How to Involve Your Family When Organizing Your Home

In today’s episode you’ll hear one of the video trainings available to the members of The Sorted Circle, our online membership community. In this episode we’ll talk about how to navigate organizing shared spaces and navigating different value assigned to belongings. If you like this little segment, be sure to head to thesortedcircle.com and sign up for the waitlist! If you’re listening live and didn’t join, you just missed the spring membership window, but join the waitlist so you don’t miss the opportunity to join when we reopen to new members again this fall. All right, let’s talk family and organizing!

​So, when you’re working with family and friends on organizing projects, especially when you’re decluttering, I don’t know about you, but sometimes things can get a little tense. It is such a fraught thing to try to tell other people what they should and shouldn’t keep. If you’ve ever tried organizing a kid’s space, you know that this is difficult. And so, it’s really important when we’re working with friends and family to have those strong discussions about

1. What do we value
2. How do we use the space
3. What works and what doesn’t. 

​The more you can incorporate anybody who is using that space into the process, the more successful it will be long-term. And, potentially, the more inspiring it will be for them to take ownership of that space and any of their own personal spaces that you might have just been organizing in the first place.

​It’s really critical when we are dealing with kids especially, but even adults who might have had scarcity in their past, it’s really important to not get rid of their things without their consent. We always tell our clients, “We’re not here to tell you what to keep and what to get rid of.” That’s not what we do. We come in and we make your home function with the things that you love in place. 

And so, taking that same approach with your family can actually have a really meaningful and positive impact in your home overall. You know that even if you don’t love the thing it really means a lot to them, and so finding a way to display it prominently in a space that they see it often but maybe you don’t can be a great compromise when it comes to managing a family space.