by Martha Tobin
Once you know the volume of the items you are keeping, then you can more effectively determine where those items will ‘live’ in your home and what organizational systems you’ll need for that volume (ie. small bin or large, easy to grab basket with handles for your tech items, drawer dividers for your junk drawer, or shelf riser for items in your kitchen cabinets, etc.).
Decluttering before you organize is going to open up more space in any room and allow you to really see where organizational tools can be of assistance (i.e. is there room for that basket on a shelf, will a drawer organizer hold all the items you want to keep in your junk drawer, etc.).
If you find that you still have too many items for the organizational tools you have picked up, consider doing a second purge and perhaps with those items you don’t use as often you can store them in another area.
Decluttering also gives you the opportunity to pull items out of their current spaces and give that space a good clean before putting the items you want to keep back.
Decluttering and organizing go hand-in-hand and when done right, ensures that those spaces that you have worked on stay organized and maintainable.