How Long Does It Take to Get Organized?

“How long will it take for me to get organized?” As a Certified Professional Organizer®, I get this question a lot.

Remember, your home didn’t get disorganized in one day, and it’s not going to get fixed in one day!

How long your organizing project will take depends on 4 factors.

1. HOW QUICKLY DO YOU MAKE DECISIONS?
If you need to reminisce and tell the story of each item before deciding whether or not to keep it or where to put it, the organizing process is going to go pretty slowly.

If, on the other hand, you set some pre-decision guidelines, your project will pick up speed.

Some examples of pre-decisions you can make are:

• Let go of all clothes larger than size Q or smaller than size P.
• Let go of linens that have stains or are ripped.
• Let go of coloring pages my child scribbled on.
• Let go of mail solicitations.
• Let go of duplicates.

​2. HOW MUCH STUFF DO YOU HAVE?
Since each item represents one decision you have to make, how much stuff you have is a huge factor impacting the time an organizing project will take. Estimating how much you have will help you set realistic expectations so you’re not disappointed when the process takes time.

Here are some visual guides to help you estimate your project.

• There are 500 sheets in a brand-new 2.5” ream of paper. So the rumpled stack on your desk might contain about 250. A stack of your child’s artwork done on thick construction paper might have about 100 pieces.
• A standard 30”-wide, 5-shelf bookcase has 150 inches of shelf space. At an average of 1.5” per book, that’s 100 books.
• Closet rods hold about 16 hangers per foot, or 50 pieces of clothing for a 36” rod.
• A stuffed animal hammock can hold 30+ stuffies.

3. HOW BIG IS YOUR SPACE?
Clearly, organizing a small space such as a single-door closet will take much less time than organizing a big space, like a basement. To get a good idea of organizing time based on size, my fellow professional organizer, Lisa Archilla of Bee and Peacock Organizing in Fort Worth, Texas, has come up with this handy 4-2-8 Rule: An area 4' wide by 2' deep by 8' high = roughly 2 hours of organizing time. Her Time Estimator shows you how to break up a room into 4x2x8 spaces to get a sense of how long larger projects will take.

4. HOW MUCH HELP DO YOU HAVE?
If you’re flying solo, your organizing project might take a while. Recruit family members, a professional organizer, or a team of organizers and the pace will pick up speed. While you’re making decisions about each item, other organizers can sort things into categories, weed out based on your pre-decisions, set things up in their newly-organized locations, and pack up things you’ve decided to let go.


ORGANIZING ISN’T ONE-AND-DONE — IT'S A PROCESS
Organizing is a learning process – learning to let go of things and learning how you want to live in and use your space. It takes time to build up these decision-making muscles! Let the organizing process unfold in whatever time it takes you.

When you’re ready to start your organizing project, the best way to get an estimate of how long it will take is to schedule your complimentary Virtual Consultation with me. We’ll talk about your specific needs, you can show me the spaces to be organized, and we’ll talk about how many organizing sessions we should schedule.