Are you ready for Part 2 of 2022?

When you sat down on New Year's Day and made those resolutions did you think you would be where you are today or are you not quite were you wanted to be?

Did you know that only 9% of people who make resolutions actually follow through on them?

So if you are behind, you are not alone, most people have given up by this point but you don't need to be a quitter! You can still get stuff done in the remainder of 2022! 

How you ask?  With these tips….

~ Revisit what your original resolutions/goals were and consider if, 6 months later, these are still important to you. |f not, reassess and set new goals based on what you want to achieve in the remainder of 2022

~ Depending on your goal, take action TODAY, don’t delay and don’t make this so big and scary you won’t do it! If your goal is to lose weight take a small action such as finding your nearest weight loss support group or put together a healthy meal plan. If your goal was to declutter and organise, write a list of what needs to be done or where to start

~ Look at your goal for 2022 and work backwards, break this goal down into monthly, weekly and even daily steps to make this much more manageable. To organise your whole home, write a list of which room to tackle each month, then break this down into what needs to happen weekly and then daily. You will be surprised how taking even one small action a day will quickly build up to help the overall goal

~ Be realistic! We often set goals in the New Year without actually considering how much work and time is involved so don’t commit to anything that is going to ultimately cause you stress if you can’t keep up with the level of time or work involved. Its better to have slow and consistent success than start big and then quit

~ Acknowledge when you have a bad day or if something doesn’t go the way you planned. This is life and it often doesn’t go as planned so instead of stressing about what went wrong, learn from it and move on.

~ Give yourself rewards! Reward yourself for hitting those weekly and monthly goals and then plan something really special for when you achieve that big goal! Having something to look forward to can really spur you on.

~ If rewards are not your thing then a reminder of WHY you are doing what you are doing can work just as well. If you want to lose weight write down the reasons why or put a picture somewhere of you that you don’t like as a motivator! Same for decluttering! Take a before picture and write down all the reasons why you want to get organised.

~ To get faster results hire a professional! To lose weight faster hire a personal trainer or nutritionist. To get decluttered and organised faster hire a professional organiser! To ask for help is not admitting defeat, it is showing your strength and commitment to reach that goal!

~ Visualisation is a powerful tool when practiced regularly. Set yourself a couple of minutes per day to sit quietly and visualise yourself achieving that big goal. Believe in yourself and when you believe it you will do it!

~ Remember that if you want something badly enough, the hard work will be worth it. You might not see the results straight away but give it a few weeks and you will notice, a few more and others will too!

Follow these tips and you won’t be one of the 91% who don’t follow through on their resolutions….do the work now so you are where you want to be in the future 💜

Spring/summer organising - here are our top tips for you!

Spring is here! Time for some spring cleaning and organising.

It's easy to get up in the morning and hit the ground running, but by the time you get home, it can be hard to keep things tidy. Instead of letting dirty dishes pile up or clothes pile up or receipts pile up or anything else pile up, take some time to make your space feel more like a home than a hoarder's paradise.

Now, we're not saying that you have to go all Marie Kondo on everything, but if you just have one spot in your house that you need help decluttering, we've got you covered with these tips:

1. Declutter - you honestly cannot start to organise your home unless you make decisions on which items really need to stay. Think about whether you love it, need it and actually use it. If you answer ‘no’ to any of these 3 questions let the item go.

2. Once you have had a good sot out, consider doing a deep clean. Move furniture and get to those areas that don’t usually see the light of day. If cleaning is not your thing you can hire cleaning companies to come and do a one off spring clean! Think how wonderful your home would feel knowing its all been deeply cleaned!

3. Put things where they belong; everything has its place, and once you figure out where that place is and put things there, your life will feel so much calmer. If you are trying to find a place for an item think about where you use it. For example if its a kitchen utensil. where would be the best place to store this so that you can reach it easily when you need to use it.

4. Organise by category. That way you will always know where the batteries or lightbulbs are. If you collect beautifully scented candles but only have a few in use at a time then store the others all together in one place so you can get to them easily when you need them.

5. Take stock of all the stuff you don't use every day and consider giving it to someone who will actually use it; don't just give it away for free—offer an incentive like baked goods in exchange for taking something off your hands, like that big box of unused crayons or a collection of old VHS tapes or DVDs.

6. If a task is too big or overwhelming for you to handle on your own, enlist the help of someone else, whether a friend or family member or a professional like us!

Finally, this may seem strange to hear, but enjoy the process! You are making a positive change for YOU and your home and that is definitely something to be celebrated! So instead of thinking of organising as a chore, think of it as a brand new opportunity and a fresh start for spring.

Visibility is Key

Do you lay t-shirts and jumpers on top of each other so when you are looking for things in a rush they get flung all over the place?  If this sounds familiar you need to learn the simple art of vertical storage! 

This is a game changer! Imagine a world where you can see ALL your items when you open a drawer…no more rifling through, think of it instead of your clothing being ‘filed’, even better if items can be filed by category (t-shirts, jumpers) and also by colour! Light colours to dark colours is very visually appealing and by storing clothes vertically you will easily be able to see where that pink t-shirt is straight away without first discarding the items on the top of the pile.

The same principle can be used in all rooms, if you have a cupboard or drawer that is jam packed with stuff you will only see what is immediately in front of you and even then may miss the thing you are looking for as your brain is distracted by the amounts of items it is trying to process. |f, instead, this is organised in a way where items can be seen then items will be easier to find.

Storing vertically, where possible will give you more visibility of your items. Store taller items at the back and work your way down to smaller items at the front.

Whilst there are great products out there to help with storage (and at The Organising Shop we stock them!) you also don’t need products. Simply put, you just need to see what you have and storing vertically will do this for you.

So, after reading this, have a look at what is in your drawers and cupboards and how things are stored. Do you have visibility? Can you see things at the bottom/back? Is there too much stuff in there? Use the tips above and you will soon be able to see all your items and can think about discarding any you don’t need.

If you find this overwhelming or don’t know how to best organise your space, contact us for a free consultation or pop in store for a chat and lets get you orJANised!