrown, and some furniture that needs to go to be donated. Thinking of the room in terms of categories can massively aid in the process of getting this room cleaned up. Your plan is to clean only one category today - paper/mail. Go into the room with a large empty bin and bin up anything that fits into the paper/mail category. That bin can be gone through while you are watching a show or later in a different room. On a different day you will tackle the clothing. Take a garbage bag or another bin and bin up the clothing for donations. Go put that into your car (front seat so that you don’t forget) to take to donate. The next time you get a moment, gather all the cardboard boxes and cut them down. Recycle/dispose of those in the way that you normally would. The last category left in the room would be the furniture. Call someone to come pick it up for donation. Now, there will still be things left in this room that do not fit into the four main categories that you initially saw. By now, the room has gotten much more manageable and isn’t as overwhelming. In thinking of the room in categories, it breaks the project down into bite-sized pieces. In addition, my neuro-divergent friends out there can sort items easier when they stay in the same category (sorting all papers, vs sorting papers and other household items in the same bin).
Make something better - Maybe you have an area of your home that you’ve organized awhile back and it looked good at the time. Organization is a lot like cleaning, you have upkeep. Go through your home and refresh those areas. You may decide you want to label things this time, or buy a new container for something. Maybe you organized all of your Keto snacks into a cute bin and don’t follow that diet anymore. An upgrade or refresh on and area that I’ve already organized always makes me happy. It’s usually quick to do, but the payoff is huge.
Whatever you decide to do this weekend, keep in mind that it is a great time to declutter (as always), but put some time aside to rest and relax too. After the holiday let-down is real and we all need to be kind to ourselves.
Let me know if you decide to tackle any organizing projects this weekend - I’d love to hear!
