Living Room
Book Shelves
Choose a shelf, set a timer, and do what you can in that amount of time. Sort into piles as you go. It's ok to leave piles to go through more thoroughly in another 15-minute session (I often do this with papers that need to be sorted). At the end of the 15 minutes, put the piles in the appropriate places and allow yourself to be done until your next 15 minute session.
- Go through any totes/storage on the shelves.
- Go through books.
- Go through decorations on shelves
Remember to go back to the "sort later" areas and get them started.
First 15-Minute Session
Does one 15-minute session really make a difference? Check out the progression of each 15-minute session below.
This picture shows the starting point for these bookshelves. For my first 15-minute session, I chose to focus on the shelf on the right.
I used my sorting labels and decided what category each item goes into. This was contents from one of the brown baskets and one of the totes. (with exception of my paper box that I continually add to of papers to sort through later).
Second 15-Minute Session
I wanted to share this session because, as you can see in the before/after pics, visibly it isn't a huge difference. However, when you look at my piles on the floor, you can see that there was a lot of sorting and organizing that happened during this session.
Here's the starting picture, very much the same as the "after" pic from the first 15-minute session.
This is all that I had in that one bin (with exception of the paper and trash boxes that I'm using each time). There were lots of little pieces and sorting to be done. So that's where my focus was.
The end picture shows a few little changes to tidy up the open shelves, otherwise it was an "invisible" change. But, that's ok! The point is that I made progress and did some organizing as I sorted. And that's the main idea of these 15-minute sessions.
Things To Do When You Feel Stuck
What happens when you are feeling stuck & don't know what to do next?
- If it's a mind block, try doing the 60 second reset.
- Grab a Tidy-Up Card and choose something off of it.
- Take a moment to stand back and look at the space. Then choose an area that is less overwhelming.
- Reward yourself when you complete the task.
- Jot downs pros/cons to finishing vs not.
Entertainment Center
The first thing to do is to dust and get rid of anything that doesn't belong in this area. Now you can focus on going through everything that stays.
- Check electronics to make sure they work. Make sure every cord is needed. Remove those that do not belong to any devices.
- Go through movies. Get rid of any you no longer want.
- Go through CDs, records, tapes. Get rid of any you no longer want.
- Go through games (if these are in a different area, you can skip this for now or use it to get a jump start on that area of your home).
One 15-Minute Session
In this first session I just focused on dusting and getting rid of anything that didn't belong in this area.
After picture. The wires were taken care of. I removed a few items that didn't belong. I also added a box (that will be covered nicely in the future) to hold some of the gaming controls.
Other Areas
It's time to tackle other areas of the living room:
Coffee/end table (especially if they have storage spaces)
Other storage areas (decorative baskets, hutch, cabinets, etc)
Paper Clutter (maybe some of your "sort later" piles)
Maybe even the couch or any other "catch all" place you have.
One 15-Minute Session
I cleaned out a few of the baskets, did some rearranging, and went through a drawer...all in 15 minutes! But look at the difference it made!!
Time To Organize
It's time to organize what is staying in the room. If you haven't already, now is a great time to take this quiz: https://clutterbug.me/what-clutterbug-are-you-test
I'd love to know what you are, so please email/text me and let me know! This will help me to help you better if you get stuck along the way.
