Adding Intention To S.P.A.C.E.

I’m going to let you in on a core principle of professional organizing, that I believe to be the key to pretty much any organizing project. It originates from the professional organizer’s bible, Julie Morgenstern’s “Organizing From The Inside Out”. It states that for every organizing project, there are 5 steps that need to be taken:

Sort

Purge

Assign a Home

Containerize

Equalize

When I first read about this system, it blew my mind. So brilliant! But after working with clients, I have personally adapted it a little bit, to refocus it on being intentional and mindful about the organizing process. My updated version of the steps taken are:

Sort

Process

Assess

Containerize + Label! 

Edit 

I still start with sort, because I do think that looking at like items with other like items makes the most sense when trying to consider what you want to keep in your life. So we begin with a sort; I’ll use a closet as an example throughout this explanation. We sort sweaters with sweaters, pants with pants, etc. Then, for each category, we move to the next step - process.

I have changed “purge” to process in order to be more mindful and intentional about where the things we let go of end up. “Purge” just means to get rid of; it doesn’t really matter how. When we process, we’re considering not just whether to keep something, but where it should go - making sure we’re recycling, donating to the right places, choosing to reuse something for another purpose, etc. Using the closet example, we decided what clothes will need to go, and then we think about the best options about where those clothes end up - Goodwill, a women’s shelter, or for worn out garments, textile recycling instead of the trash. 

The most important change, in my eyes, is the change from “assign a home” to assess. Assessing your items means taking a moment after processing to check in with how you feel about what you’re doing. For your closet, it’s asking yourself “Is this the right amount of sweaters for me to own?”, “How is letting go of these things making me feel?”, “Do I want this category to take up the space it needs?” It also means taking a moment to think about how you will interact with this category in your daily life - what sort of system might you need to set up for maintaining it? Using the closet example, it means if you’re managing sweaters, how will the sweaters be kept safe from damage? Are you going to refold sweaters after wearing them once and put them back, or do you need a system for clothing that is being reworn? Do you have a place for items that need to be dry-cleaned? What about items that become worn out/grown out of? It’s going beyond “these sweaters have a home on this shelf” to “this is how I interact with and care for my sweaters.” This helps us create organizational change, and think about how we will maintain this organization and home of these items. 

Changing “Assign a Home” to assess sort of draws in the containerize process, but I still think it’s an important step, with the small addition of labeling. I encourage you, when you containerize, to consider the system you decided upon in the assess stage. When you do, containers might naturally come to mind, but make sure you think about how the systems work when selecting a container. And container doesn’t just mean clear plastic bins; it means shelves, it means hooks, it means anything that can hold whatever it is you’re trying to create a home for. I also highly recommend labeling to the point of silliness - look for a future blog on my love of labeling!

Finally, I changed “equalize” to edit. Now, if you read “Organizing From The Inside Out”, you’ll understand that “equalize” is supposed to be an all encompassing word of editing down items further and tweaking the system. For me, it’s a little too vague for when I’m trying to teach this system to my clients, so I prefer the simpler word of edit. I strongly believe that you aren’t ever  finished organizing and never need to touch things again. We are always acquiring new items, growing out of things, and our minds are always changing and evolving, and so our needs and intentions change. Therefore, at the end of this process, we need to set a time and intention to come back to every category and system and edit. Using the closet example one last time, clothing will wear out. Our tastes and size may change. Editing must happen, and we should be intentional and plan for it. Depending on the category and system, that might mean doing an edit every quarter, year, or even 5 years. But I recommend that as you finish a category or space, you put on your calendar a reminder to go back and consider the system and items again. It shouldn’t take nearly as long, but it will help your systems, and life, run smoothly.