Three Steps to Letting People Into Your Imperfect Home

Episode 21

​The worst impact of disorganization I see on my clients before they hire our team to come organize for them is that they haven’t had people they love in their home in some time—often years because of the shame they hold over the state of their house. In today’s episode I’ll give you three quick tips for letting people in and building those relationships even with your home being wildly imperfect!

​Get ONE area of your home to a comfortable state for entertaining

​Think of what you’d like to invite someone to do. Is it to share a meal? Play cards? Watch a movie? Sit on the back patio and watch the hummingbirds? This is now your go-to activity. You don’t have to make sure your messy teenager’s room is tidy before having guests over. You don’t. I promise. You don’t have to have a perfect coat closet. You simply need one space in which to be hospitable toward your guests. So think through what that activity is and organize it for entertaining others. Make sure that you have a decluttered surface next to every chair to set a drink, put the laundry anywhere other than the place you intend to seat surprise visitors, and keep any activities you would like to do in the same location in that space all of the time. Decide once how you want to entertain for at least a season, and make that space your organizational priority.

​Pick everything that’s not furniture up off the floor

​It’s a little ridiculous how big of an visual decluttering impact this simple trick can have. When you have items on the floor that are visible and clearly not furniture, it makes a space look cluttered as heck. That box with your nail polish in it? Keep it somewhere other than the floor by the couch. Your shoes? Keep them somewhere other than the middle of the floor. Toys? Put them back in bins at the end of every day. This one task of getting non-furniture items off of your floor can free up so much space and also save you and your guests from tripping over items that shouldn’t pose a hazard in the first place. Get things off the floor and into another home.

​Start a bathroom cleaning routine

​This doesn’t have to be for every bathroom in your home. But consider which bathroom your guests will use and keep it organized and clean as best you’re able. This is maybe the least pleasant of the hospitality tasks, especially if you have one bathroom that everyone uses. Organizing where daily use supplies and emergency backstock of toilet paper go isn’t too bad. But keeping a limited few cleaning supplies in that space can make a HUGE difference in your ability to do a 2-minute surface wipe down if a friend texts and says they need to swing by and use the bathroom. Determine your level of comfort for letting someone into that space in an emergency, and make that your weekly baseline for cleaning.

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​I find that having a few systems in place that keep my home at a presentable level lets me let people in, and I hope it’s useful for you to implement these three tips to letting people into your imperfect home and connecting with them! Let me know if you try any of these tips out by sending me an email at hello@sortorganizationservices.com.