Spring Cleaning Time

It’s that time again. Springtime is just around the corner! I’ve been sort of obsessed with becoming more productive and organized lately. Sometimes you just need to remove the clutter in your life to make room for new and better things. I personally like to start my spring cleaning a little early, because as soon as it gets nice outside, the last thing I want is to be cooped up inside.

I just got through listening to Marla Dee’s Get Organized the Clear & Simple Way to see if I could get some good organizing tips before I started the process. I’m glad that I did, because she has some really great ideas. I’ll share with you some of the tips that I found useful. Of course, she goes into much more detail in her programs. This product has 9 programs, each over 1 hour long!

Her process includes 3 steps:

See it: Start with taking in your current surroundings. What’s working? What’s not working? Where are you stuck and why? What do you most need to accomplish? Create a vision of where you would like to be in the future. What do you need from a particular space?

Map it: Create this vision in its physical form. Where you are going and how you want to get there. This can be a list, chart, vision, mind map, pictures. This is your roadmap.

Do it: Take the action and create the results.

She also has a system called "S.T.A.C.K.S." It’s basically putting everything into piles without deciding where they go. It’s like categorizing everything. But the best tip is that as you are putting your stacks together, you put them each in a different banker’s box. This way, when you lose steam, you can put the boxes neatly away until you can deal with them another day. I really liked this idea,because I usually get over-ambitious and lose steam after the piles are created. Then I try to rush through the last part and usually end up cramming things places or not even finishing the project.

Do you have any good organizing tips? Please share with us by leaving a comment below.