A while ago I read an article linked in my GNI newsletter that talked about the benefits of micro-organizing. While I can’t find that specific newsletter or that specific article now I can tell you that I’ve tried it and I’m a huge fan. As we head into spring odds are that you’re either gearing up to do some spring cleaning, avoiding spring cleaning, or feeling a little guilty about not thinking about spring cleaning. Maybe this idea will help–especially if you’re in the latter two categories.
I seriously don’t like cleaning. I think it just feels boring or tedious to me. I do, however, love having a clean and organized space and would love to be the kind of person who always keeps her home spotless. Unfortunately that is not my reality. So I’ve been trying to find ways to make cleaning more tolerable (fun seems like an unrealistic goal to be honest) and I think micro-organizing hits that right on the nose.
The basic idea is to break up your cleaning tasks into small more manageable bits. For example, you tackle the three kitchen drawers to the left of your stove instead of the entire kitchen. Or you pick your dresser instead of your entire closet (and dresser and shoes and wherever else you’re storing your overflow clothing don’t judge me). So you pick a smaller area, put on a 20-30 minute tv show or podcast and get to cleaning and organizing. If you do one or two of these micro-organizing tasks a day (and you live in an apartment like me–especially if you live in a DC apartment), you’ll be done with your entire apartment in no time!
It may seem silly, but breaking the cleaning into these small tasks makes it much less overwhelming and makes you (me) feel much more accomplished when one is finished. Instead of looking at my entire apartment and feeling overwhelmed by the daunting task of figuring out how to deal with the mess that’s stacked up over the winter months, I look around and make a list of things that I can break it down into now. And when I’m tackling a micro-organizing project I’ll start with two bags and then my cleaning supplies. One bag for donations and one for trash. If I find something that I haven’t used (at all or in the past year–for me I also think if I’ve used it since I’ve moved to DC) then it goes into the donation bag.
This is also a great time to re-organize things to make them prettier and more accessible and useable. While micro-organizing my bookshelves, I got rid of a bunch of law school textbooks that were just collecting dust and organized my books by color. (Don’t @ me about “how do you find things” it’s not like they were in any order before and they’re prettier this way.) When I tackled my bathroom cart (shoutout to Ikea for this utility cart they’re amazing I have one in my bathroom and one in my kitchen you should absolutely own one), I figured out a new system for storing my hair products and my many many sheet masks that makes it easier for me to find things I need without it looking cluttered.
All this to say, micro-organizing is a game-changer for me because it takes a lot of the stress out of cleaning. And it gives me so many more things that I’m able to check off my to-do list while I’m cleaning so I really do feel like I’m making progress, even if it’s progress in micro-steps.
xoxo,
J
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