The 5S Approach to Organizing

Here is an example of the approach pertaining to a closet:

1. Sort – we start by sorting your items into the different categories. It would be helpful to have boxes or containers with the different labels so as you pick up a product, you place it into the correct category. An example of this is having 3 boxes labeled Donate, Keep, and Toss. As you are going through your closet you are looking at each item and deciding “do I need this”, “does it still fit and do I feel good when I wear this?”, Then making a decision and placing it where it belongs.
2. Set In Order – then it is time to decide on how many of a particular item you want to keep. For instance is 6 black t-shirts too many and should I only keep 4?
3. Shine – now that you’ve separated your clothes, you can wipe the rods and really make sure that the items you are placing back into the closet are in great shape, no stains, no mending required etc…
4. Standardize – here you want to place the items back into the same area that you have removed the item so that you don’t have think where the item is.
5. Sustain – if you go shopping for more black t-shirts, you need to think of which t-shirts you will be letting go.

Here are a few areas that clients have called me to help them get organized:

• Kitchens & Pantry
• Great Rooms
• Living Rooms
• Dining Rooms
• Main Bedrooms
• Children’s Bedrooms
• Closet Organizing
• Home Offices
• Playroom
• Garages
• Basements
• Laundry Room
• Mudrooms