Inspire a New You

By: Terri Collins

How do you feel about change? Do you enjoy a change of environment and atmosphere? Or, do you like it just the way it is; forever and ever, Amen.? In this blog, when I speak of changing your environment; Therefore, changing the atmosphere, I am not not talking about changing the people, or tossing them out. Although, I do realize that, there are times when that is necessary. 

If you are one who enjoys change as much as I do, you may find yourself running out of ideas. Then you Google search ideas for room makeovers. There are so many appealing ideas for "do it yourself projects," that we often feel inspired. I, personally have made a scrap book of inspirations to makeover areas of my home.  Then, there's that money and/or time thing.  "If only," that's what we think to ourselves. What we may not realize at the time is that all you need is a keen eye, and a sense of organization to completely makeover any area in your home or office, with little or no money. 

 Then, of course, there is still the issue of time.  In this blog, I will offer some DIY ideas for making changes without spending money, and organizing-time management tips that will enable you the time to inspire a new you. 

If you are one who wants things to stay the way they are, and you never feel as though you are in a rut, then this blog is probably not for you. However, if you are one who does not like change and you want your surroundings to stay just the way it is; But, you have moments when you feel sluggish, unmotivated, and let's face it, stagnated,  read on.  

To grow, one must be willing to make changes. To feel different, you must change the way you act. A little change will do you good.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "what does organizing have to do with how you feel, how you act, and how you need to change?" It has everything to do with it. If your surroundings and your habits are unorganized, you will feel it. Sometimes you feel it, but you don't quite know what's wrong. The way you feel and the way you think affects the way you act. Even if we have turned a blind eye to that messy closet, that one junk room, (that almost everyone has,) or that messy work space or messy car, our brain stores it in our memory bank. It is much like an app on our phone or computer, that we don't use often, still running in the background. Just like that running app, our data usage builds up. As our brains become full of clutter, our bodies and our ability to be happy-go-lucky suffers.   

Simply start by organizing one area at a time... 

1. If time is an issue, choose a one-three hour slot where you schedule yourself and others to help as needed. Commit this time to this project just if it were a doctor's appointment. Keep the appointment! 
2. If money is an issue, you can work with what you already have and still achieve an organized space and a new look. Often, just rearranging what you already have and sometimes re-purposing things can give you a fresh new look.  
3. Choose one closet, one room, or one area of a large, cluttered room to be organized (if you don't have at least 3 hours to dedicate-you can work on the one area in intervals. Near the area to be organized-but outside of the area-designate a work area that will temporarily house things pulled from the project area. Have three sections and a trash can. You should have a pile for each; keep, we don't need, goes somewhere else. 
4. Remove everything from the project area. Sort and purge as you remove things. If it is trash, throw it away. If it is no longer needed by you or your family, but someone else could use it, put it in the we don't need section. Wonder how that got there? It happens all the time. Things end up where they obviously do not belong. So, put these items in the goes somewhere else section. To save time you will put all those things away, in their proper place, later. And, of course, the things that actually belong in the area and will be organized goes into the keep section. 
5. Once everything has been removed and sorted, let's begin putting it back in an organized manner. 

•  If you have a lot of little things like medicine bottles, nail polish, pens, clips, and other loose items, look around your house for storage containers that are not being used, or that could be re-purposed.  Find sizes and shapes that fit the area as well as the items being stored.  Once you have found the perfect storage containers begin to sort things of the like in their different containers. 
• If you are organizing a closet with shelves, designate spaces on the shelves that are the perfect home for your categories of items. Organize with keeping the need to get to easily or not in mind. Things that are used often should always be in front, and easy to reach. This helps keep the rest of the area organized too. All towels and wash cloths together, sheets in another section of closet, all medicines in one place, hair products in their own place, all shoe boxes stacked neatly in one area of the closet; so forth and so on.  
• If your project is a closet with clothes, you will have the same three sections in your work area. Sort in the same way as you pull EVERYTHING out. In my house, I use two closets for my clothes and shoes. One for Spring and Summer, and one for Fall and Winter. The current seasons are what I house in my bedroom clothes-closet, and I store my other season's clothes and shoes in a storage closet in another room or hallway. If you do not have a place to hang clothes in a storage closet, try storing your off season clothes in labeled tubs that will fit in a storage closet or close to the opening of your attic. As quickly as seasons change, you will want to have easy access to your off season clothes. There are two ways to organize your clothes and shoes.  You can either organize by style and pieces (pants with pants, tops with tops,) then by color or you can organize by matching outfits (tops that go with certain pants or skirts, etc.). 
• If you are organizing a room or large area, begin with one item at a time from your keep section. Try placing the keepers in a different place than where they were before. This will give you a new and different look. Only put back the things in the keep section, while putting those out of sight-out of mind-things neatly in a closet, drawer, or other form of attractive storage container-such as a wicker basket or stylish filing cabinet.  

If you make time, utilize what you already have, delegate help as needed, and decide to make it fun, you will find that it isn't that hard to get organized. You will also find that you will feel better, feel like you can breathe better, and you will begin to think better. What happens then? You will be happier with your environment; therefore the whole atmosphere will change. Not only that, when you bask in the order and beauty of your completed project, you will feel inspired to organize the rest of your home!