Acrilyc Bins Aren’t Your Best Organizing Tool
Ahhh, the bins. Piles and piles of bins. Plastic, wicker, bamboo — but the ones that the “big” organizers love are those acrylic bins. Clear bins of wonder so you can see everything you have, and how it’s in just the right spot!
However, acrylic bins can only go so far. If they aren’t your magical tool, what is?
How do I know all of this? Hi, I’m Hilary — I’m the curly head behind the website Pulling Curls.
I aim to help families let their house support them, rather than supporting their house. By having systems and tools in place you can make your house work for you. Remember, you own the stuff, don’t let it own you! Come join me in The Organized Home where we give you the life you want, supported by great organization!
(THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS REALLY BORING, BUT YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.)
Your Best Tool in Organizing
If it’s not bin — what on earth could help us organize?
The sad news, my friends, is that I swear those fun organizing shows almost always skip over this part. You want to know why — it’s super boring. It’s decision, after decision, after decision. There is absolutely nothing glamorous about this part, but like most real hard working tools in your tool belt, you can get past the prickly exterior and use it for good!
You guessed it, your best organizational tool is decluttering.
In fact, I’d go beyond saying decluttering. I’d say paring down to what actually fits.
That means useful things may need to go. I am the first to say that when I lived in a 1200 square foot house with 3 kids, I couldn’t keep as much as I can in a house twice as large. However, in both houses I was able to keep the items that were absolutely necessary.
Related: How To Clean If You’re Paralyzed By The Mess
Three Tips in Decluttering
Decluttering has a whole lot of things behind it — but today I want to share three of my favorite tips to pare down to just what you need in the space you’re set to organize.
- Take everything out — if you remove everything from the area, not only will be able to dust it out, but you’re already halfway there to things that don’t belong there finding a new home!
- Zone it — I use zones to really help my decluttering. I like to make each spot contain just what needs to be there. That eliminates the batteries and shoelaces that somehow find their home several places around my house. They have their own homes. They need to live there.
- Remember it’s your BEST tool! When you think a system isn’t working 90% of the time you aren’t doing decluttering hard enough. You have too much there. Be honest, and remove more.
Now, there is a chance that the things you’re removing will have a spot elsewhere (like my batteries) but sometimes it just needs to go away.
What to do with your decluttered items:
- See if a friend can use it
- Save it for a garage sale (but have a date set for the garage sale and stick to it)
- Sell it online (within the week)
- Throw it away
- Send it to Goodwill
- Recycle it
This isn’t to say that this job is easy. Decluttering can be so hard:
Why it’s hard to declutter:
Decision Fatigue
Making choice after choice after choice is HARD. Our brains don’t like that. They much prefer the auto-pilot choice of just shoving it back into the spot.
Confronting bad decisions
Sometimes you have to realize that there were things you bought that were a poor choice, and that doesn’t feel good.
The good news is that a LOT of people make poor choices like this, you’re not alone. And, when you confront those choices it helps you to make better choices in the future. Let the item, and the guilt go. It’s best for both of you.
Physical Work
It can just be hard work! The process of pulling things out, and sorting through it can just be a physically taxing process. I like to use a card table or something to put items on, so that I’m not forced to bend down to the floor every time I make a choice — for look for things like that to make it easier for you too!
Do you think you could use a little help in organizing your home?
I have a home organization course that is set up to do just that.
We will:
- Set-up plans for zones that will help you create boundaries for what should go in each room
- Give you common pitfalls for decluttering each room
- Share some of the best organization systems that I have found for each room, to inspire you to set up systems to work in your own house.
- Assignments and sometimes challenges to get going, and keep yourself accountable to really make a change.
Now is the time to make a change in your house. I have found no greater solace then having a house that supports me when times are crazy instead of having my house be an even larger burden on me. I hope you’ll join me in The Organized Home!
