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Writer's pictureLinda J Harper

The Number 1 Question to Answer before you begin to Declutter or Organise

Updated: Jun 25, 2022



What is your ultimate goal for the area you will be working on?


You have made the decision that you want to live in a less cluttered and more organised way. This in itself is a huge step towards being successful! You will struggle to keep up with any new systems or routines if you have been talked into decluttering and organising by somebody else,however, if you have come to the decision that something needs to be done by yourself then you have a much greater chance of long term success.


Nobody but you really knows when you are ready to make some changes in your life - and there is no doubt that without changing something in your own thinking and behaviours the patterns of cluttering and being disorganised will not change.


In order to keep your space from returning to the cluttered and disorganised room it was before all your hard work you will have to begin to look at creating some new habits. This is a subject I have written about before and will link to those articles here.




But in this DOCC Blog I want to emphasise the importance of having a clear idea of your end goal when you are decluttering and organising.


The first step in the system I use is to make sure you have a clear idea of what you are aiming for. What is your ultimate goal for the area you will be working on?


Until you have this clear idea of your goal it will be hard to keep yourself motivated and to keep moving forward with the project because there is no clear pathway for you to follow. Having a clear idea of your end point is also really useful if you are getting help, either professional or from family and friends because you will all be working towards your ideas and not those of somebody else who might have a completely different idea of how your space should look.


If you are struggling to quantify what it is you actually want to achieve here are a few tools you could use to help you clarify what you like and don’t like:


1. Pinterest



I love pinterest! Pinterest is best looked on as a search engine which gives you visual results. You could search for ‘ kitchen storage’ and these are some of the suggestions you would get:



Click onto any of these suggestions and you will get all sorts of images showing you different solutions for kitchen storage. Create a board and start to save the ideas which resonate most with how you want your space to look. If you have quite definite ideas about what you do and don’t like you can even create a board for pictures which you absolutely don’t want your space ending up like too!!


2. Instagram



Another of my favourite tools for finding spaces which inspire me when I need a bit of a push!

Just searching for kitchen storage gave me over 146000 results!!!



Once you have found a few people who post the type of things you like you can follow them and be constantly inspired!


3. Magazines

If you would prefer not to use the internet, why not create an inspiration page or moodboard from pictures you find in magazines or newspaper supplements?



The purpose of using these tools is for you to be able to find your own style. You will discover that as you look at more images you will get more discerning about the rooms you like, or the type of storage you would prefer to have. You may be inspired by a piece of furniture which is similar to something you already own or even by a colour or pattern.


There is no right or wrong way to do this.


I just encourage you to make sure you have something to aim for when you embark on your own decluttering or organising project for those moments when you look around you and think ‘ I wish I’d never started this!’



You can comment below ↓↓ or look at the end of the blog for all the ways you can contact me privately. I love hearing from you with all your ideas and photos of the areas you are working on!!


If you want to delve deeper into finding a ‘system’ which will work for you, you can contact me via my email lindajharper@yahoo.com or using the chat bubble on my website, I would love to help you!



I am also on Pinterest and Instagram if you need some inspiration! https://www.pinterest.co.uk/adnilenaj1314/boards/


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2件のコメント


increaseyourspace
2022年2月16日

Great tip! Knowing your ultimate goal tells you where you're going, so you know when you've achieved your plan.

いいね!
Linda J Harper
Linda J Harper
2022年2月16日
返信先

Exactly! And if you can actually visualise it, see and imagine how it will feel it will keep you motivated as you work towards your goal! Thank you for commenting, Linda

いいね!
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