What holds you back from getting your home organized?

A wonderful group of women from Empty Nester Girlfriends got together this week to learn what holds us back from getting and staying organized. I was asked to lead the discussion based on my home organizing experience at Appleton Home Services. As we enjoyed the beautiful view from the common room at AVE Malvern we learned about our personal organizing style and shared thoughts to ponder on what hold us back from de-cluttering and getting organized.

Simplicity or abundance?

To gage your style, ask yourself which appeals to you more:

• A room that displays collections of your travel souvenirs, figurines, and/or seasonal decorations or one with a minimal amount of visible objects?
• A kitchen with a pot rack full of every pan you may need in easy reach and a utensil jar on the counter or one with lots of counter space unburdened with objects you need to wipe down every day?
• A craft room or home officer with all tools and supplies displayed and ready to use or a room that has everything in drawers and closets, behind closed doors?

These describe the ends of the continuum from those who love abundance to those who love simplicity. If you love simplicity it may be easy for you to organize because you are happy to have things out of sight and most organizing books and blogs speak to you. If you love abundance you can frankly ignore much of what you read and instead focus on keeping the things that bring you great joy close to you and storing the rest.

Letting go of stuff

Most of us have too much stuff. That creates clutter and lowers our enjoyment of our homes. But how can we let go of things?

If your concern is cost remember that the money to purchase the item was already spent, it is a sunk cost. You can’t get that money back. You can decide to not spend more on that item -- stop spending time cleaning it, storing it and worrying about it. Sell it or give it away so someone else can use it. It does no good sitting around you house. Think of giving away or selling stuff as a gift to yourself of space that you can use today.

Items of sentimental value

It may not be hard to let go of items that hold little to no sentimental value. But what about items that remind us of great times from vacations to moments with loved ones?

You might not want to get rid of all of these things but can you:

· Let go of some. Keeping 3 outfits/drawings/etc., for each child or occasion may bring as much joy as 3 boxes full.

· Pare down the collection to a set number like 5 to 10 of each item. Do 85 trophies bring that much more joy than 10 of the best? The entire collection takes up more space and takes a lot of time to dust. If you can’t part with them then maybe put store them and rotate and display a select few.

· Take photos. Keep the digital photo and let go of the thing. A digital photo of the child’s artwork should age better than the construction paper it is made from.

There is no one easy answer for every person. Take small steps toward organization and enjoy spring!