SUDDEN ORGANIZATION TRANSFORMATION

While most people dread organizing their garages and storage closets, I look forward to tackling these spaces! But while still experiencing fatigue on and off, I’ve had to put off many organizing projects. So, I was super happy when my attempt to get to my rebounder (mini-trampoline) turned into an organization transformation because I was having a great day, energy-wise! If you missed my day six blog of my 60-day healthy habit challenge, you can check it out here for the back story.

So, you know from the back story that most of this stuff isn’t mine as a relative needed to store some items. Her items were then brought over and placed in the garage and this Harry Potter closet. Prior to her stuff being brought over, we had a garage sale to purge the last of the items my daughter was selling in an attempt to raise funds for a school trip. You can see that post and the garage tour here. That way, you can have a clearer picture of the garage setup.

As I stated in my day six healthy habit blog post, I didn’t pull out my camera as I wasn’t expecting this to become a full on organization transformation and so I didn’t film this process. I did, however, take a few pics on my phone. No, they aren’t the best pics but I also did not want to take close ups of the items as they are not mine. I wanted to share the depiction of the clutter, piles, and end result, however, and I believe the pictures do depict this process:

I was able to capture the before, halfway-through, and after pics of the storage closet. In the midst of this small area being organized, the piles removed led to full on organization transformation of the garage being organized and eventually the coat closet. If you follow me on Instagram, you may know that I started the hashtag #pilesbeforesmiles. “Piles before smiles” is a repeated phrase in my book. Creating piles is an essential part of the organizing process. It is also the part that gets people the most overwhelmed and makes them want to quit! They think that they are doing nothing but making a bigger mess and so they just shove everything back into their spaces. It’s supposed to get worse before it gets better!

You can’t organize your items unless you pull them out of the darkness and into the light. You have to see what you have and you have to purge, categorize, and prioritize.

I have these three sorting stages (or pile-making stages, yes … there are three) on my 7-step mini-guide which you can grab for free here. If you struggle with getting through the organizing process, focusing on my 7 steps will help you breeze right through. So, here are just a few of the resulting piles after clearing out this small storage closet:

Now, because this wasn’t my stuff, I, of course did not purge our relative’s items. I simply made them accessible for her in the garage where she had brought most of her things. She had said that she did want to go ahead and get rid of most of her things so she will either have a garage sale or just donate her unwanted items. On Sunday’s blog post, I dropped off donations but they weren’t my relative’s items. They were personal donations I cleared from these garage shelves in order to make space for our relative’s items. Whatever she does keep, depending on how much stuff is remaining, we may store it in the storage closet or garage. The storage closet extends to the left under the stairs where we store a Christmas tree, a bin of Christmas tree ornaments, and a large electric roaster used for turkeys during the holidays. If she needs to store just a few items for a longer period of time, we can place them in the storage closet. Here is a halfway-through progress pic and an after pic of the garage shelves:

Again, I didn’t want to take close up pics as this was not my stuff. But, midway through, I cleared our personal donation items from the shelves and then placed our relative’s items in general categories on the shelves. Besides the paper towels, toilet paper, and the dish pan that we use as a mop bucket, the general categories of items on the shelves include appliances on the top shelves, any existing bins or baskets filled with different items (that I did not dig into) were placed one on each shelf, and softer items were placed in large Ikea bags on the shelves. The larger items that didn’t fit on the shelves were placed against the wall (the large tote, small ottoman, clothing rack, lamp, and vacuum box).

The futon mattress (which can be seen in the ‘halfway-through’ progress pic of the storage closet) was placed in the coat closet as it fit perfectly in there. I will share the coat closet in a future organizing session post when I organize my camera equipment and organizing supplies.

My goal is to clear the garage shelves and eventually store organizing products in bulk in the hopes that I could utilize the supplies to organize other people’s spaces in the future. With my unpredictable health, this has been a far off hope for a while. But, that possibility has become a much closer reality than I expected after experiencing amazing progress with my healthy habit challenge. For now, clearing out the shelves ended up being an opportunity for our relative to be able to store her things. We have another area where I can organize my organizing supplies for now which I can’t wait to reorganize and share.

Meanwhile, here is the awesome organization transformation of my goal to simply have access to my rebounder. Not only do I have easy access to my rebounder, but now, I have easy access again to my sewing machine and supplies and memorabilia boxes which are at the rear of the storage closet. And the bonus is that I have my daughter’s art supplies organized and accessible again as well!

Do you feel overwhelmed by your garage and storage areas? I hope you can see now through this organization transformation that these spaces really don’t have to be so daunting! Understanding the organizing process makes THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE in getting through it and completing an organizing project. Are you ready to get your spaces in order and take control of your financial future? Start here for access to Terry Elisabeth’s Freebie Library! That way, you can stay focused to get through the organizing process and breeze right through it. Your spaces will be organized in a lot less time (minutes to hours) than you dreaded (months to years)!

Happy Organizing!