I have read and reread so many organizing books looking for easy tips and tricks to streamline and improve the function of my home. I most certainly am not a naturally organized person and it takes effort every single day to maintain some sense of order in my home.

I was at my in-laws this past Sunday and my mother-in-law noted how she thought reading my blogs was “funny” because of what a huge slob I used to be. O.K., so she didn’t say “huge slob” but she did point out that when I lived with her for those two very long years, I wasn’t exactly a clean and organized person. The truth is that when I moved in with Joe’s family I actually made a huge effort to hide my super slobby ways. Imagine if she had only seen what I lived like before I moved into her home…the horror!

Our tiny home is the inspiration for my organizational pursuit. They say “Necessity is the Mother Of Invention” and it is so very true. My home was bursting at the seams and with more stuff coming in every single week, I had no other choice but to organize the stuff or risk our family drowning in it. Losing stuff all the time; having to spend hours cleaning before company came over; storing items on the floor in a corner because there just was no place to “put it” is all a thing of the past. Even though my home is now fairly organized, there is always room for improvement and I continue to read and learn better ways to make my home more fuctional.

Enter my new book, “How to start a home-based Professional Organizing Business”.  In another one of my many “work from home schemes”, I purchased this book and never got around to reading it.  I picked it up yesterday and found some really helpful information I want to share with you!

I’ll have to break it down in a few posts, but today I wanted to share the first Professional Organizer Tip!

Assess Yourself and Your Home.  I’ve talked about the importance or knowing your organizing style before, but this is such a simple way of finding out what is working and what isn’t. Pick a room in your home and ask yourself these questions:

• I can always find……
• I like the fact that……
• I like using….
• This space works because…..

This is so simple but it really helped me look at my home a little differently. I saw what was working well, like my bins in my closet instead of dresser drawers, and thought about how I could use those same techniques in other areas that weren’t working well. 

Next ask yourself what areas need attention first:

• I can never find….
• I’m tired of……
• I have no place for….
• I don’t like this space because…  

Here is a great example I loved in the book. She had a client who was tired of newpapers being all over the livingroom after her husband was done reading it. The recycling bin was all the way in the garage so he just left a pile by where he read it everyday. The solution? Create a spot by his favourite chair with a basket for the paper to live. You can’t change the husband, but you can solve the problem.

So the first thing a Professional Organizer would do in your home would be to assess what was working and what wasn’t working in each room. Come visit me tomorrow for the next step!