Several years ago, I wrote a post called, ‘Creating Peace at Home Through Organizing’. Click on the link to read the full article. The article explains why decluttering and organizing the spaces in your home is so important to achieve peace in your life.
In that post I used the acronym PEACE to describe the five steps in the organizing process. The acronym was created to depict the result of organized spaces – peace. This post is the fifth and last in the series to provide more details for each step in the organizing process. You can read the first four steps by clicking on the links below.
Step 1 – Put like items together
Step 5 – Evaluate
As your life situations change, and they will from time to time, you will find that solutions that worked wonderfully in the past, are no longer working so well. That’s when it’s time to evaluate your solutions and tweak them to accommodate these changes.
Here are just some life changes that could be indicators that you need to evaluate your organizing solutions.
Moving to another home – Your new home may be smaller and have fewer storage options. You may now be sharing closets or a bathroom with someone else, or more people. Your solutions need to accommodate others or create additional solutions for them.
New job – Your new job may require a longer commute that could impact your morning routine. If you move into an office position, that requires business attire, your clothing may need to be purged to make room for new clothes.
Someone moving in or out of your home (marriage, divorce, kids moving in/out) – When someone moves out, a room may become available to repurpose. Maybe that craft room or office you have been thinking about for quite a while. When someone moves in, you need to make room for their things and their routines.
A new baby – This is probably the biggest life change that will cause you to evaluate your organizing solutions. All of your routines and many of your organizing solutions will need to be tweaked to accommodate your new little bundle of joy!
As you work with your systems, and as circumstances change in your life, you may discover that the systems you created are, or will not work as well as they did when you initially created them. When the realization surfaces, take a little time to determine what works or will no longer work with the system you are using. Sometimes a small adjustment makes a big difference to make your system work more efficiently for you.
Storage options and time are both significant factors as you evaluate your solutions. Reduced amount of storage indicates it’s time to purge your things to make them proportionate to your storage space.
Additional tasks indicate the need to streamline your routines to cut down on the time it takes to complete those routines. New routines may also need to be created that work more effectively with your new schedule.
Work on these new changes a little at a time to avoid overwhelm and to determine what works best for you and your family.
