I LOVE to organise. I mean, really LOVE to organise. I am ridiculously happy when I am rearranging and reorganising, well, anything! I also love to read books about organising; to see how other people organise their homes and their lives. A couple of years ago, I went to a session at our local library with professional organiser, MaryAnne Bennie. It was here that I had my lighbulb moment. MaryAnne was speaking about 3 ways you can organise your stuff .... (1) Organise to a number, for example, decide to keep only 12 coffee mugs, t-shirts etc, (2) Find a better (bigger or smaller .... OK, most likely bigger) space for your craft supplies, DVD collection etc or (3) Organise to the space. DING!
I have always subscribed to the "find a bigger space" or better containers to store whatever it was I was organising. I did organise by number when I finally came to terms with my coffee mug addiction but to decide on the space I was willing to let something occupy and then make my collection fit .... revolutionary! Why hadn't I ever thought of that? It was so simple I think I had overlooked it because I was too busy shopping for the perfect container or basket (just ask David about my addiction to those lol).
So these days, I organise to the space more often than any of the other methods. The girls have a (large) toy cupboard but that is the space they are allowed to fill. If the cupboard is overflowing, it is time to cull. The same for my linen cupboard; the bath towels can only occupy 1 shelf.
As we have spent most of today cleaning out our downstairs area (laundry, scrapbooking studio and under-house storage) I have another word of advice to share: It will likely get worse before it gets better. You need to be able to see what you have before you can cull and then put it back. I tried to keep this in mind as I surveyed the incredible mess we made of my studio room. There will be no "before" photos but I might share an "after" one once we have it all looking gorgeous.
Hope you had a productive weekend too.
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