How to take the first steps:

1-13-2010

How do you tackle such a monstrous project such as changing your whole life? Throwing out everything you know and reprogramming your brain to live an "organized, decluttered life"? You can, you just need to know how.

Goals

Goals are a must have in your conquest to become organized. Seeing the fruits of your labor is extremely motivating. Try to set a new goal every week. Do NOT set goals such as "organize my whole house" or even "declutter my whole kitchen". They are to much.

You need to start small. "Clean the refrigerator", "organize drawers", "declutter the top of the refrigerator", "go thru bedroom closet". These are all good goals because you will achieve them. If you set a goal to high, you will get frustrated by the time you are done (if you finish at all). I am not saying to stop once a goal is reached. Set new goals. Trust me when I say it is contagious.

Think of a goal as a step of a stairway. If you take it one step at a time, you will get to the top of the stairway. I try to use smaller goals to reach a bigger one. For instance I wanted my kitchen decluttered and organized. Here were my gaols in order I completed them:

1. Organize inside the refrigerator.
2. Get rid of the clutter on top of the fridge
3. Clean out under the sink
4. Clean out dry storage are of expired items
5. Declutter the drawers (if you have a kitchen junk drawer as I do, might want to make this a separate goal)
6. Organize top of cabinets
7. Stack all my pots and pans from biggest to smallest
8. Lastly I dusted, swept and mopped

My kitchen is clean. I did this over a weekend. To some people, taking 2 days to clean a kitchen might seem like a long time, but I went years without ever organizing and decluttering my kitchen. Now i can get it clean in minutes!

Last Note: HISTORY

I always make sure to keep a written account of my goals. I use a date book to keep track of completed goals. It is extremely motivating to be able to see all I have accomplished over the last year. Also, and this is big for me, Take pictures! Keep a photo album just for you so you can see what you have completed and how far you have came.