How annoying is it when you, right at the moment when you really need to leave the house to be in time at your next place to be, you cannot find the keys, or your shoes, or that card? I used to be like this for many years. ‘I only have 5 minutes to find it, or I will be late!’ . Because I like to help you making your life calmer and less stressful, I will show you how you can make being organised a reality. Never search again: Sort and declutter.

Before I had organised my home I could not find my things because they never were where I thought they were. It was that simple.

If you put your things at different places all the time, they can be anywhere in the house at the moment you need them. And running through your house to check all those possible places make those 5 minutes pass very quickly.

How to never search again: Sort and Declutter

Getting organised is worth the effort. As a result you will always find your stuff, without effort. This has many positive consequences. Imagine, having your stuff sorted, decluttered and never having to search again…

By getting organised you will:

• Save yourself spending money buying the thing you know you already have somewhere.

• Experience more calm if you are the type that loves to be in time for an important meeting or to meet your friend. When your home is organised, you can leave the house in a calm state of mind.

• Be appreciated for being in time. Being in time is a great way to show respect to the person you meet. By being in time you show that you find their time valuable as well

• Start your planned task without delay. It saves you a lot of annoyence and frustration not having to run around everywhere trying to find the lost item. You will be less distracted by clutter around you. You will be more productive.

• Waste no more time on searching. Create the reality of never having to try and find something you need. Instead just go and get whatever you need. That is at least one less source of stress in your life. You will save your energy.

• Be in a better mood. As you will feel good about yourself for being in time, getting things done, saving money, energy and not being in a rush.

That will be a future of being in time, being calm and being productive

Sort everything you own in 4 steps

Step1

• Put everything you own, every item, all things, with all things of the same sort of thing. I call this one sort of a thing a category. One category will get only one location in your home.

For example: Are you looking for your running shoes? You will find them at your shoe place. Looking for a particular book? You can be sure it is in between the other books at that one and only place for books.

Step 2

• Sort each category into sub-categories if needed. If there are a lot of items in one category this category need a bit more sorting as for example it will be hard to find this one pair of gloves if all hats, scarves and gloves of a family of 5 are mixed up in one box. hence you can create the sub-categories ‘gloves, hats and scarves’.

Step 3

• Give every categories with all its sub-category one location. E.g. All winter outerwear is to be found in the cupboard under the stairs.

Step 4

• The only next step is; always put everything back in that one place. Which is so easy once you gave everything one place. 

For example: When arriving back from the weekend away; put your shoes back with the shoes. put your bags with in the Bag Place. Put your book with all your other books. And so on.

Finished fixing the broken chair? Put all tools back with the other tools in the only one tool place. Consequently, next time when you need tools, you will find them all at the one and only ‘Tool Place’.

At the end of the day ( and after finishing an activity in the house) you put all the lose items lying around in the house back at their right special place.

This might sound complicated, so I am illustrating it with an example:

Shoes for example

Step 1 Find all shoes

Let’s say if you start with shoes, collect all shoes from the whole house and put them all in one place. Next to the entrance of the house might be the most logical and convenient. Probably not the high heel shoes. I personally would give them a special ‘High Heel Place’ in the wardrobe. Decide on what is practical for your personal life.

Step 2 Sort your category in sub categories

If we stick to the shoe example, you might have sports shoes, summer shoes, winter shoes, high heels etc. 

It might be quite an eye opening activity if you get all shoes from the whole family together. It was for me even with only my shoes!

You will have the best overview if all your shoes are at one place. It will make you realise how many pairs of shoes you own. And possibly how few shoes you will have to buy the coming year. If any. 

Step 3 Make some space

Now you might need to make some space as there are other things at that place next to the entrance. 

You can either for now, put them in another corner of the house, or sort all the items with their own category. Or at least put them with one other item of their category. E.g. there are two hats. For now put them where you have another hat. And worry about the ‘Final Hat Place’ later if you do not see where they should go immediately.

Start sorting next category

Next day you could find all the hats and put them at one single ‘hat place’. You might find out you have way more shoes and hats then you thought you had, and more than you need. On the day you feel inspired you can decide to give them to a thrift shop, give them to a friend, sell them or repair them.

Never search again: Sort and Declutter

I have described how you can sort everything you own. And how you will realise how much you have. Then it is time to decide what you want to keep, and what not. Start with sorting, then declutter.

• I will quickly go through the sorting steps one more time.

• Then I share some tips about where to start this big, maybe overwhelming tasks of organising your whole place?

• Next I will suggest ways of how sorting can be fun an motivating.

• This is followed by me sharing an example of my personal style of decluttering, with time limits. Decluttering is the step that comes after sorting.

Sort everything in your place in 4 steps:

Sort

Step 1 Sort everything you have in categories and sub-categories. 1 place for every (sub)category.

Sort in categories: All shoes at one place in the house. The same for all books together on the shelves, all pens in one drawer, all keys at one place, all bags in one cupboard. As a result you will know where your shoes, book, pen, keys, or wanted bag is.

Step 2 Every category will have sub-categories for example the category clothes; sort into the sub- categories socks, t shirts, long sleeve shirts, skirts, sports clothes, etc.

For example, the category kitchen has got the sub-categories knifes, cooking utensils, bowls, cutlery, pots and pans. 

Step 3 Give every category and sub-category its own place. try to keep the categories together, e.g. All books are together on the shelves, sorted in cook books, academic books, novels etc..

Step 4 When you have finished doing something and at the end of the day, put all items back in the specific place for those thing.

Where should I start sorting and decluttering?

Every category you have sorted will make you spend less of a wasting time on searching. What do you search for the most? Keys? Shoes? Start with that category. That way you will gain momentum as your reward is immediate.

Some suggestions: Shoes, pens, bags, keys, jewelery, books, incoming post, toiletries, all paper work, all craft materials and tools, all half finished projects etc.

You could strive to do this (possibly) monstruous task of sorting in one month. Start with deciding on a place for all(!) your keys. Another place for all your cables and chargers. Another for all your pens. Attack for example five categories every day and you will be organised very soon. 

This article tells how you can sort your pantry, taking similar steps.

Sorting your stuff is rewarding

I found sorting my stuff rewarding because:

• I realised I had so much; So many things that I could get rid of. I was ready to declutter! More about how to declutter below, and in this other post: Read here more ideas about why and how to get started on decluttering.

• So few things I had to go shopping for. Read here more about buying less.

• I found so many things I hadn’t seen for ages and I had even forgotten about. Embarrassing! It was an eye opener. It made me realise that I had too much.

• I found it easier to make decisions about what could go and what to keep.

• I wasted less and less time finding, looking for things. ( for myself and others)

• It makes me feel calm and happy if I keep the session short. It drains me if I work a whole day on tidying up and organising. I enjoy little results, they are rewards for my efforts. I personally enjoy having many little successes and feel I have achieved something in an hour or half an hour.

Personalise your style on how you like to sort and declutter

Some people say it works best to do the whole house in a weekend. I think do what ever works best for you. Try it out to find out what works for you. If you get bored after half an hour, just do half an hour a day, so you stay motivated to keep going organising your place. Your place will get will get better and better organised even when you do a little a day.

I know others who just want to get it done and over with as quickly as possible and go through everything an a few hours and make decisions very fast. They are lucky to be able to do that, but for me personally that does not work. I will start well, and slow down more and more without achieving much. Choose your own personal style, that suits you, and keeps you motivated.

Declutter

Now yo have a category sorted, you can start decluttering; choose what to keep and what not. Below I describe one way of approaching decluttering, using time limits, a way that works well for me.

More about how to decide what to keep or not, and some challenges to keep you going on your declutter adventure you can read here.

How to declutter faster? Limit your time

Setting a time limit for your declutter session will help you to make decisions faster. Here is an example.

Example:

Declutter all your books in 1 hour

Minute 0-10

The first 10 minutes to put all my books from the whole house, in one pile. 

Minute 11-20

If you have a lot of stuff it can get draining quite easily. If you keep going too long, you will be less focussed and not feel the satisfaction of finishing of a task. As a result you might loose interest in getting organised totally and forever. By sticking to a few categories a day, or sometimes only one, It became a very fun and rewarding challenge for me. 

Second 10 minutes to find all you will definitely keep. In this example all books I will surely not get rid of. Put them back on the shelf.  If you love the book or need the book, keep the book!

Minute 21- 50

Next 30 minutes: sort the rest of the books in the following piles: maybe keep/ sell/ give away/ recycle/(repair). The repair pile is useful if you are going to repair. If you are not that kind of person, then do not make a pile of projects that you are never going to do anyway. Give the to be repaired books away ( friend or thrift store) or sell them for cheap.

You can see how I just quickly made some labels to keep my piles separate and recognisable. Labels make it also easier to stay focussed on your sorting task, as you have to put each book from your hand with one of the labels. Decision time!

Minute 51-60

Take 10 minutes to sort the ‘Maybe Keep’ pile . The ‘Maybe Keep’ category is the pile of books that are a bit harder to decide on. Take 10 minutes to try and sort them in one of the other piles you just made.

The books that are still in the ‘maybe keep’ pile after 10 minutes, you put together in one corner of the book shelf.

All done! One category sorted and decluttered!

That is one hour in total to finish the whole task. And another time you can finish this book task. (The Maybe Keep’ books in the corner of your book shelf) You can be happy with having all the books on one place, knowing what you have. Having the piles of book you are going to get rid of.

Take action soon to get them to the place you decided on for them ( e.g. give away/sell ) and you will feel soooo good!

Why a time limit works wonders

A time limit works wonders for me. In half an hour I have to finish finding all my shoes and deciding which ones to keep. Without a time limit I contemplated every small decision. Shall I keep it just in case/ to who shall I gift it? I would think about memories and feel the item becoming more important with every thought. I would start looking at the photo’s, trying on clothes, reading books and the time would fly without deciding on anything. Instead it would only be harder to let go after renewing my relationship with those items I had nearly forgotten about. That is why having limited time is important.

What if the amount of stuff is too overwhelming?

If you have so much stuff in one category that you are worried to be left with an enormous mount of unsorted items on the floor after an hour of sorting, stick to one place; one cupboard, one shelf, one drawer etc. also combined with a time limit. Make it achievable because you will feel proud of yourself and more motivated for your next sorting session. Or stick to one subcategory e.g. cookbooks.

Do not buy extra storing places like containers, shelves before you start. First sort everything you own. When you are at the end of the sorting task you will probably see that you have too many storage places, as you got rid of so much stuff.

I got highly inspired by the book of Marie Kondo – ‘The life-changing magic of tidying’ , and changed her ideas to what suited me personally.

Now sort and declutter your first category!

Tips on how to buy less.

Take on a declutter challenge.

Guide for quick declutter decisions.