Getting organized begins by being organized. It’s one of the worst paradoxes encountered and makes less sense than time travel.

If everything has a place, it can be organized. Unfortunately, every flat surface becomes the proverbial coffee table. When we first got married, we had a double decker coffee table. It was a beautiful thing. The top was tastefully decorated with a newspaper and travel magazine casually tossed amidst a coaster and two candles. The second level was an ever-growing pile of crap that only got taken down a notch when it started falling on the floor.

When our son was toddling, he spent an inordinate amount of time banging into the non-child-friendly corners, so we got rid of it, and believe it or not, we got rid of the piles of crap that accumulated on and around it. I would never get another coffee table.

We do have side tables because where else do you put your drinks while watching the television. It does get the pile of mail, but my number one news year’s resolution from a few years ago is not to let it into the house in the first place. Junk mail and unsolicited credit card offers go directly into the garbage. Bills that are paid online get put on the calendar and the papers go into the trash. It’s not perfect, but it’s my place to start.

The old-timey mantra of a place for everything and everything in its place still holds for modern organizing and decluttering.

It is the place to start.

If what’s in your hand doesn’t have a home, it probably should be evicted from your house.

Jackets go on a hook, hats and gloves go in a basket on the stairs near the front door, shoes go on the mat. Mail on the dining room table for no more than twenty-four hours. No place for that Tupperware? Well, then you don’t need that Tupperware. A kitchen rack to hang those pots and pans, no more than one kitchen utility/utensil holder on the counter. Things you use every day go within easy reaching, whether it’s in the kitchen or the office.

Look around your own space and find the ways to get rid of the clutter and begin the organization.

One recent resource I’ve found right here on WordPress is this one: A Girl and Her Bins

She shares her ideas with great humor and wit.

A second, more recent article was found on the Michael J. Fox Foundation Facebook. The title may be a little more specific for most of us, but it can still be adapted for anyone’s organization. It works for other medical care as well as adapting for other non-medical reasons. It’s definitely worth taking a look: 5 Ways You Can Organize Your Parkinson’s Disease Care

Please add your own hints, websites, and/or articles to the comments below.