Since we’ve been home so much this past month, I felt like our house was starting to get unmanageable. I’ve slowly tackled some problem areas already and I’m becoming addicted to this organizing thing! It makes me feel like I have some control again. I’ve done a couple rooms so far and it feels great to have some order. And last week, I enlisted the help of my friend and Professional Organizer, Christina, who runs Joyspace based in NYC. So how do you organize when one person is in Wisconsin and the other is in New York?? Facetime!

We did a virtual session of my laundry room. I do not know how it got so nuts in there! Random stuff was shoved in the cupboards and there were piles on top of the washer and dryer which drives me bonkers.

How does it work?

Step 1: We chat about the space. I told her what I wanted the room to look like and what kind of items I wanted to store there. We talked about the problem areas and things that kept happening to make the space disorganized. Since we were Facetiming, I just showed her what I was talking about and what my struggles were. In my case, the laundry room becomes the catchall for everything that comes through the door because it’s where we enter the house. Things accumulate on the washing machine. Like a lot of things. And I had no idea the amount of cleaning supplies I had because they weren’t all kept together.

Step 2: We take everything out. and I mean ev-ery-thing. This was new to me. I usually just rearrange or take things out that don’t belong. This step is really eye-opening. It’s like moving in all over again, but it’s great because you’re going to purposefully put things back exactly where you want them.

Step 3: Sort, sort, sort. Categories will just naturally appear. We did cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, batteries/light bulbs/house stuff, lunch boxes (mainly because there isn’t a big enough spot in the kitchen for them), paper backups (toilet paper and paper towels), sunscreen & bug sprays, candles & lotions, light bulbs & batteries.

Step 4: Decide what to discard or keep. Some things ended up being trash but mostly things were put back in the rooms where they belonged and everything else was sorted and added to the new categories we made.

Step 5: Give everything a home. Every item must have a place to live. Period.

Put like items with like items - so all the laundry stuff together, all the batteries together, all the sunscreen together, etc. Plus grab items from other parts of the house so they all live together.

OUR STUFF BECOMES CLUTTER WHEN IT DOESN’T HAVE A HOME.

BEFORE

AFTER

I didn’t want to purchase any new baskets just to have them be matchy-matchy so we just rearranged from other areas of the house to make it work (since I’m a basket hoarder).

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

All laundry stuff in one spot.

BEFORE

AFTER

This basket of cleaning rags just makes the under-the-sink area look nicer and hopefully stops people from throwing other items in here.

Because other people come in here too, I made sure to label everything so there is no confusion.

This closet is big but only stored a hamper and the mops/brooms, etc. So I had Chris put in a couple of shelves which created more space and now there is a new home for cleaning supplies.

I would highly recommend hiring Christina to help you start a project, offer some advice and check in with you. We stayed on the phone for the most part, but when I was emptying the cupboards or hunting for baskets, I hung up and called her back. It was super helpful to A) block off a chunk of time to do it and having someone hop on a call with me made sure I followed through and B) ask for advice - what should I do with this? How should I do this? Where should this live? It was just nice to see where someone else would put things and talking about it out loud made me figure out good places to put things where they make sense. She’s offering a special rate for virtual sessions right now so take advantage of this time at home and contact her at christina@hellojoyspace.com.