GO Month

January is GO month. GO month does not mean that everyone has to go somewhere (although that would be fun); it means that January is the month to Get Organized. Who decided this is irrelevant. It is a natural reaction to the previous two months that are generally spent happily making a mess of the house. Now, remember that organization and cleaning are two different activities that are best friends. If we were talking about a Get Clean month, then we might start with washing the dishes. (Don’t discount the benefits of that! It just doesn’t count as organizing.) I suggest that you start by organizing your first and last spaces. You get double benefit from organizing them, and you will find them to be instigators for more organization elsewhere.

Two first and last spaces include the bedroom—especially the nightstand—and the bathroom. They are first and last spaces because they are the first things you see when you wake up and the last that you see when you go to sleep. When they are orderly and functioning well for your routine, your day will start and end well.

The third space that I consider to be a first and last is the entry that you use to come and go. In my house, that is the door to the garage. Getting out the door to work can be a challenge—make it as easy on yourself as you can. If you have children to send off to school, you know that organization is essential to a happy start to the day. When you come home at night, you want to walk into a space that receives you graciously instead of stressing you out.

To organize these three spaces, consider what activities you want to achieve in them. For instance, in the entry area, you need a place to sit to put on shoes, a spot to drop off keys, and storage for coats, hats, and other outdoor wear. In the winter in New Hampshire, we need more things at hand than in the summer. Recently, I switched from using one large bin to contain all of the hats, gloves, and scarves, to several bins that separate my items from my husbands and even separate hats from gloves. My husband has spent much less time hunting for what he needs to run the snowblower. Put the essential items into the space in a thoughtful way, remove the items that do not help you come or go, and try it out. Make sure that there is an open surface that has room for your daily baggage to land—coffee, lunch, purse, or what-have-you, so that you can put on your shoes and coat hands-free.

So GO! Tackle a first and last space and see if your life is better.