I’ve always been one who has thrived on being organized. I color-coded my closets and organized by season long before I heard it was a thing. I have often said that when my surroundings are cluttered, my heart and mind are too. As organized as I am, there are always additional areas in which I can improve. On a recent episode of Your Hope-Filled Perspective podcast, I talked with friend and Organizing Pro, Marcia Ramsland, about how to get organized and stay that way. If you missed that episode, listen here [How To Get Organized and Stay Organized – Episode 125]. Today Marcia shares with us 10 organizing tips for fall to start your holidays off right!

Read all the way to the end for a special giveaway!

10 Organizing Tips for Fall to Start Your Holidays Off Right
By Marcia Ramsland

Fall is a chance to reassess our lives and prepare for what is to come. Fall is when you set up a new schedule, look forward to the holiday season, and take advantage of a slower season to regain some semblance of order before things get chaotic and stressful again.

I pick a new organizing project for my own self-improvement and to create a new perk each fall. Pick one or two of these 10 organizing tips for fall to get your momentum going:

1. Establish Your Best Weekly Rhythm
After returning from summer vacation, fall is the time to settle into a new schedule. Go through your next month’s calendar and make sure 50% of it includes things you enjoy. Thirty percent of what you “have to do” (like appointments, deadlines, or work), and 20% free choice. Free choice includes your evenings and weekends. I personally plan all my Saturdays to do a morning home project and then enjoy the rest of the weekend.

2. Go Through Your Closet
Your closet helps establish how the rest of your day will proceed. Wash and put away your summer clothes and pull out your favorite cool weather clothes. Fall organizing of your closet will do wonders for your morale (see OrganizingPro.com for tips on how to organize your closet)

3. Corral the Clutter Before it Feels Uncontrollable
Decluttering visible surfaces and piles followed up by organizing your winter coat closet leaves you feeling accomplished and ready for what’s to come. An organized home makes the mornings go better and easy to get out the door with everything you need. Pick your clutter spots, snap a few pictures, and tackle it head on.

4. Spruce Up the Outside
Sprucing up the outside takes up my Saturday morning focus in October and then it’s done for the winter. Check outside for what you need to do to winterize your landscaping like fertilizing the lawn, cleaning out flower beds, or putting a fresh wreath on the front door. You’ll have company on your doorstep before you know it.

5. Declutter the Kitchen to Get Ready for More Cooking
Cooler nights afford us the opportunity to cook more and stay inside. Use this time to go through a cabinet or shelf a day and donate whatever small appliances, food, or clutter you’re not using often. Someone else can use it and you’ll be getting your kitchen streamlined for holiday meals.

6. Buy Next Year’s Calendars
Fall is the perfect time to get next year’s monthly calendars before they go out of stock and to begin putting items on it likely annual checkups. Even if you prefer digital calendars, it’s useful to have a visible calendar in your kitchen or home office at a quick glance. Paper calendars give you perspective while a digital calendar keeps you on track.

7. Focus on a Self-Improvement Habit
Part of staying young is to constantly be growing and improving. Choose a habit to improve—maybe getting to sleep earlier, beginning a new exercise regime, or taking a course.

8. Create a Clutter-free Retreat in Your Bedroom
Cleaning up your nightstand of book clutter, putting away clothes, and establishing a home for any piles that tend to accumulate. When you clear bedroom dresser surfaces and clean the floor with a vacuum, you will rest more relaxed and you will wake up free from the stress and anxiety that clutter produces.

9. Hibernate in the Cool Fall Evenings
Use the cooler fall evenings to hibernate and stay at home, doing some things you normally don’t do. You’ll feel better for doing some non-urgent tasks and see the results. Disorganization left to itself multiplies into bigger problems later on. Consider re-organizing your china cabinet, sorting through your holiday linens, or tidying up your greeting card collection.

10. Anticipate & Prepare for the Holiday Season
The busiest season of the year begins November 1st. So use the fall organizing period to prepare. That includes catching up on paperwork and financials, organizing your home, and including personal time to do your favorite outdoor activity, while attending to self-care such as getting enough sleep. There’s a busy holiday season just around the corner so use this pre-holiday season to prepare.

Today’s Tip: “Anything you organize will pay you back ten times in time saved the next time you need to do the same task.”

Above all: Do Your Best and Release the Rest
Just do your best and release the rest. Most people who are successful always have quite a bit to do, but also have the knack of closing the loop and getting things done. Starting and finishing a task you’ve been procrastinating on is the important goal. It boosts your energy, gives you confidence, and finally puts that dreaded task behind you.

We’d love to hear what other fall organizing tips you have found helpful in the comments below!

 

Marcia’s Simplify Your Life series is a perfect tool to help you in your organization efforts.

Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay That Way is a valuable resource whether you are trying to tame your clutter, or declutter your mind.

 

 

About Marcia Ramsland

Marcia Ramsland is well known as The Leading Online Organizing Coach, a Business Productivity Expert, and author of the Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay that Way book series, which has sold over 100,000 copies. Marcia is a nationally recognized media guest appearing in Woman’s Day and Real Simple magazines, the Wall Street Journal, and Martha Stewart radio. Marcia believes anyone can become more organized – even you – with the Motivation, Momentum, and Mastery which she provides in her Online Courses and Fast Track Coaching!

For more information or a free consultation visit her website www.organizingpro.com.

Connect with Marcia: Facebook / Instagram / LinkedIn / Website

Special Giveaway!

In conjunction with this post and the podcast interview, How To Get Organized and Stay Organized – Episode 125, and as a special giveaway for my readers, Marcia Ramsland is offering a Free 30 minute organizing coaching session via Zoom.

To enter the contest, Leave a comment below sharing with us one thing you’ve learned about ways to organize for fall and you will be entered into the contest for your chance to win a copy of her book.

You could also share this blog post on Facebook or Twitter then comment here to tell us where you shared it and you’ll also be entered into the drawing.

The winner will be selected at random and announced next Monday, September 13, 2021. Continental United States only.