It’s the new year and this month is full of goals and words of the year and decluttering. It’s a time when we want a fresh start and a clean slate. There are a million ways to edit a room and today I’m sharing one of them. Use what makes sense to you and let the rest go. Here is one way to Edit Any Space.
Edit Any Space
1. Choose the space, drawer, or room to edit.
If this is the beginning of your simplifying journey, start small. Begin with a drawer in the bathroom or your purse. If you’ve been simplifying for awhile, go with the whole bathroom or corner of the living room. And if you’re wanting to go all in, choose an entire room to edit. Think through which space is either driving you bananas or will give you the most bang for your buck. Commit to staying the course and editing this space before moving on to anything else.
2. Gather supplies.
You will need supplies to edit. Grab three boxes and one grocery sack. Label the boxes: Donations/Gifts, Sell, Don’t Belong. Also, grab some headphones and find a good simplifying podcast to listen to while you edit. I love Minimalist Moms Podcast, The Minimalists, or Clutterbug Podcast.
3. Motivate yourself.
Dangle a carrot for yourself at the end of this edit. Treat yourself to coffee or a walk around the block sans kids. Or maybe it’s a long bath or watching This is Us when you’ve completed your edit. We all like a little reward at the end of our hard work.
If you are struggling with motivation, think about setting a timer for 10 minutes and working for that amount of time and then giving yourself grace to take a break or keep going, depending on how you feel.
4. Do a trash walk through.
Take 5 minutes or less and remove any obvious trash and put in the plastic grocery sack. Wrappers, empty La Croix cans, used Kleenex (my kids drive me crazy with this). Do a quick sweep of the space you are editing and get rid of the trash.
5. Ask the Questions.
You have the choice to either remove everything from the space (except the furniture) or keep your stuff right where it is and edit. Removing everything from the space seems to be more effective, but do what works for you.
There will be items that don’t belong in the space. Place these in the Don’t Belong box and put away later.
For every other item, ask these questions: Do I love it? Is it useful or beautiful? Have I used it in the last 90 days or will I use it in the next 90 days? If the answer is yes, the item stays, and if not, it’s time to let it go.
If the item is no longer serving you and it’s time to let it go, decide quickly if you want to take time to sell it or if you will donate or give it away. Put it in the designated box.
6. Organize what’s left.
After you have edited out the things no longer serving you, it’s time to organize what’s left. Everything in the space, drawer, or room should have a place to live.
Before you run off to The Container Store to buy some cutesy stuff to put your stuff in, sort and organize first. This will help you decide what you need or if you need anything at all.
Quick Edit Organization
If you kept everything in it’s place, now is the time to rethink where your stuff lives. Ask yourself: Does where my stuff live serve me and my family? If you’re always having to reach around the rarely played with board games to get the remote, it probably needs a new home. If you’re having to dig through your utensil drawer to find the wooden spoon you always use, it’s time to put it in an easy to grab place. Rethink where your stuff lives and if moving things around would make things more accessible to you and your family.
Remove Everything Organization
If you removed everything, now is the time to sort. Sort items and put like things together: books with books, toys with toys, kitchen utensils with kitchen utensils, etc. You can either make piles or use small containers or boxes to group like items together. After you have items grouped, it’s time to put them back in the space. Make sure where you place things will serve you and your family. And if the stuff doesn’t fit in the place you want it to, it means you need to let some more go.
7. Make it pretty.
Some of us like a pretty esthetic, some of us could care less, and some of us land in-between. Decide if you care enough to have cutesy, matching baskets for the space. It might depend on whether you see it on the daily. If it’s a corner in your living room, you might want to make it esthetically pleasing. If it’s your bathroom drawers, dollar store baskets might be just fine.
Shop your house to find bins or baskets you could use in the space. If you aren’t finding the things you need, give yourself permission to gather the specific items because you have done the work and know exactly what you need.
8. Donate, Gift, Sell.
You have a box of things to donate, gift to people, or sell. Get the donated and gifted items out of your home as soon as possible. Sell items on Facebook Marketplace or a local swap page. Give yourself an amount of time to sell an item. For example, if my items doesn’t sell in 30 days, I will donate it.
9. Reward yourself.
Take the bath, go for the walk, watch This is Us, grab a coffee. Reward yourself for a job well done and for sticking it through to the end. Good work, friend!
There are a million ways to edit a space and this is just one of them. Take what works for you and leave the rest. Tell me: what space have you been wanting to edit?