I admit, there have been times when I have walked into a messy room with the intention of getting it organized and then walked right back out again because the task felt so overwhelming!

I mean, who can forget these doozies?

our garage at the beginning of 2018

our basement just a few weeks ago

I may write about organizing pretty often, but we still have spaces that have become a huge, overwhelming mess! I’m thrilled to say that we managed to tackle our garage last year (See the reveal here!), and the basement is well on its way to becoming organized (UPDATE! The basement is finished! See the organized basement here!), but each one has been a hard fought battle.

With both the basement and the garage there was definitely a time when I looked at it and thought, “How do I even start?”

It’s hard to offer a “one size fits all” solution to the question of how to start when a space is SO overwhelming because every person and every room is so different, but I thought I’d share how I typically begin a big organizing project so that if you’re in a similar situation, maybe my tips and ideas might help to give you a starting point.

HOW TO START AN OVERWHELMING ORGANIZING PROJECT

My getting started process can basically be summed up in one simple phrase: Create some space.

The thing that is often overwhelming about very messy spaces is that many times there is not even room to walk, let alone try to get anything organized. When I can’t even move through the room, I feel frozen and unable to continue further, so I have to create some space.

For me, this is typically a two-part process.

STEP 1- REMOVE THE TRASH

In a space that’s as messy as my garage and my basement were, there is inevitably a good amount of trash that can either be recycled or thrown away. In our garage it was cardboard boxes. In the basement it was wood scraps and sawdust.

So the first thing I did in both spaces was grab a garbage bag and start packing things into it to be recycled/thrown out. (For the cardboard boxes, I ended up breaking them down and wrapping them up in tape like our recycling service requests, but you get the idea.)

Our basement floor after just picking up the wood scraps and using a shop vac on the sawdust. Already an improvement!

The thing that’s great about starting with the trash is that it’s an easy decision. I’m not talking about sentimental items that we need to decide whether to keep or throw away. I’m not even talking about items we may or may not use far into the future. The only thing I’m looking for on this very first pass is true junk that I know definitely needs to go.

Typically, removing the trash creates enough space that I can at least move around a little bit in the room. Once I get all of the trash out of the way, I can move on to step two.

STEP 2- BEGIN PUTTING LIKE ITEMS TOGETHER

Ideally, I would love to be able to move everything out of the space. But typically with an overwhelmingly unorganized room, there is so much stuff that getting it all out isn’t really an option.

So after I got rid of the trash, the next thing I began doing to create space in our basement and our garage was moving like things together. I would just grab a few things that were in a similar category and start a pile with them.

In the basement, I grabbed a bunch of Donnie’s little tools (like hammers and screwdrivers) and put them in one pile. I grabbed all of his saws of all different shapes and sizes and put them together. I gathered up all of the Kreg Jig supplies and made a pile, etc.

Many of the items in the garage were larger, so I had to maneuver some things around, but eventually I managed to get all of the bikes together, all of the lawn and garden equipment together, all of my kids’ outdoor toys together, and so on.

As I was putting like items together, it allowed me to see everything I had in that one category. From there, I could make better decisions about what we should keep, and what could be moved to a donate/sell pile to be discarded.

It’s not rocket science and it’s not hard to do, but sometimes it is helpful to at least have a simple starting point, especially when we’re talking about a space that is as overwhelming and messy as ours were! I find when I can create space by getting rid of the trash and putting like items together, it gives me the momentum I need to continue on with the project and eventually complete it. And that’s the goal all along, right?!

I know that there are many ways to start a project like this one, so I’d love for you to share your thoughts in the comments too– how do you begin an overwhelming organizing project? 

MORE ORGANIZING STRATEGIES

If you’re looking for more strategies for getting organized, these posts may be helpful: