Moving In Checklist

Congratulations on finding your new residence! Now comes the fun part; making it your home. Before unloading all of your boxes make a quick trip to the store and get: cleaning supplies, dish soap, laundry supplies, a broom, a mop/Swiffer, a vacuum, hand soap, toilet paper, paper towels, some flowers, and a treat for yourself. Take this opportunity to clean the floors, doors, windows, drawers, and shelves/closets before you put all your stuff away.

You can tackle the next step one of two ways: distributing the boxes to their rooms or filling one room with all the boxes. If you've labeled all of your boxes take them straight from the vehicle to the room they will go in. If you havent labeled all of your boxes, drop them all off in the living room.

After all of your boxes are unloaded open them all! Every single one. This will prevent not being able to find something and therefore buying things we don't need. Moving is expensive enough! After you open a box, take everything out of it and pick one place to put your boxes. Go ahead and break them down so you don't accumulate a pile of cardboard. You can take a picture and post them on Facebook marketplace or craigslist and guaranteed someone will come pick them up shortly.

Now that the boxes are out of the way, start putting like items away. Start a list of small items you notice need like a paper towel holder, a utensil organizer, hangers, a shoe rack, a basket for towels, etc. If you don't know where something goes yet, try to group it with similar items and after grouping all the items consider if you would like a piece of furniture to house them, a basket or a shelf and add this to your list. When you start putting things away, really consider where you will need them. You may reshuffle things a few times but that's okay!

Don't know where to start? First, put your flowers on full display-nothing says welcome home like a fresh bouque Put your kitchen items away so you can eat-youll be hungry soon(thank goodness you got yourself a treat)! Then put your bathroom/shower items away because you're going to feel like you need a shower. Next, make your bed because you'll be tired tonight!

The first day is a big day so you probably won't get everything done in one day unless you have help. If you use anything that hasn't been put away yet, put it in its new place immediately after using it. You'll have all your things in their new place in no time.

Enjoy your home!

Clear Cluttered Drawers

We've all been there; cramming an item back in a drawer and slamming it shut before everything falls out. Typically, we only use the things on the top of our clutter because that's what we can see and that's what we have access to. We've all bought an item knowing we have one at home, we just can't find it. It's at the bottom of that cluttered drawer. We frustratingly paw through saying “I know I have one here”. Luckily for you, there is another way! It won't take nearly as long as you think it will and everyone can do it.

Dump the drawer on the floor. Yes, that's right. Dump the drawer upside down and get everything out on the floor. Now, remain calm. Spread everything out. Refrain from grabbing the item you've been looking for and throwing everything back in. Take everything that you know if trash and go put it in the trash. Next, check expiration dates and toss expired items. Now, take everything you want to keep in that drawer and place it on the counter. This is your opportunity to give it a good cleaning! Of your remaining items, decide if they should go somewhere else or if you'd like to sell, donate, or toss them. If you have a product you know doesn't work for you, don't hang on to it out of guilt for how much you paid, pass it along to a friend!

If the items you've decided to keep are scattered across categories, see if you can group them or maybe remove a category and put it in a different place. For example, if you have hair products, hair tools like blow-dryers and straighteners, skincare products, and makeup all together this can be too jumbled. See if you can relocate one or two of these categories so your drawer is more clearly defined. If youre able to further separate items into bins or boxes, great, and if not, that's fine too! Now when you get ready you'll be able to notice how much more relaxed you are and maybe even more punctual. Digging through drawers takes more time and energy than you think it does. Enjoy your clean and organized drawer!

How To Create Categories

A huge part of getting organized is creating categories. To create a category, you must understand the categories in your life. What do you do frequently? What do you accumulate based on your interests? For example, let’s start with coffee. If you are someone that enjoys coffee in the morning, this is a great category to start with.

Gather all of your items related to your morning coffee: cups, coffee maker, coffee beans, k-cups, filters, etc. Now, select a designated area for all of these items to be stored in. This keeps your category together rather than spread throughout your kitchen which helps with feeling organized. If you can’t find a designated space for all of these items to live within arms reach of each other, create one! Check out our instagram for an easy to follow coffee station creation for every budget.

Once you have your location set for all of the items in your category, the fun part can begin; decorating! Find baskets to place like items in, maybe a fun sign that declares what this space is for, placemats to put underneath your baskets, whatever makes you happy and feel ownership of this category. Place all of your coffee beans in fun jars or find a cute basket for your k-cups. Make sure everything is functional and the items you need easy access to are not blocked. Place your favorite coffee cups front and center, really make the space your own and show off your prized items.

Now that you have one category down, start to think about your daily life and what other categories you may have. Do you have pets? Now you can repeat the process for all of your pet items. Pretty soon, you will have a functional space for every category in your life. This process will also help you understand what you interact with and what fills your day. You’ll begin to understand yourself better through categorizing your items.

Psychology of Organizing

Organizing makes us feel good, we know this; but why? I believe that organizing is tied to our neurological process called “pruning”. Pruning is the process by which our brain clips off pathways to retrieving information we don’t use. The more we use information, the faster our mind can access the pathway that it is stored with. The less we use information, the less our mind attempts to maintain the pathway to that information. Think of a nature trail: the more a trail is used, the wider and easier it is to travel. The trail that is used infrequently starts to become overgrown and you have to push your way through the trail. Eventually, the trail becomes completely overgrown and is no longer able to be used. In our mind, each trail ends with information. Our minds are constantly evolving according to the information we use.

I believe that if we do not update our environment to match where our minds are that we actually hold ourselves back, to an outdated version of ourselves. Visually seeing something strengthens a pathway. Subconsciously, everything in our environment is tied to something. If we look at a photo that reminds us of a sad memory, we strengthen that memory and everything that goes along with it. If we switch that photo out for a photo of a happy memory or something aspirational, we are strengthening that pathway in our mind. Set yourself up for success by aligning you environment with the best version of yourself.

Look around your room. Check in with yourself and how you feel while in your room. Now, begin to think of how you would like to feel while in your room. Begin to identify objects that do not align with how you would like to feel. You’ve begun the process of organizing. Organizing allows us to go through our items and actively choose if we would like to keep them, how we would like to display them, or if they do not serve our purpose, we have the power to replace them with something ideal for our needs. This, I believe, is why organizing makes us feel better. Your environment is powerful and so are you. Ensure that your environment fuels your power and does not drain it.

Let Go

The phrase “let go” strikes fear in the heart of many individuals but when reason and process is addressed, it becomes less scary, and eventually, very easy. Now that you have asked yourself who you want to be, the process of letting go is stitched in to the process of cultivating yourself to your ideal self.

Start wherever you want. Find something in your environment that reflects an old version of yourself, someone you don’t currently align with, something that does not hold a positive memory, and put it in a bag. Be active in your environment and actively choose the things you want to keep. We don’t need something passively hanging around for a random reason. We want things that we have chosen and said yes, I want this in my life. Many people have an article of clothing that they haven’t worn-it’s not ugly, it might fit if you put it on, but now you may look at it and realize you haven’t worn it because it doesn’t reflect you. It’s not who you are or who you want to be. Let it go.

As your bag of things from your environment begins to fill, look in it and reflect on any theme you see. What kind of person belongs with these items? Take the bag to a donation center. Come home, and notice is your closet brighter? darker? do you have space on a shelf or in a drawer? Take a moment to appreciate this. Appreciate the change or the space and then you may begin to consider what you would like in that space. Consider what you would like to display, what you would like to see regularly. If you found something that made you light up when you saw it, go back to it and set it on a shelf where you have space or hang it in the front of your closet. Display the things that most reflect who you are, who you are becoming, things that make you happy. Let the items you have chosen cheer you on. Letting go has gifted you this feeling and it is worth so much more than the items you were hanging on to.

Cultivate a Lifestyle

“Does my lifestyle reflect the person I want to be?” Is a question most people do not ask themselves. Most people don’t even ask themselves who they want to be. Living day to day without questioning whether we are aligned with our true selves can be a slippery slope; one day you wake up and realize you are massively unhappy. But this didn’t happen “one day”, this happened one day after another, small pieces at a time, over many years. If you take just one step in the wrong direction each day, at the end of the month you may not notice much, but after a few months or a year, you look around and notice you have walked yourself into a realm you didn’t necessarily ask to be in-it feels like you just fell in, over your head, and now you say “how did I get here?”

So, who do you want to be? Ask yourself what your ideal self looks like. What do you dress like? What do you do with your spare time? What do people say about you? Now, look around you. What in your environment does not reflect that ideal self? Look through your texts-are you engaging with people the way your ideal self would be? Look in the mirror and ask if you have presented yourself as your ideal self would be presented. Do this with every aspect of your life: friends, family, finances, hobbies, education, career, etc. This may be a lot to take in all at once but it doesn’t change all at once; it changes one step at a time, one day at a time. Take initiative on one thing today.

Once you start removing the things around you that don’t reflect the person that you want to be, you can start adding in the things that do reflect who you aspire to become. This will take many adjustments. You may initially envision yourself decked out in flowy Earth tones and becoming more calm and accepting, only to find that this is not your nature and when you wear Earth tones you don’t stand out enough. Simply readjust-finding yourself is a journey, allow yourself to see it through. You are worth discovering the treasure at the end. In a few months, stop and look around you-you’ve created your lifestyle.

Why Organize?

When most people hear about organizing, they aren’t quite sure what it is. It seems unfamiliar to invest extra time into the space around you when time is so limited as it is. Ask yourself: How much time do I spend looking for ___? How often do I get frustrated with clutter? Does my space reflect my interests/goals/values? Enter organizing-it looks different for everyone because everyone has different needs based on the questions above.

Organizing is simply intended to make your life more efficient so you can spend your time on the things that matter. Little frustrations add up throughout the day to cultivate your mood, your demeanor. To have something like counterspace influence the way you interact with the world around you is simply not acceptable. Oftentimes, we exist in our space and expect it only to shelter us leaving a missed opportunity to have our environment help shape our goals and strengthen our identity.

It may seem like a tall order but our brain picks up on cues from the things we frequently see. If you have a shirt that is tied to a bad memory and you see that shirt three times a day you are strengthening your bad memory. Make peace with the memory, honor the shirt for what it is and let it go; Let the memory go and allow yourself the space to move on. If you have a goal to do something social once per week, print a photo of yourself and friends or find a picture you like of people being social. Every time you see that picture in your living room, it will prompt you to seek out something social, text a friend, or make plans. Without you having to make a major change, you have just influenced your life trajectory by simply placing a photo out that reflects the person you want to become. You are in control of your life-it doesn’t have to just happen around you, dragging you in whatever direction it goes in. You can steer the direction of your life.