How to Sort and Purge a Room

Often times people simply do not know where to begin when it comes to organizing a space, especially when there’s a lot of clutter.  Here’s a step by step guide on how to sort and purge a room which is the first phase of getting organized.  It’s a map you can follow that can feel more like a game and less like a chore.  This is fun to teach kids, as well!

Step 1: Starting at the Door, Sort and Purge the Floor! (See what I did there?)
Work your way around the room clockwise, making decisions on each item until all items on the floor have been taken care of.

For each item in the room, you are going to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.  You should keep items in the rooms that you use them in, sorting like-items together before “organizing” them into permanent homes (more on this below). This helps you to visualize how much space you will need to properly organize each category.

Once the floor is completely clear take a step back and look at how great the room already looks!  If you have time for nothing else, just getting the floor clear makes a huge difference!

A few questions might come up while you’re decluttering, such as:

“What do I do if I come across items that need to move to another room?”
Our advice is to grab a few empty baskets and start “relocation” baskets to compile these items into and redistribute them later.  It’s helpful to divide the items into three categories: main floor, second floor and basement.  This is more efficient than running them around the house as you come across them. (Laundry baskets work great for this!)

“What do I do with items that I don’t want anymore?”
The items you want to get rid of should be sorted into different categories, such as:

• Trash
• Recycling
• Donate
• Sell
• Shred

It’s helpful to use clearly labeled containers to separate each of these categories while you’re working.  

Once you’re finished Step 1, it’s time to move on to...

Step 2: Sort and Purge Surfaces, Cabinets & Drawers
Go back to the door and work your way around the room clockwise, sorting and purging the items on the countertops, followed by the cabinets and drawers immediately above or below.  Focus on the perimeter of the room and then move on to furniture/islands in the center of the room. Once you’ve sorted and purged the center of the room you’re done sorting and purging!

At this point it may feel a bit overwhelming to have unloaded so much but just remember it gets worse before it gets better!  To keep perspective look at how much is moving out via trash, recycle, shred, donate and sell!  You’re making progress and those are items you never have to make another decision about again.  

Step 3: Organize Items Staying in the Room

1. Sort like-with-like together, making sure you really want to keep everything you see.  Sometimes, when people see the total volume of each item they begin to get rid of more.
2. Reorganize the space and put everything away.  It’s important to do this second so that you’re not wasting time organizing things that you don’t want to keep.
   
   

Step 4: Relocate the Items Moving Out of the Room

1. Take out the trash and recycling
2. Get that shredder fired up 
3. Make a decision about where you’re donating to, load the donations in your car. Make an appointment on your calendar to do it and commit to it, as if you are paying someone to be there with you!
4. If you want to sell some items, ask yourself this question: “Do I have the time to  
   get it done in the next 30 days?” 
   
   We don’t often recommend re-selling items unless: 

• You have the time (give yourself a 30 day deadline to get it done)
• They’re big tickets items (it’s often simply not worth your time otherwise)
• You need the money from small ticket items 
  
  However, if you’re someone that’s experienced in selling and know you’ll do it, we recommend:
• Taking the items you’re selling and put them in the room where you’re going to do the work of listing them online. 
• Load them in the car to take them to a consignment shop if this is the route you’re taking, and make an appointment on your calendar to get it done. 

     5.  Put away the items that need to go to other rooms.
If you don’t have a home yet for the item in it’s new room, just setting it in that room works for now. The idea is that you’re shifting things to the correct room so that when you get to organizing that room the items that belong in there are in there.  

That is how you sort and purge a room thoroughly.  If you follow this map it gives you a starting point, middle and an end, the three things most people can’t see when they’re overwhelmed by clutter.  I hope this helps you get started on organizing today!
Happy sorting and purging!

Melissa Fortino