TLC’s Shop- at- Home Method of Organizing
You know you should only keep what you use and love; you’ve read it in every one of your organizing books, but …you CAN’T STAND the waste of parting with useful items that you spent good money on and no one will convince you otherwise. However, you are toying with idea of simplifying and are willing to try it in baby steps.
These tips are to help you organize what you already own and lessen the need to shop for more. The purpose isn’t to create a more comfortable and efficient station for sitting by the phone to order products from TV infomercials or creating a Favorites List of your Top Ten Email Shopping Sites. You probably have enough stuff anyway.
Take the quiz below to determine if you are a good candidate for TLC’s Shop-at-Home Method of Organizing or Baby- Stepping it to Organization.
___You have mega surpluses of useful, practical items….cleaning supplies galore…candles out the— well, you have a lot of candles.
___You love to collect gifts, but can’t find them when you need them.
___You have a years’ worth of home improvement supplies, new in the package.
___Office supplies are overflowing from every drawer in your home.
___You have some cool gadgets which you don’t use, but you know you will someday.
___There isn’t a craft you aren’t prepared to make, as soon as you have time.
___You own things you truly don’t know what they are, but they were good deals.
Checking even one of the above indicates you are a perfect candidate for using a baby-step method of organization. A slow and steady method to organizing your home is the only way to get back in balance – no cold-turkey for you. If, after you’ve thinned out your cabinets, closets, shelves, drawers and most of the visible surfaces in your home, you’ve reduced the quantities to amounts that acknowledge the boundaries of each space and create simplicity of use, and you really, really want to hold on to the remaining useful items, read on:
Categorizeyour Keeps. Set up bins and label with broad categories titles such as Bed Bath and Beyond, Office Depot, Sharper Image, Michaels, etc.( refer to quiz to determine which are appropriate.) Sort your belongings as to where you would go to purchase them.
Sub- sort, as needed. Bins that contain a large variety or high volume of items may need a sub-sort. Further categorize these items into containers by which aisle you would find them: BBB- Storage or Michaels- Scrapbooking.
Make access fun and easy. Select an area of your home that does not interfere with daily activities, an extra dresser in a guest room, a set of shelves in a utility closet, or a wall full of shelves in an unfinished basement. Rename this area The Mall or Festival at _your name here_.
Add good signage. Assign each space (drawer, shelf or set of shelves) a store’s name. Contain the sub-sorted items separately and label those also. If you have several sets of shelves, each unit is a store, each shelf an aisle. You could sub sort those, as well- Office Depot/School Supplies/Writing Supplies.
Shop at home, not from home. Maintain your system by using it. When you run out of something check out your own store first before making a purchase. Should new arrivals come in, get them to their proper location – Store, Aisle, Section.
Consider a clearance sale. Be sure to re-evaluate in a year. Examine how much of your inventory has been used. Ask your self- Do I have more than I’ll use? Have any of the items that you thought you might use, been used? Could any of this go to better use elsewhere?
Share with friends, donate, or sell. Take another step toward organization by parting with what you can. Forgive yourself the spending mistakes you may have made and enjoy knowing that your surplus stock will be used. Then next year, take another step.
Terry founded TLC Home, LLC in 2008 as a Professional Organizer logging hundreds of hours helping individuals get comfortable and functional in their homes. Terry knows how to make a home attractive too! She soon added staging to her services and became an ASP certified Stager in 2012. 
