Get Organized!

In my experience, the orderliness of my bedroom is directly related to the orderliness of my life.  When I feel like I have it together, I'm also generally not tripping over my shoes, and my clean clothes are folded.  This, in turn, helps me feel like my life is together.  But it's hard to get organized and harder to stay organized when you have to put 75-100% of your worldly possessions in a room that is basically a small box.  But fear not!  I, a generally tidy person, am sharing my strategies with you!

 Problem One: We have too much stuff

Almost everyone I know has too much stuff.  Get rid of it all!  I love the idea of going through every single item, one drawer/box/shelf at a time.  I did this over the course of a year and I kept a tally of everything I got rid of.  I set a goal of trashing or donating 100 items, and by the time I was done I had reached 350, and I haven't missed a single one of them.  You can keep track, and count every little thing.  Some of the best things to get rid or are:

Clothes that don't fit you even if they look super hot on your fantasy body that you imagine you will have sometime.  These clothes are bringing you down.  Get rid of them.

Free stuff you accumulated.  Do you really need a Santander hacky sack?  Nope.  

Papers!  I bet a lot of those papers are literal garbage.  The others get their own binder or accordion file.  Piles of paper are not allowed.

Gifts you feel guilty getting rid of.  You can get rid of them.  Free yourself.

Problem Two: We don't have enough stuff.

Talking specifically here about stuff that holds other stuff.  You are a grown person now, and you can't get away with not having a dresser, a closet (may be actual or makeshift, mine is a tension rod) a bed frame, and some sort of shelving.  Here is some advice on getting things cheap/free. An elaborate system of piles might work for somebody in theory but I have never met that person.  

Problem Three: Things we use are buried in things we don't use.

The more often you use something, the easier it should be to access.  For example, there's no reason your summer clothes should be getting in your way when you're trying to get dressed in January.  Put them in a bag or a box and put it on a high shelf, an out of the way alcove, or under your bed.  This is why you get a bed frame, to fill the space under it with out of season clothes, extra sheets, your skis, puzzles you might do sometime, etc.  Nothing that you store under your bed will get in your way or make a mess.  It just sits there quietly until you need it. 

Problem Four: Pinterest is lying to us

The internet is filled with lots of elaborate and great-looking ways to organize your stuff.  Sure they look nice and great.  I would love to have a pantry that looks like a pinterest post, but my "pantry" is a bookshelf and I only have one shelf because I've got four roommates, so lining it with rustic jars filled with various grains is simply not going to suit my lifestyle.  Your organization model is KISS- Keep It Simple, Stupid.  Focus on what is going to work for you as time goes on.

Problem Five: Things don't have a place

You've probably heard the phrase "a place for everything and everything in it's place" and sorry guys, but I'm pretty sure it's true.  I am still working on the part where you keep everything in it's place but hey, we're all works in progress.  After you've gotten rid of extra junk, procured some storage solutions that are realistic for you, and tucked away things you don't use often pay attention to the things that are ending up all over the place and think of a better spot for them.  I always have coats, sweatshirts, and bags strewn about, so I bought a coat rack and I just keep them there.  You could get some whimsical hooks with birds on them!  A box is acceptable for this.  If it works, it works!

Problem Six: Trying to do it all in one go

A sad and very annoying reality of adulthood is that even with a concentrated burst of energy and enthusiasm, you can't just pull your whole life together all in one go.  I suspect we have this I will fix all the things mindset because for most of our lives, school was our main gig, and our big responsibilities, homework and assignments, could be banged out in a furious last minute burst.  In college, you can sit down at your desk with a full pot of coffee and just deal with most of the stuff hanging over your head (personal and emotional stuff excluded, of course.)  The practical matters of our lives now, including getting organized, take time.  You have to try stuff out, see what works, and prevent yourself from burning out.   Pulling everything out of your closet and just going wild until it's perfect is, lets be real, going to end in a pile of stuff being moved from your bed to your floor back to your bed every day for weeks.  Instead, tackle the problem one step at a time, gradually creating a space that works for you.