If you noticed changes in the weather lately, it is largely due to the fact that spring is preparing to make its presence known in the next few weeks. Soon our attention will turn to shaking off the winter doldrums and concentrate on sprucing up our home. But before you begin that heavy duty clean-up, stop and take inventory of what items you are going to spend your efforts on cleaning. A growing family, furniture no longer being utilized, lawn equipment in need of repair ~ all of these are indicators that your current organizing systems could be needing to be tweaked or revamped to accommodate the lifestyle changes in your home. With spring just around the corner, it never hurts to get a jumpstart on your organizing to assist with your spring cleaning. A few tips listed below can help you with this process:

Plan - Ask yourself what your goal is and list the steps to help accomplish this. Keep your plan nearby as you work in the area so that you can refer to the next step in the process. The saying "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" is true. If you don't have a map outlining your intentions, it is too easy to get sidetracked in your efforts. Keep to the plan and check off the things completed and what is left to do. Better yet it enables you to see the progress you have made!

Evaluate - Assess what you have and determine if it is still relevant to your needs? Ask yourself if you absolutely love it, use it, need it or is it just taking up valuable space in your home or life? You might be surprised that once you start really "evaluating" the item's value, it has none and could be costing you emotionally because subconsciously you realize it has outlived its original intended use.

Eliminate - This is sometimes harder than it seems. Be kind to yourself when determining what you can let go and what would break your heart. Sometimes it can be a "no brainer" such as a non-repairable pair of pants or a rusted bike no longer ridden by its young owner. We tend to hold onto things because of the "memory value" however touching or seeing an item does not make the memory all the more precious, in fact it can sometimes have the opposite effect when realizing the item is not the beautiful thing it once was. Memories can be stockpiled; however attempting to stockpile the physical items can result in storing clutter. Make the decision when deciding what to let go to either donate, sell, or trash it and keep in mind you are clearing the path for making more memories.

Sort - Now that you have decided what you want to keep, put the similar items together (i.e. clothes, garden tools, books, paint supplies - you get the idea.) Whatever area you are organizing you are going to sort the items that will stay in that area and separate the things that will be going to another location in your home, garage or storage shed.

Assign - Regardless if the item stays in its original area or is moved to another room, it needs to have a home. If it isn't assigned a home, no one knows where to return it once used and a misplaced item has the potential to quickly become a magnet for clutter. Have you ever noticed if one thing is out of place all of a sudden it makes friends and becomes three, four even five things out of place. An item without a home can translate into outliving its usefulness, wasn't needed in the first place, or could have possibly been an impulse buy. Repeat this mantra as you are assigning your kept items a home "is there a place for this?" If you have to struggle to find an answer, you can always go back to the elimination step.

Contain - This is the home stretch part of any organizing process and can also be the most fun. When you think containerize, don't limit yourself to housing like items in small or large plastic containers. Contain your garden tools along a pegboard in your garden shed or store your paint supplies in a bucket up on a shelf. Use storage bags to contain your winter clothes as you make room in your closet for your warmer weather things. Slide the storage bags under the bed so you are still utilizing the room where your closet is located but just taking advantage of additional unused space. Remember to think outside the box when containing your possessions.

Maintain - Congratulations! You have done the planning, sorting, eliminating, assigning, containing, all the steps to ensuring the space you have spent all your organizing efforts accommodates you and your family's current needs. But like the weather, there will always be a change in seasons and the same goes for your organizing. Stay on top of what works and what doesn't, be willing to change things when needed and most of all take the time to enjoy your early springtime organizing gift to yourself!

Author's Bio: 

Absolute Organization, located in San Antonio, Texas was created in 2003 by Cynthia Cunningham. With over 25 years experience as an Executive Assistant to Corporate Management, she possesses a highly creative and imaginative approach in needs assessment and problem solving. A Member of the National Association of Professional Organizers, she is also the Program Director of the NAPO – San Antonio Chapter.

Sharing her love of organizing, Cynthia has proven to be an influential leader and guide as she leads her clients through the steps of organizing both for the home and/or office. As owner of her own organizing company, she has led numerous motivational workshops on topics including tackling your clutter, time management, family schedules, and work-life balance.

Whether clients are looking for new ways to save time at home or in the office, or they need someone to help declutter their house or desk, Cynthia can coach clients to ensure the process of purging, organizing, and placing household and office essentials makes sense. She stresses that “all clients needs are unique, so each organization project is personalized and tailored to help them be most efficient.”