Start with a Drawer
Looking to test the waters of DIY organizing?
Who hasn’t been inspired by ‘The Home Edit’ or ‘Tidying Up with Marie Kondo’? Watching those shows really gives you the confidence and motivation to tackle clutter once and for all. What you don’t see is the entire team involved as well as the time that it takes to fully organize a space. These 30-45 minute shows can be deceiving.
To be clear, this isn’t to discourage you, but to infuse some reality into the process. You SHOULD do it yourself. It’s important that you regain control of your home, but before emptying all the contents of your closet onto your bed, I recommend that you start with a drawer. Try a drawer where all the contents can be sorted on the counter. You would be surprised to learn the effort it takes to address all those items one at a time. If after completing that drawer you find yourself energized and wanting to tackle another space, I recommend moving on to a more complex or dense drawer - perhaps the ‘junk drawer’. If you are not exhausted and defeated from that, keep moving on to bigger and more item filled spaces until your home is clutter free. As you know, I am KonMari certified and would approach organizing by category: 1) clothes, 2) books, 3) paper, 4) komono (misc items), and 5) sentimental. But it’s your home, so work on areas that make sense for you.
If you wanted to give up after the first two drawers, it might be time to phone a friend. Organizing can be a lonely task, but can be made productive with another person around to bounce ideas and keep you company. You would be surprised how fast the process can go with someone to talk to.
When do you call in a pro? If you find that you can’t be bothered and would rather wake up with everything magically edited and in a designated place, that’s when. A pro can take the emotion and stress out of the process with a pragmatic approach and an efficient execution. Given a few guidelines I (personally) am able to make decisions and achieve my clients’ vision.
There is no right or wrong organization journey, you have to choose the path that makes sense for you.
xx raychel