Organizing by color, buying expensive bins for a perfectly curated home, neatly stacking every item? Do these organizing tools really help keep your home organized? Read on to see our hot takes on each of these organizing tactics.
1. ROYGBIV is not an organizing technique
Well, usually, it’s not. If you don’t know, ROYGBIV just stands for the colors of the rainbow. I see posts with items arranged in rainbow order because it makes for a great photo. While there’s nothing wrong with arranging items in this way, it’s not usually the most beneficial way to organize. Organizing provides value to our lives by making things easier to put away, easier to find, and easier to maintain. Arranging books in rainbow order only works if you remember the color of the book cover. Arranging kids’ art supplies in rainbow order makes it more difficult for kids to clean up independently.
The best way to figure out how to organize a certain item, is to evaluate how it’s used. Books are usually best stored in the home by category. Art supplies are best stored grouped together as they’re used. If your kids like to do watercolor painting, then a bin that includes the water color paint, a smaller bin of paintbrushes, and the water color paper makes the most sense.
One of my favorite organizers, @IOrganizeEverything, refers to this tactic as organizing by cousins and coworkers. Books stored by category are organized with their cousins – similar items. Watercolor supplies stored with paper and paintbrushes are organized with their coworkers – items frequently used together.
The next time you’re eyeing a beautiful ROYGBIV “organization” photo on social media, ask yourself if there’s a more functional way to categorize the item by using the cousins and coworkers method.
2. Anything that’s stacked won’t last
When organizing, we need to minimize the number of steps it takes to put something away. Are we really willing to unstack and open the bin, take the needed item out, put the lid back on, and re-stack the bins back up? We may be wiling to follow these steps once, twice, maybe even three times. Realistically, the honeymoon phase of the organized space will wear off and an item will get placed next to the stack of bins rather than in the bin, especially if we’re in a hurry. Once there is one item next to the stack of bins, it will invite more items. Clutter always attracts clutter. Before you know it, you have a stack of bins that are nearly unreachable because of the pile of items in front of them.
I know this sounds silly when we read it, because how long does it take to put something away, right? However, no matter how silly it is, we see this happening over and over again. In fact, this is so common, that sharing this bit of advice risks putting us out of business (though we really hope not)! If you want items to be put back in their places you must make it just as easy to put away, as it is to leave out. That means minimizing steps. Placing bins on shelves without stacking them will make a world of difference when organizing and staying tidy. A stack of bins makes a project out of a simple task.
3. Buying more organizing items won’t get you organized
Have you ever had a room to organize and you think that if you find just the right bins to buy, you’ll be able to get things organized perfectly? Then you get home and the stuff in your space doesn’t fit into your new, beautiful containers and you have overflowing items without a home. The logical next step is to buy more containers, right? Wrong! This can leave you feeling frustrated, and even like a failure (not to mention broke). The reality is that organization takes more steps and planning. Often, we skip the most important step of all – decluttering!
The simple truth is, if you have too much stuff, it won’t matter what organizing systems you buy. You can’t organize clutter. You can buy tons and tons of bins and try to organize clutter, but it will only cost you time and money if you haven’t properly decluttered. Most of us own much, much more than we can ever use, manage and appreciate. Eliminating the items that are excess in our lives allows us the opportunity to elevate the things that we truly love and use.
One of the reasons that people sometimes avoid the decluttering stage is that they think they will need to get rid of things that are important to them. But, in reality, properly decluttering gives us the freedom to live the life we truly want to live, giving proper attention and love to the items that really matter. If you struggle to declutter make sure to follow us on social media, @sisterhomesystems, and stay tuned for our next blog post “8 things to know to finally declutter your home.” You can also check out our last post Top 10 Items to Declutter From Your Home Right Now to help you get started.
4. Organizing is about maximizing functionality in a space, not necessarily maximizing capacity
Sometimes people think that when their space is overflowing, the fix will be to organize it all into containers. The problem is that organizing doesn’t create space, it brings the space to max functionality. Good organization allows items to be put away and retrieved quickly. While we make the point above that just buying more organizational items isn’t the solution, it is true that some organizational items are needed, but those items take up space.
For example: A common place that our clients would like organized is the kitchen. Many times we open the kitchen drawers to a myriad of kitchen gadgets and doo-dads. It’s amazing to see the display of skill required to fit all of the items in the drawers. Our clients aren’t happy to just fit it all, they want to be able to find what they need quickly when cooking. They want to open the drawer and experience peace and calm. This is where we come in and provide some structure to the drawers, adding dividers to make smaller categories within the drawer. As soon as we do, the space is taken up. Far fewer items can fit into the drawer. The client is then forced to make decluttering decisions.
It feels like organizing should maximize the space, but it actually maximizes the functionality of the space. Understanding the difference can help you understand what you really want. Do you want your home to be a storage unit for the maximum number of items? Or do you want to have a home that functions seamlessly, like a well-oiled machine? A home where it’s easy to find things and easy to put them away? Or a home that’s easy to prepare for guests at the drop of a hat? If so, focus on space functionality over space capacity.
To Wrap it Up
We hope these 4 hot takes didn’t actually make you mad, but instead have inspired you to take on your next organizing project. It doesn’t need to look perfect, or be coordinated by color, or with expensive bins. It just needs to function in a way that helps your home run more smoothly.
