Gretchen Rubin’s Tips about Organizing: Use What You Already Have

In Outer Order, Inside Calm, I write about how clearing muddle and creating order could make us really feel lighter, happier, and extra centered. However getting organized doesn’t imply speeding out to purchase new bins or storage methods. Usually, the very best place to start out is by taking stock and determining how you can use what we have already got.

Truly know what you might have

What number of occasions have you ever purchased a brand new pocket book solely to discover a stack hiding in a drawer? Or picked up extra batteries since you weren’t positive in the event you had any at house? Earlier than bringing in something new, take stock. Open each drawer, look by way of each shelf, and be sure you know what you already personal.

Hold issues the place you utilize them

Group isn’t nearly tidiness—it’s about making life simpler. Probably the most helpful issues are those which might be straightforward to seize once we want them. In case you’re at all times looking for scissors, don’t preserve them in a desk drawer throughout the home—retailer a pair the place you really use them.

A number of straightforward changes:

• Retailer your keys by the door as a substitute of tossing them onto totally different surfaces.
• Hold a small basket of workplace provides the place you’re employed, somewhat than stashed in a deep drawer.
• Place a laundry basket within the toilet if that’s the place garments are inclined to accumulate.

Find it irresistible, use it, or let it go

In case you don’t adore it and don’t use it, why preserve it? I ask myself: “Do I would like it? Do I exploit it? Do I adore it?” If not, I think about donating it.

To assist resolve, ask your self:

• Have I used this within the final 12 months?
• Would I purchase this once more in the present day?
• Is that this taking on house that might be higher used for one thing I really need?

Get inventive with what you have already got

When you’ve gone by way of these steps, it’s possible you’ll discover you don’t want to purchase new organizers or storage options in any respect—you don’t have something that must be organized. Past that, you possibly can repurpose on a regular basis objects to assist preserve issues so as. You may even have fairly a little bit of enjoyable within the course of. As an illustration:

• Flip a wall or whiteboard into a visible to-do record. Use washi tape and Submit-its to create a versatile, movable calendar or job board. Jot down duties or appointments and transfer them round as plans shift—no fancy planner required.
• Repurpose jars and bins. Mason jars can maintain pens, kitchen utensils, or make-up brushes. A shoebox can turn out to be a drawer divider, and an outdated reward field can retailer chargers and cords neatly.
• Use an outdated journal holder in new methods. Flip it on its aspect to retailer chopping boards or foil and plastic wrap within the kitchen. Stand it upright to maintain notebooks or mail organized.
• Label with what you might have. As an alternative of shopping for new labels, use masking tape and a Sharpie or minimize up an outdated cereal field into DIY tags for storage bins.
• Make a “put-away bin.” Designate a basket or tote bag as a house for stray objects that want to return to their locations—nice for tidying up shortly.

After we take inventory, declutter, and get inventive, we regularly notice we don’t want to purchase something new to really feel extra organized. We simply want to make use of what we have already got—extra deliberately.