Whether you’re buying, renting, or staying put in your space, there are five cycles for which every household needs to have a good system in place in order to run smoothly. This month we will look at the big picture of these cycles and in the coming months, I will break each one down for you. So, what are the cycles? They are:
- Food – Brought into our spaces in the form of groceries and take-out, it gets stored in our refrigerators, freezers, cabinets, pantries, etc. before it is baked, cooked, or eaten as-is. The end part of this cycle is trash, recycling, compostables, and well . . . For a household’s health and safety, and for pest prevention, a complete working food system is the most essential (followed closely by dishes and cleaning).
- Dishes – They don’t dirty themselves but sometimes it feels like they do! The cycle for dishes is similar to laundry: clean, dry, and put away but there is still plenty of nuance for us to explore to determine which system will best suit YOUR household in keeping this cycle running optimally.
- Laundry – It begins with purchasing (or being gifted) new or used clothing. Dirty clothes are typically stored in a hamper or basket until they are ready to be cleaned and dried (or dry-cleaned) before being folded and/or hung and put away. We will discuss some of the HUGE hang ups (see what I did there?) that can throw this load off balance (and again!) so that we can iron out any kinks in your household’s system. (Sorry, not sorry.)
- Paper – Primarily arriving as mail or as documents handed directly to us from work, school, doctors’ visits, or extracurricular activities, paper can quickly overtake all of our household surfaces! Sorting, storing, recycling, shredding, and ACTING on actionable paperwork is a challenge for even the most organized person but, again, a customized system for this cycle makes all the difference.
- Cleaning – This household chore may well be more repetitive than cyclical but if you have a system to stay on top of it, then it, like the other four, becomes much less stressful and easier to maintain.
As Dr. Robin Zasio writes in The Hoarder in You, “Leaving any job partly undone leads to procrastination and clutter, which begins to feel very overwhelming very quickly.” The next few blog posts will dive into some specifics on each cycle and how you can set your household up for success with a new system – or a tweak to an existing one – in order to smoothly transition through each stage of these four cycles. Stay tuned and watch this space or head over to the Real Life Professional Organizing Media page and use the contact form to sign up for the Real Life Professional Organizing Newsletter so you can receive these posts right in your inbox!
