3 Simple Steps for Organizing a Small Space

I had the pleasure of working with The Arranged Abode again for another organizing project. I hired them to help me clean out and organize my beauty closet at the old house, and then a different time to help me pack up a few spaces when we moved into this house.

I love a fresh start, so Justin and I have been working in a handful of places around the house to get it organized and edited down to what we actually need.

I did a big closet clean-out and organization project a few years ago, you can read about that here, and it’s still in a pretty good spot to this day!

There were a few closets that needed some attention, so I decided to hire The Arranged Abode again to help me tackle them. For me, getting started is the hardest part so the accountability of knowing someone who is skilled in organizing was going to help me work through the spaces in my home that I’ve really neglected was essential.

The first thing Sara did when she arrived is pull every single thing out of the closets and put them into piles. The floor was filled with piles of linens, cleaning supplies, and boxes of contact solution that I didn’t even know that I had so much of.

Once she sorted everything, I was able to go through and point to which piles needed to be donated, which could be trashed, and which needed to go back into the closet. There were also things that didn’t need to be in there, like bath bombs that my kids use in the linen closet by the primary bedroom. It was helpful to have Sara working on that closet while I was moving things out of there that didn’t need to be there.

While I am very grateful to have the chance to work with Arranged Abode, and would highly recommend them, I wanted to share a few things I’ve learned from the different cleanout and organizational projects I’ve done.

One. Take everything out of the space. This feels like you’re working backward, but it really allows you to see every single thing that you have so you can sort through what fits and what doesn’t work there.

Two. If you want to buy organizational containers, keep the receipt! I get it, I have much more fun shopping for organization supplies than actually doing the work to organize, but until you know the actual size and space of the container you may need, you should wait to purchase. One of the ways The Arranged Abode has worked with me on this is they will show up to projects with the boxes and containers they know I love and just bill me for whatever I decide to keep. So if you’re working on your own and want to purchase the containers first, just hang into your receipt and return what doesn’t fit right. The last thing you want is organizational efforts to turn into more clutter!

Three. Ask yourself, “if I needed to, could I replace this one day?”. If you’re on the fence about donating or tossing something out that you may possibly want one day, think really hard about what it would take to replace it. If it’s an irreplaceable item, find a good place to store it. If it’s something like an extra blanket or an alarm clock that you haven’t used in years, someone will likely enjoy it much more in real life than just letting it take up space in your closet.