Creating lasting order - the 4 step plan that is definitely working!

Aufräumen und Ordnung schaffen

Tidying up and clearing out works best step by step. Start with a small area, for example with a shelf, a chest of drawers or the bathroom. If you have little time or energy, it is enough to only take one drawer a day. Cleaning up is addictive. Once you get going, you will always want to tidy up more.

It could also be useful to get a professional coach for the first 'steps'. There are professional home organizers all over Switzerland. They will help you to make decisions quickly and easily and will also help you to sort out and tidy up. They will give you lots of useful tips and tricks. This will help you get to work faster and save you a lot of time and energy. Once you have got the hang of it, you can easily and confidently continue on your own.

And this is how it works:

1 .clearing out: clear out all items so that the cupboard, drawer or area is completely empty. This way you can see what is there and you will have an overview of your belongings.

2. sorting and grouping: already during the clearing out, you can sort the same things into the same groups. This is important because you can see the number of the same things.

Tip: Ask yourself whether it makes sense to keep a larger number of the same products.

3. cleaning out and sorting out: this is about deciding what you want to keep and what you don't want to keep. For this we use 4 boxes:

  • dispose, give away
  • room change.
  • waste
  • project

4. restructure and put things away correctly: Every object should have a fixed, useful place. Few used items are more likely to be put somewhere higher up. Stuff you need a lot should be immediately at hand and stored near the place where it is used. Tip: It is important that not 100% of the space is used. 80% is a good guideline. If you don't have a lot of space, you can store things you don't use often in a self storage room nearby.

5. finish! We are only really finished when everything is put back in place and the sorted out items are sensibly disposed of, given away or sold. Bestselling author Marie Kondo says that the way you dispose of the items should ideally also make you happy. So if you still have beautiful, valuable items, you should definitely consider selling them on Tutti, Ricardo, Facebook and Co or you can ask for a good charity to which you can donate the items. If you don't have space at home, I recommend the storage rooms of placeB as a temporary storage.

Martina Domeniconi is a professional home organizers and helps individuals and families to tidy up and create order. www.organize-my-space.ch