I’ve written a fair amount about organizing on this blog already. You can find a few of those posts HERE and HERE. Today however, we’re going to talk about organizing for happiness.

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Do you feel better in a clean and uncluttered space? Sure you do! When everything in our home, office, or car has its own place life just feels better.

Stop and think about how much stress in your life is actually created by clutter or poor organizational habits. Disorganized spaces can actually put stress on both the body and mind. Our bodies hurt when we trip over a misplaced shoe or step on a Lego (ouch!). Our minds hurt when we can’t find what we are looking for or we try to concentrate on something but the chaos around us is too distracting. Taking a little time to organize and declutter can lift a great weight.

If you feel like it’s time for an organization overhaul, my advice is to declutter first. Try not to organize things that really just need to get out of your house!

Clear The Clutter

Take a good look around and find things that you really don’t need. Try doing this room by room (or area by area if you’re organizing an office or car). Try not to touch the items too much. Holding items makes us remember why we were hanging onto them in the first place. If you’re not using it right now however, there is no need to keep it. Try to work fast and trust your first instinct. If you think about it for too long you will find a “reason” why you need to hang onto it.

RELATED POST: Earn Amazon Gift Card by Decluttering You House

Organizing for Happiness

Our challenge for today:

Choose one area that we want to clean and organize and get started on it TODAY. You may not have time to do a full-fledged purge today but you can at least start to envision what your clean and organized space should look like. You can also set a goal to get rid of 5 things from this particular space right now.

Then, choose five more areas you want to clean and organize this month. Here are some ideas:

• Kitchen cabinets
• Pantry
• Laundry Room
• Kids Toys
• Paperwork
• Refrigerator
• Desk Drawers
• Makeup Storage
• Garage
• Basement

Now I’m no minimalist. Not in any way, shape, or form. In fact my house looks a bit like a museum. Hubby and I are into collecting antiques and weird objects- it’s a bit of a macabre menagerie around here if I’m being honest. Minimalism is not our thing.

Even though we don’t live a minimalist lifestyle, we appreciate the form and function of minimalism and adopt organizations techniques to fit our lifestyle.

My house may look like a cluttered nightmare to some, but everything has it’s place.

I’ve also gotten rid of everything we don’t use or cherish. For example I recently donated all of my cookbooks to Goodwill. I don’t need them anymore- that’s what Pinterest is for! Same with my CD collection and a lot of my paperback books. I can get all of those things digitally now and don’t have to use my precious space for storing them.

Essentially having a clean and organized home allows my brain to relax and concentrate on things that are important, instead of feeling scrambled because I’m frantically searching for something I can’t find.

I’m kinda like a “binge” organizer. I go on organizing kicks and get everything in order and then let them sit for awhile. That works for me but you may be different. You may need to do a little bit of organizing everyday.

Do what works for you. Push yourself but don’t try to remake yourself. If you try to remake the person that you naturally are, your chances of success are lower.

So what are you going to tackle today? Me? I’m finally getting rid of the double stroller and jogging strollers I’ve been storing in my basement. I was saving them “just in case” but it’s time for them to go. If I do have another kid there will be plenty of other moms out there clearing out their basements. I’m sure I’ll find a good deal. 🙂