Decluttering and organizing does not need to feel like a chore or a burden. An appealing and effective way to be more organized is to have fun with it! If you have kids, be sure to let them play as well. Children have infectious energy and can get excited about any sort of project.

There are as many creative and stimulating ways to have fun with organizing as there are creative people, but below are 4 ways that have worked for many folks.  To employ these techniques, we will be playing “Let’s Pretend!”

Pretend you are a kindergartner

The very first principle of organizing anything is to put like with like. Kindergartners know how to do this and have fun at the same time! Items can be organized by size, by color, by shape, or by when, where or how they are used.

To play this game, simply gather the items to organize onto a decent sized surface such as a bed or table. Then begin to sort. We recommend that you start with very broad categories and then subdivide each category for faster progress. (For more on subdividing your organizing categories, check out this post!)

Pretend someone is coming to visit

Nothing will make you notice where pockets of clutter and disorganization have accumulated more than pretending that you are a visitor coming to your home for the first time. The pretend visitor could be anyone – someone you know personally, or a character from a book or movie! Notice with non-judgmental curiosity which things seem out of place or disorganized.

Pick one small area to improve, then take a break and celebrate your success. After a breather, pick another small area and continue the game until you feel proud to invite someone into your home.

Pretend you are moving

In this game, imagine that you are moving to the home of your dreams and that in this home, you wish to live minimally, having only what you need. It may help to pretend that you are moving to a smaller home and that at least 20% of your belongings will have to go.

In this imaginary, minimal home, what items will be the most useful and joyful? Anything else might be ready for a new home.

If it all starts to feel overwhelming or you feel stuck at any time, for a limited time you can grab Pam’s popular and budget-friendly “Summer virtual home organizing special” HERE.

Pretend you are a professional home organizer

A professional home organizer will assess objects in your home from a neutral and practical place. It may help to pretend your home belongs to a friend, and that friend asked you to be her professional organizer.

You might kindly ask, “How do you use this?”, “Where do you most often use this?” or “Which objects in this space are your treasures?”

For the love of organizing

Whichever game you choose, you will be more likely to achieve your organizing goals joyfully if you shift your perspective and see organizing as a game rather than a chore!

What do you think? Can you imagine ways to make decluttering and organizing more fun?  Please share them in the comments.

Pam Holland founded Mindful Decluttering & Organizing, LLC © in 2005. She is a speaker, teacher, productivity and organizing professional, and life transformation coach. Pam delights in helping people free themselves from clutter in order to make room for their passions to flourish.

Grab Pam’s limited time popular and budget-friendly summer virtual home organizing special HERE.

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More ways to learn and connect! 

To book a free, 20-minute no-obligation Zoom consultation with Pam, click here.

To see super short snippets of actual virtual organizing sessions with Pam and her happy clients check out the video gallery HERE.