What Makes Decluttering Different From Organizing?

Have you ever found yourself “organizing” your room only to realize that you still have no space to move around after all your work? Don’t worry as it’s common to confuse organizing and decluttering.  The thing is, choosing one over the other isn’t necessarily wrong—what’s better though is to make use of the two. The trick is planning your clean-up operations well and knowing what you want to get out of it. This is where people make a mistake. Ideally, when cleaning and organizing a room, you want to achieve two things; a cleaner room and a more organized layout. Moving things around may make it easier for you to find things, but the effort would have been lost if it’s still difficult to move around or access certain things.

1. DECLUTTERING

The first thing you’ll want to get around to is decluttering. This involves removing anything that you won’t have use for or, at the very least, doesn’t hold value for you. The challenge here is making sure that what you keep around are things that you will actually benefit from—that middle-school lunchbox might be an interesting keepsake, but how much usable space is it really taking up? At the end of the day, it’s all easier said than done, though. This is why planning is key here as it can help you create a criterion that can help guide your decision-making.  At this stage, it is important that you prioritize utility. You can forgive yourself by keeping a few sentimental items. The majority of what you keep though should have some way of providing you with a benefit.

2. ORGANIZE

After removing all the unnecessary items in your room, it’s time to start organizing. A lot of people may think of this as a chore, but it can actually be a very entertaining job. What you want to achieve here is a layout that will serve your purposes, whether it be for work or relaxation. Make sure that all the frequently used objects are in places with easy access.  Things that would be used infrequently should be stored securely but never in a way that they are left behind a mountain of other items. Should that happen, your decluttering phase may not have been as disciplined as it should have been.  You’ll find that you’ll appreciate the prior decluttering phase as well. With fewer things to organize, planning the layout of the room should be an easier task. Take your time with this step and, once you’ve found the perfect setup, take a picture or take note—this way, you have a model you can copy the next time around.

3. USE VERTICAL SPACES

One thing that people forget about reorganizing is that they can make use of vertical spaces. More often than not, people rely on the traditional shelf layout. If you find that this layout doesn’t suit your needs, consider looking into vertical storage solutions.

CONCLUSION

Too often do we find ourselves sifting through years of junk just to find one thing. The point here is to make sure that you have what you need and know where to find it. It may be a tough decision to get rid of our old things, but it’s a decision that our productivity will thank us for. Rescue My Space is a reliable decluttering service in Houston. We offer organizing solutions for both residential and commercial spaces. For more information about our services, contact us today!