This week got a little hectic and I am a little late in writing this week’s blog post! While a little late, I hope you were able to spend a little more time and get caught up on the Room Refresh challenge! So far we have organized our laundry rooms, mudrooms, and dropzones, and I have before and after pictures from one reader’s laundry and mudroom to share with everyone below!

Before

After

Isn’t that transformation amazing!?!?!?! The reader had multiple shoes, coats, and winter gear that had accumulated over the years in her closet. She then couldn’t use her closet for any shoe storage. In the laundry area, all of her laundry supplies were on the floor and she was stacking her laundry baskets in her returnables box. By decluttering and donating her grown kid’s items and winter coats, hats, etc. that were no longer used or fit, she freed up space in the closet and her shoe rack to store seasonal items. By adding a shelf in the laundry room she was able to get all of her laundry supplies off the floor so she could actually keep her laundry basket in front of the washer. The last thing the reader is waiting on is the wallpaper she bought to divide up the room’s color scheme. If anyone else has transformation pics to share we’d love to see them!

Now, moving on to this week’s challenge, we are tackling the office! Not everyone might have a designated office, but everyone usually has a spot in their house that they store important documents, do bills, etc. If you don’t have a good system in place to handle paper clutter, then it can easily become overwhelming fairly quickly. Now more than ever due to the pandemic people are working from home and are trying to create spaces for their children’s remote learning. This is the best time to create a space or system that works for everyone in the home. Whether you have a designated office space or a corner of a room you are using, it’s time to declutter it!

The Office

• The general process week after week will always be the same. This week I want you to set up these 6 piles: “shred”, “donate”, “file”, “return”, “keep”, and “trash”.
• Next, go through all of the paper that’s immediately visible. Sort it into the “shred”, “file” or “trash” piles.
• Next, remove everything else from the room. Sort everything else into “keep”, “donate”, “trash” or the “return” pile. The “return” pile is for anything that belongs elsewhere in the house.
• Give the room or area really good cleaning.
• Questions to consider while editing:
  • Do you need it?
  • Do you have duplicates?
  • What is the worst thing that can happen if you get rid of it?
• Next, it’s time to categorize! Go through your “keep” and “file” piles and categorize everything. For example, my filing cabinet has an archive drawer that is further sub-categorized into specific documents. Then I have an “active” drawer with more recent documents that are sub-categorized into specific types of documents as well. My closet bookshelf is categorized by the type of book it is. I also keep electronics, warranty information, paper products, office supplies, and some sentimental items in our office.
• Determine what/if you will need any organizing bins or containers to help you set up your zones. Then set up your zones and get to organizing!
• Last week we discussed drop zones. If the office is a drop zone for your mail and/or bills, be sure to set up a station to control incoming clutter. If you need help with this read last week’s post and scroll down to “drop zones”.
  • Some common categories include “bills”, “take action”, “to file”, etc. Commit to a daily routine of managing your mail when you get it. Immediately discard junk mail, then open your mail and sort. Anything that has a deadline or due date should be marked on the outside of the envelope and placed in a sorter in order of due date. Routinely (at least weekly) go through your mail sorter to prevent it from piling up and to take care of action items in a timely manner.
    • You can use desktop sorters, however if you have limited space a wall sorter is also an option.
• Anything in the “remove” pile should be redistributed to the correct rooms or area.
• If you have items left over from last week’s “sell” pile that you ended up not selling, then it needs to go into the “discard” or “donate” pile. Dump the “discard” pile and take your donation pile to where you plan to donate them. You need to remove the pile from your home as soon as possible. 
• Anything that you decide to put into “storage” needs to be labeled with a date 1 month from now and stored. We will re-evaluate the need for the items in the box in 1 month.

Tips

1. If at any point you get overwhelmed and want to give up…walk away from the challenge and go do something fun and entertaining for awhile! If you have years of clutter then it might get overwhelming. That’s why each room is a week long! Just chip away at it a little bit at a time. It’s always good to step away and come back with fresh eyes and renewed energy!
2. Limited space is not an excuse for why you are not organized. If you think space is the issue, you have a clutter problem, not an organizing problem. You can always browse pinterest or instagram for small, space-saving organization ideas that you may not be able to envision for yourself. You always have more space than you realize!
3. Labeling containers is a great way to help family members identify the correct zones to put their items in, especially if the categories aren’t immediately apparent to them!

The Sweep

Don’t forget that we aren’t exactly done with the challenge after we get the office in order. The goal of this challenge is to create functional spaces and establish better habits and routines. Last week I introduced “the sweep”. So far you have completed the laundry room, the mudroom, and any drop zones you may have. Now we need to evaluate our systems and make regular cleanup a routine.

Before bed (or at the most convenient time for you) go to your refreshed rooms with a basket. Look around the room and throw anything that does not belong in the room in your basket. Take care of anything that is out of place. Then take your basket and go through the house putting the items that don’t belong in the laundry room in their proper place. This should be a quick pickup and should not take long. Remember your family is there to help you as well.

The nightly “sweep” will also be a good time to evaluate the effectiveness of your systems in real time as you may notice different trends occuring. Does it still look as good as it did when you completed the room? Are there things out of place or items that don’t belong? Do the systems you have put in place seem to be working? Determine what is and isn’t working and make adjustments to your system as you see fit and continue to evaluate changes each night as you go through the house.

Again, this may seem a little overwhelming initially but the more you get into the habit of picking things up on a regular basis and become more aware of what you are bringing into you home, the easier it will become. On average it takes about 66 days to create a new habit. That’s a little over 9 weeks. This challenge is 18 weeks – so if you stay the course and push through you’ll have new routines and habits well before we tackle some of the hardest rooms in the house!