Holiday Prep 101: Clean It Out Before You Bring More In!

The holidays are here. Shopping, buying, splurging, and spending. They're all coming.

But if you still find yourself tripping over toys on the way to your midnight snack, searching for the scissors each time a school project is due, or constantly asking your six year old, "Have you seen mommies keys?" You have a spot of work to do before all those presents arrive.

Well, we've all been there. Take a deep breath because right now, in this moment, is the beginning of your newly organized home. Right in time for the holidays.

Many moms perceive that organizing is Goliath, too big to master. But in five simple steps, you can begin your journey to peace in co-habitation with the myriad of objects in your midst. Ready, set, go.

Step 1: Clean out the junk one foot at a time. Most of us will not begin an organizational project if unforeseen hours lost in doom are looming. So begin your journey one foot at a time. One square foot that is. Approach an area of your home such as one kitchen drawer and take ten minutes to throw everything that you no longer need in the trash. Toss, recycle and re-organize in a jiffy, by clearing away the crud.

Step 2: Now, in that same drawer, take out everything else and begin categorizing the things you will keep. Lay all the pieces out on the counter and begin grouping: school supplies, keys, pens, paper, business cards, note cards etc. If your drawer already has an "organizer" place items in the slots. If your drawer is bare consider placing objects in baggies and labeling them with a permanent marker.

WHEW! See you did it, in less than 20 minutes your "junk" drawer is now your "go to" drawer. Success! Take a break celebrate your success and tomorrow you can start step three. Oh wait a minute, too motivated to stop, you want to continue, well, then by all means, let's make a plan for success.

Step 3: Make a list of the rooms you wish to organize in their order of importance. When I go into a home, I often begin in the kitchen but you may wish to start in a bedroom, office or bedroom. Now pick one day a week you will organize for 30 simple minutes per time and jot down which rooms you will do, in what order, on what day. Yes, you are developing an organizing calendar of sorts. For November, consider the main room in which your holiday decorations might hang. Clean it up before you hang em up.

Step 4: On a sheet of paper, in your mind or on a marker board, divide each room into four quadrants. You will tackle only one quadrant at a time.

Step 5: On your chosen day tackle quadrant one in the room of our choosing and do three discrete tasks: 1) Clean out the crud. That's right, you cannot organize objects that belong in the trash. So, throw them away. 2) Find a home for everything. Every single item in your living space needs a home of its own. So start giving your objects their own homes. Pencils go in a drawer, shoes go on a shelf or in a hanging shoe bag, shirts go in a drawer or on a hanger. 3) Group items by size, color, shape or purpose.

Once you are done with quadrant one you can take a break, celebrate your success and on your specified day tackle quadrant two. You already know what will happen, don't you. You are going to feel so rewarded and refreshed that you'll get to quadrant two before you even know it.By December you'll have a brand new living space.

That's it, organizing 1-2-3. It's no monster, it's your home and you deserve to have a clean enjoyable living space. Well done! Organized holidays to you.