How to Organize {Detailed Guide}

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Learning the organizing process means taking the big overwhelming task of organizing a space and breaking it down into achievable small parts. It doesn’t matter if organizing comes naturally, you can learn the skills and practice one junk drawer at a time.

After years of experience as a professional organizer, organizing spaces for others and in my own home, these are the tried and true steps! You’ll notice that completing the space is not the final step. Without a maintenance plan in mind, the mess will creep right back in!

My process includes 6 Steps of Organizing.

Step 1 – Declutter

If you try to organize without removing the excess, you’ll just end up shuffling the same junk around without really making a difference. Decluttering is near and dear to me, and if you need extra help, read How To Declutter or check out the 91 Day Declutter Challenge for in-depth help.

Step 2 – Sort like with like

As you sort, keep items together that make sense to be stored together. This is an important preliminary step to figuring out where things go, where things will fit, and what containers you may need. How will you know if you need a drawer or a whole cabinet for something unless you see the size and scope of what you’re dealing with?

The more you organize, the more you’ll be able to do steps 1 and 2 together. Decluttering and Sorting can often happen simultaneously to save time. In decluttering, you always empty the area you’re decluttering and then decide what goes back. To sort while you declutter, you would choose which items to declutter and then sort the remaining items into like categories!

This is the messiest stage of organizing! You might have piles everywhere, so be careful not to stop after this step … keep going!

Step 3 – Decide Where Stuff Goes

After you have items sorted, the next step is to match your piles to storage places that make sense. Step back and think about where the different types of things should go. Shoving stuff here and there is how things end up “here and there” all over your house. The rule of thumb is to try to get your most frequently used stuff in the prime locations that are easy to reach and access. I call this the Rule of Proximity.

Rule of Proximity:

If different items need to go to the same place, the thing that is used most frequently wins the spot. While I help my clients organize, Frequency of Use is something we talk a lot about. You want the things you use most often to be the most convenient!

(Even if you aren’t moving, read Organize Your Move Like A Professional Organizer for in depth info about categories of stuff and figuring out where they should go.)

Step 4 – Find The Best Tools, Containers, Or Furniture (aka: Organize!)

This is the step most people think of when they think about Organizing! In fact, one of the most common problems I find is that people start with this step – they see cute containers at the store, bring them home, and hope to organize! Obviously, this is probably the most fun step to many of us, but if you don’t do the other steps first, this step will just be a temporary organizing solution. So many times, those containers actually get in the way of the organizing and become clutter themselves.

When I hear people tell me they’ve stocked up on some bins and containers to start their organizing process, I cringe a little inside. But when bins and containers are selected AFTER you’ve done the work, it makes such a huge difference. Containers and functional tools are absolutely part of the organizing process, but in the right time and way.

Now that you know where your stuff is going, it is time for the containers! Go ahead and select the right containers, tools, and/or furniture that fit that space.

Important Tip for Selecting Organizing Tools:

Always measure the space you have, and take the measuring tape to the store while you shop. It also helps to sketch out a plan, especially for filling a drawer. It is so liberating to purchase something you know will work, not just hope it will. It is so annoying to think you’re going to make progress on a project and realize that something doesn’t fit!

Make Sure Everything Has A Place It Belongs-

The most important part of the organizing process is that everything has a place. When you are done with this step, there should be absolutely no confusion about where things in this area belong.

Step 5 – Create A Maintenance Plan

Unless you live in a museum where things are not allowed to be touched or used, you need a maintenance plan. Maybe you already have some positive maintenance plan that would expand easily to include your newly organized space. The best plans are the ones that use natural milestones to organically maintain themselves. For instance, I maintain my children’s clothes areas at each season change. The real need to pull out warm clothes for the cold days of fall reminds me to go spruce up their drawers, closets, and their off-season clothes storage. I tidy up my children’s memory boxes in August at back to school time to make sure there is a file folder labeled for the new year and take out ‘memories’ that have lost their charm.

Since you made sure every item has a place it belongs in previous steps, that should help your maintenance plan. Your maintenance plan could be as simple as developing better and more regular tidying habits. It’s easier to tidy here and there instead of letting things build up into a mess again. When you know exactly where every item in your home goes, this is much much easier!!

Read more about the Super Tidy, a simple way to maintain almost everything!

Step 6 – Make It Pretty and Enjoy!

Functional things can be beautiful as well. When your organized space looks good, it is way more satisfying to keep it organized. Use that positive momentum and don’t stop organizing until your space looks good too. Use fun labels on your containers, spray paint the containers to look uniform or paint the piece of furniture to add a pop of color. Add in decor that is beautiful and meaningful to you, not something that is going to just feel like more clutter in a week.

This step also makes members of your family take notice of your hard work organizing, just another way of making it easier to maintain!

Don’t sabotage yourself by hiding your messes.

My drawers aren’t particularly fancy, but they are organized. I completely disagree with the idea that it is okay to be super messy in the spaces that aren’t seen because this seems to indicate that we clean and organize to impress others or to avoid judgment.

I never shove things just anywhere in my home to get them out of sight. If something doesn’t have a place to go, it doesn’t belong in my home and needs to go in my donate pile! If I’m going to put something away, I put it where it goes. This might sound hard at first, but it actually becomes very very liberating!

Right now, as you are on the path to getting organized, trust the process. If organizing is new to you, expect it to feel a little awkward as you get started. But, keep going!! Organizing correctly is a big deal. Knowing the process and doing it in the right order is absolutely a game changer in the best way.

Happy Organizing!

From my home to yours,
Mary