Bare-Naked Organizing
By Maria Gracia

Put on some energizing music, pull down the shades and lock the door, because today you're going to be doing some bare-naked organizing! Here's how.
1. Set the tone with music. Bare-naked organizing requires energy and atmosphere. Your favorite music will provide both of these necessities. So turn on your preferred radio station, or pop in a CD. Turn up the volume.
2. Reduce interruptions. Interruptions such as phone calls and visitors can severely reduce your focus. Imagine if someone walks in, or calls you, while you're in the process of bare-naked organizing! Most likely, you'll stop doing it immediately. And once the
moment is gone, the motivation usually leaves with it.
3. Gather your supplies. If you want to do it right, bare-naked organizing requires a few simple supplies: a large empty box or bag; a few sheets of paper; a ruler; a pencil.
4. Now strip – until bare naked! That's right! Strip! Not you, silly! Strip the room or area you're trying to organize. (Gee whiz! What did you think I meant?)

The basic idea is to start off with an empty slate. It's much easier to organize an area, when you're not looking at a pile of clutter. So, empty out your closet. Take all the papers off your desk. Remove all items from the countertop. Whatever you're trying to organize, strip it down until there's nothing left but the bare surface.

Where do you put all of that stuff? As you're stripping, immediately fling out anything you don't need or want. As far as the stuff you do want to keep, simply remove it from the area you're organizing. Put it on the floor, shift it to one side of the room, stuff it in a box, whatever! Just get it out of the way.

5. Enjoy the moment and plan your next act. Now that the room or area you're organizing is completely naked, take a moment to enjoy the simplicity of it all. When was the last time you saw empty shelves in the closet? Or maybe you haven't seen your desktop in months. It's important to maintain that feeling of simplicity.

Grab a cup of hot cocoa and sit on the floor. Using your ruler, paper and pencil, quickly sketch the shelf, cabinet, etc. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just a rough sketch will do.

Now, one by one, look at each item that you temporarily placed in your 'keep' pile. On your sketch, pencil in possible thoughts of how you're going to get things back in that area so that they're stored in the most organized manner.

6. Get dressed. That is: begin dressing the area you're organizing with the items that belong there.

Keep similar items together. Contain small items in baskets and containers. Consider moving the item elsewhere if it doesn't fit in well with the other items in that area.

7. Set future bare-naked organizing sessions. Bare-naked organizing can be done anywhere: the bedroom, the kitchen, even your office!

And it doesn't have to be done alone! Bare-naked organizing works very well with your spouse. Or you can even make it a family event.

Just set a date and time – and get bare-naked!

If you enjoyed these tips, you would enjoy Maria Gracia’s book, Finally Organized, Finally Free, which includes over 1,300 tips! Check out her website, www.getorganizednow.com