How to Start to Organise
How do you feel about the word “organise?”
To some, it sounds like heaven. To others, the devil incarnate. I get it – both sides. I grew up in a super organised house, but I was always on the messy side.
There are so many reasons why organisation can feel daunting – you’ve never done it before, you didn’t grow up in an organised house, it feels overwhelming, you don’t have time, or you simply have no idea where to start.
I also find that when you start organising, it can snowball. You start organising one cupboard and realise half the stuff in it would be better in another space … and then you go to put it in that space, and that realise that you can’t put anything new in there until you clean that out. And so on and so forth.
Phew! It’s exhausting even thinking about it.
How to Organise Your House
The good news: It’s not a lost cause. You can absolutely start organising your house and your life, one small bit at a time.
Get started with one room at a time. If one room seems too much, pick one space in that room. And just start.
Pull everything out of the space and go through it all. What are you keeping? What is just taking up space that you definitely don’t use?
Be ruthless. To quote Marie Kondo: does it bring you joy? If it doesn’t, please get rid of it. If you’re not sure, give yourself a timeline: if you still haven’t used the item in one year, it goes.
Buy whatever you need to organise the space you’re returning your items to. These could be baskets, boxes, or extra shelves.
Put your items away!
Rejoice in your clean and tidy space.
Take a break from organising so you don’t get too overwhelmed – then rinse and repeat.
Why I’ve Started to Organise
What’s kicked this off for me? Well, after spending almost two years (on and off) out of my house, I really want to live somewhere clean and refreshed, with only things I’m actually going to use!
It feels really good to be taking some proactive action on this house.
We’ve been slowly renovating part of the kitchen for literal months – between a fridge being delivered, an electrician not being on holiday, and our work schedules to actually get the rest of the work done… phew. It was a struggle!
But we’re finally in the home stretch, and it feels incredible. Both Thom and I are fired up about the outcome. We’re working our butts off now that we have the final pieces in place.
My Kitchen Organisation
To recap what we’ve done:
Removed the skanky old build-in fridge that came with the house in 2008 – shocking!
Got a shiny new fridge. (We got this one from Curry’s and love it! It has built-in ice cube trays, which is a game changer)
Had an electrician add five new plugs in the far corner of the kitchen so that we can plug the new fridge in
Built four drawers and two shelves in the space the built-in fridge used to be
Reorganised the entire damn kitchen.
I never knew I’d be the type of person buying storage baskets upon storage baskets, yet, here we are. It’s kind of funny, but I don’t hate it at all.
Our kitchen has never been so organised – this whole dang house has never been as organised – as it is right now. I love it. I actually love it so much.
The organisation has spilt into our bathroom, too. I’ve just finished buying four new baskets to sort out our shelves. Thom now has one shelf with three baskets, my make-up has an entire shelf in an actual make-up organiser, and then we have three baskets on the bottom shelf full of lotion and creams, miscellaneous stuff, and hair stuff.
