Let's get back to basics

4 minute read

National Organising Week 2024 launches today with a burst of excitement as Professional Organisers across the globe get back to basics. 

Each day, members of the APDO community will share their favourite ideas and suggestions to help you bring lasting change to your home and your wellbeing.  

Through simple, effective steps that don’t cost a fortune, we believe it’s possible to reduce clutter and increase organisation for a happier home life and improved mental health.

Each blog considers a different area of the home, reviewing some of the common challenges and highlighting tried and tested approaches to help you create a restful and ordered space that reduces stress and increases calm.

To get us started, here are 4 principles you’ll find in most Professional Organisers’ tool kits to help you begin your own decluttering journey:

1. Exploration

You may have been thinking about what needs to change in your home for some time. Gathering these thoughts together and creating a plan or specific goals can be extremely helpful before you begin. 

You might like to write something down or have a conversation with someone to express your ideas out loud. You could stick post-it notes on the wall or use a notebook to jot down your thoughts and doodles. Check out super sticky post-it notes here.

However you like to process your thoughts, this is an opportunity to consider what you would like to achieve, where you might begin, what the end result might look like, and even a specific quick and easy task to get you rolling (like disposing of something you’ve been meaning to let go of for a while).  

2. Preparation

Now you’re ready to decide when you might get your decluttering underway. This could be booking a date in your diary with yourself, inviting a trusted friend to come over and support you, or making some enquiries to find a professional to work alongside you. Our member directory will help you find your local Professional Organiser and even someone who could work with you remotely. Decluttering and organising is often easier and more enjoyable with someone working with you.  A Professional Organiser will listen to your story, providing encouragement, ideas and empathy as you work together towards your goals.

Gather together any supplies you might need such as rubbish bags, cleaning products or labels so you have everything to hand. Allow more time than you might expect as decluttering often takes longer than you think and you will need time at the end to clear up and reset so your home is fully operational for the rest of your day.

3. Take action

This is the time to physically begin working in your space, appraising your things and making decisions about what you would like to keep or discard. Begin with a small area such as a section of floor, specific unit or surface. 

Divide, categorise and sort your things into piles, grouping like for like together. Address each pile in turn until you have only keepers left. Store these where you will use them. It may be that some things move to other rooms. Think about how you might like to contain and access them. For example, would open baskets work or are closed boxes better?

Divide the things you would like to dispose of into separate piles, bags or boxes such as things for charity, recycling, the dump or to sell. Deal with each pile in turn, removing things out of your space to help keep your working area manageable.

If a decision slows you down, put it to one side and move onto the next. Return to it again at the end - you may have more perspective now about what you want to do with it. 

4. Maintain for the future

In the same way a garden needs frequent attention to maintain a beautiful setting, so does your home. Think about what you might need to do differently to keep your space looking and feeling the way you want. Are there any habits or routines you need to add or eliminate? Are there other people in your household who could share responsibility with you for the housekeeping? 

A game changer can often be learning to reset each room back to calm and tidy at the end or beginning of each day or at regular intervals throughout the week. (Coming into a clean and tidy kitchen can really get your day off to a great start). Consider scheduling a slot in your diary to review what is or isn’t working since your decluttering began and experiment with a to-do list or calendar to help prioritise outstanding tasks. 

Alongside these 4 principles are 4 ‘back to basics’ themes to help build on your success:

1. Declutter first, then organise - it’s much easier to organise less. Reduce the volume of your things before assessing how and where to store them. 
2. Declutter little and often - regularly weed your home, like you might a garden, to create a positive flow in your space. As things leave you will make room for what you really treasure and need. You’ll be able to find things more easily and it will impact your home in other ways such as assisting household cleaning and maintenance and supporting decision making about developments and improvements.
3. Resist buying storage until after decluttering - otherwise you might create clutter with new storage that you no longer need. Decluttering often creates empty storage that can be reused or discarded. Save yourself money by waiting to see what comes to light as you reduce your things. 
4. Keep it simple - because life is already complicated! Living simply provides a sanctuary from everyday challenges. Reducing the things you own frees your time and mental capacity for other thoughts and actions because you are not visually overstimulated or preoccupied with curating so many things. It reduces mental and physical ill health and can improve relationships with others and feelings of contentment. It can enable us to hold things lightly and create opportunities for generosity and community.

We hope you enjoy reading our blog series this week and that you will find inspiration to get back to basics in your home organising projects.