Eliminate Chaos The 10 Step Process to Organize Your Home & Life

I acknowledge that I am a "containerizer" - meaning that I purchase storage devices and containers all the time with no purpose or plan for how to use them - I just want them and THINK they'll help me be organized. That is one of the main problems people have with getting organized - is going shopping too soon in the process, without a plan.

Through my association with OSI Rock Stars I was introduced to Laura Leist, a professional organizer who was recently a guest of the Online Success Institute for a podcast with Janelle Elms. If you'd like to hear the podcast, you need to be a member of OSI Rock Stars, and you can listen to Laura Leist talk about her book and her business of helping people get their lives more organized. After listening to this podcast, I went out and bought the book shown below, and am going to apply the process detailed inside to my most desperately-in-need-of-help room - My Sewing Room.

Laura's first step is to make time for getting organized, and making it an appointment on your calendar. It has to be an appointment that you won't skip - like a doctor's appointment.

My goal is to have this project completed by the end of March, and I will set aside all 5 weekends during the month to complete the project. Hopefully I won't need all of that time - but it's best to over-estimate the time you need, because chances are you are going to underestimate the time it takes.

This step refers to gathering the equipment and tools you'll need for the process - garbage bags for the things you are discarding, boxes for the items you are donating to charity or selling, storage boxes for sorting items that you'll be keeping into like categories, perhaps a shredder if you're dealing with paper.

One good thing about being a containerizer is I have a LOT of storage boxes, baskets, and well as cardboard boxes available to use during the sorting process.

When you're dealing with a clutter filled room, having room to work is probably going to be a challenge. Laura suggests finding a space in the room or nearby in a different room to set up your supplies and do the sorting, purging, and begin the organization process.

For my project of organizing my sewing room, I will be using the living room that is just down the hall for my staging area. I'll have plenty of room to set up boxes and plastic boxes to sort things into.

These are three separate steps that chances are you will do at the same time. Moving items from the area being organized to the staging area, and handling each item ONCE and make the decision on whether to keep, toss, or donate it, and start grouping the like items you plan on keeping together. This will make it easier to bring the items back into the space once it's cleaned out.

This step might including finding items that belong in other rooms - do NOT go to the other rooms to put those items there, just make a box for that and do it at the end. Otherwise you'll find yourself distracted from the project, and losing focus is one of the two main stumbling blocks, according to Laura.

The area of this process I failed at was purging - I just found it too hard to put items in the sell or garbage, especially my cross-stitch kits. The practical side of me knows I have more than I could possibly do in my lifetime - but I just can't bear to part with them. This will be an ongoing project as I try to wean down the collection. I was able to remove several from the stash though, and put them in the sell pile. So I have several books, crafting supplies, and kits to put up on eBay next month.

Once you've cleaned the room of its clutter, it's time to examine the space and determine if the furniture you have stays or goes, if rearranging things will make the space more effective, and what the best way to use the space to handle the items you want to keep.

The picture to the right is the layout of my sewing room. The entrance is in the upper left hand corner. Moving around the room in a clockwise motion I have a dresser, a cabinet, a desk, my chair, another desk for the computer, a built-in bookshelf, and the closet.

Above the dresser I have my flat-screen TV and speakers mounted, and the components of my entertainment center sit on top of the dresser in a shelving unit (stereo, cable box, DVD player). Therefore, moving the dresser isn't really an option as those things are pretty much locked into that corner. I have shelves lining the room near the ceiling which I use for displaying my collection of stuffed animals, dolls, and baskets.

I will assign the contents of the room into each of the areas I have avaialable as follows:

* Dresser: Cross Stitching Kits & supplies
* Shelving on top of dresser: Cross Stitch Supplies
* Cabinet: Business Yarn Stash - skeins
* Desk: Knitting and Crocheting supplies
* Computer Desk: keyboard and mouse for the computer, with the computer tower sitting on the floor underneath
* Bookshelf: Business Yarn Stash - bins sorted by color of balled yarn
* Closet: Personal yarn stash, personal crafting projects
* Shelving Units: Combine baskets & bears to maximize the use of the shelf space, with smaller display items sitting in the spaces between baskets.

I know I will have leftover storage units and containers that are empty, which I will move downstairs to use in repeating this process in my office.

Finally as a reward for our hard work, this is the time to shop for the storage units and other devices that will help us put the items we are keeping back into our space in a neat, organized way.

Because I've a history of being a containerizer, I have an overabundant supply of storage devices and containers at my disposal. Those that I don't use in bringing the contents of the room back in an organized fashion will come downstairs to be used in organizing my office, or given to my daughter to use in her room.

Now we take the goodies we found while shopping, and put them into the new space. This could be bringing in storage boxes and baskets, installing shelving, or even as elaborate as putting in new furniture!

Now we start bringing the contents of the room back, and putting them in their assigned places.

This will be the most challenging part for me behind purging, is keeping the sewing room as neat and organized a space as it will be when I am done. I think the keys to this will be monitoring carefully what new items I bring INTO the room, and making sure I put things away in their proper home when I'm done using it instead of just dropping it in a basket or setting it on the desk.