What to do when you’re supposed to stay at home? Take a fresh look at what sparks joy, says Kelley Jonkoff of Organize with Kelley.
Photo by Finn Lively Photography
As a home organization expert and Certified KonMari Consultant Kelley Jonkoff of Organize with Kelley, helps overwhelmed people make their home a place of relaxation and renewal. This housebound period is a great time to finally confront the clutter we’ve been avoiding. Here are a few projects she’ll be tackling in the time of social distancing.
Photo by Finn Lively Photography
Schedule
Pre-Corona, my schedule was full of in-home client sessions, coffee shop meetings, and in-person classes and workshops. Now that these are off the table, I’m rethinking my daily and weekly schedules to create some normalcy in these strange times. Sure, I’m time-blocking for virtual sessions, online workshops, and many many Zoom calls… but the most important things I’m preserving time for have nothing to do with productivity and everything to do with self-care. So I’m working on a schedule that limits my news scrolling and worrying, but protects time for FaceTime with friends and family, practicing my budding oil painting skills (thanks Sertoma Arts Center!), pretending I’m a Great British Baking Show contestant, and hitting the “gym” aka the garage.
My Home Office
As a self-employed person, I’m used to working out of my home. But with my now all-virtual schedule, I’m working from my guest room/home office more than ever before. And let me tell you, I’ve been confronted with the projects and paperwork I let pile up in the bustling weeks pre-Corona.
The office tends to act like a giant visual to-do list in many homes. Bills that need to be paid, forms to be filled out, business cards that need an email, returns to be shipped, and items to be repaired all seem to find their way to the desk or its equivalent. I’m addressing all bills, forms, and other scraps of important paper, while also scanning in my 2019 business receipts so I can ditch the hard copies. I’m packing up and sending off gifts that need to be mailed and deciding what broken items to repair or replace.
Addressing the visual noise of clutter and the stack of reminders of how “behind” I am on certain tasks helps me feel less overwhelmed by all that’s going on in the world right now. By scanning a few receipts and mailing a couple of forms, I’m able to give myself a sense of accomplishment in a time when we can all too easily feel powerless.
The Junk Drawer
Y’all, it’s time. What better moment than our housebound present to finally organize the junk drawer?? I’m a practical organizer – as much as I’d love to banish junk drawers off the face of the Earth, we all have odds and ends that we don’t quite know what to do with right away. If an item isn’t useful or joyful, it doesn’t come into or stay in my home. The drawer by my front door, however, does fill up occasionally with items that were meant to migrate to the car (lookin’ at you, reusable grocery bags), random hardware from home improvement projects (what did this screw even go to?), and items that haven’t easily found a home (humidity monitor for our sealed crawlspace). Make the junk drawer just a drawer again to feel a little bit of ease!
I’ll be sharing more details from each of these projects on my Instagram and blog, Organize with Kelley. Follow along and tag me to show me what you’re organizing! If you’re going stir crazy while stuck at home with your clutter, note that I offer virtual sessions to help you transform your home from stressful to serene.
