Need to get organized but don't know where to start? That's the main complaint I hear from my clients. They usually want to tackle all of their organizing needs at one time - from the kitchen to the front hall closet and basement - instead of taking it one step at a time, or better yet, one drawer at a time.

Losing focus on the task at hand is one of three common problems homeowners experience when they attempt to get better organized.

1. Beware of the domino effect

Staying focused on each organizing task is critical to help ensure the project is completed. Otherwise, you could experience a domino effect and lose your focus on the original task. The following scenario may sound familiar:

You walk into your kitchen and see lots of office supplies that should be returned to your home office, and various tools that should be brought back to their proper home in the garage. You immediately start thinking about how those two spaces need to be organized.

You also make the common mistake of starting to put things away one at a time. If you start in the kitchen and find a tool that should be in the garage, your first instinct is to run it out to the garage.

But don't do that.

The more efficient step is to make piles of items by category. Make a pile for home office supplies, another for toys that belong in the kids' room and one for electrical tape and other items that are stored in the garage. you can deliver items in each pile to their respective "home" after you have worked on the kitchen for that day.

When you interrupt your organizing of the kitchen to make deliveries, it slows down the process 10-fold. Think about it: Doesn't it make sense to make one delivery to the garage in one day instead of five?

The other problem is, if you are making deliveries several times during the day to the garage, you will be distracted from the task at hand (in this example, organizing the kitchen) and you'll want to start working on a project in the garage when the kitchen isn't anywhere near being completed.

2. Don't buy storage containers just yet

The first time I meet clients, inevitably, their first question is, "What containers should I buy?" My response is always, "Please don't buy any."

People believe that purchasing containers and shelving will help them become more organized, but they are usually overlooking the most critical part of organizing: sorting and purging. Without exception, every client I have worked with has had items they were able to get rid of, whether donating them to a local woman's shelter, passing them on to a family member or having a garage sale.

Once you start sorting and purging, it helps to have someone with you to help you be accountable and to stay motivated to get rid of things. That person could be a friend or a professional organizer. Your accomplice can also remind you of people who could use your discards, such as a charity or a nephew moving away to college who could use that extra set of dishes you have boxed up in the basement.

3. You can find good homes for things you don't need

And that leads me to my third point. There really are better uses for items you have stored in the basement, attic, hall closet or garage. If you have items - big or small - that you no longer need, there are plenty of people who could make use of them.

Here are some ideas:

• Physical education departments at schools are always looking for exercise equipment.
• Nursing homes will love that extra nail polish you bought and the books you don't read anymore.
• eBay and other online auctions are always options.
• Know a neighborhood kid heading off to college? Household items are always welcomed by young adults moving away from home.
• The Web site www.twincitiesfreemarket.org is a great place to list items you simply want to get rid of. You can list appliances, pet equipment, musical instruments, lawn and garden equipment and more. One client listed a refrigerator he no longer needed but didn't want the hassle of hauling it to a donation site. Someone picked it up within 48 hours of being listed. The Web site often has storage items to give away, too. Everything listed is free for pick-up.
• Consider Southside Life Center (612- 823-0301) if you want to donate baby cribs, playpens and high chairs; they are given to needy families.

General Organizing Tips (pictures: before, top left; after, bottom left)

Some other tips my clients have found useful include the following:

Photos belong in albums

Many families have boxes of photographs. The reason this project is never tackled is because people think they have to organize all the pictures at one time. Instead, tackle one box at a time.

If the pictures will end up in different family members' photo albums, first sort them into piles by family member, then sort the pictures in chronological order. Now you're ready for the next box. Remember, sort one box at a time.

Photographs should be kept in photo albums. While acid-free materials are best, the important part is getting photos into an album so they don't get bent and inevitably become disorganized if stored in boxes. If they remain in boxes, the people viewing them will not keep them in order and may damage them.

Organize pots and pans

I had a client who couldn't keep her pots, pans and lids organized to save her life. The solution was having a handyman install two sturdy wire "pull-out drawers" to house the pans. Creating easy access made things less stressful, and because she could see the entire shelf when it was pulled out, it was very easy to put things back in an organized fashion.

Where are those scissors?

Keep a pair of scissors on the wall next to the water softener for the next time you need to open a bag of rock salt.

Consider memory boxes

Everyone has items that they can't bear to throw away or give away because they hold special meaning. Yet they don't serve a functional purpose in your home. These types of items are perfect for a memory box.

• Parents can start a memory box to house items like their old letter jackets; that way, they aren't taking up closet space and can be stored safely in a container.
  
• Parents can store their child's favorite toy or the kindergarten portfolio that's too big to store in a scrapbook. Write a quick note to keep with the toy in the box so your child can read about your memory of the child playing with the favorite toy.
  

Know that the items parents choose for their children's memory boxes are often more about the parents' memories and may not be that important to the children as they get older. So don't be surprised when your 21-year-old daughter asks, "Why did you keep that old, broken tennis racket all these years?"

• By the time your children are teenagers, it is important to ask them what they want in their memory box so they can be part of the process. You will be amazed to find out what things are important for them to hold on to and what things they don't care about. It will be interesting to see how similar or how different your views can be from your children's.
  

As with anything else, it is important not to save everything in the memory box. It is meant for those items that have no practical use in your house any more, yet you absolutely cannot part with them.

Wrap them in memories

Since we can't save all of our children's clothes, save a few select ones such as their favorite blanket, overalls and baseball shirt, and have them made into a quilt when you send them off to college. That way you are preserving memories for your kids and creating a great functional item.

Tackle the garage

Fall is a terrific time to clean and organize your garage. Depending on how many stalls you have, a good strategy can be to just start with your work bench and get your tools organized.

• Peg boards are a terrific way to store tools. Tools should be organized by category: garden tools in one area, screwdrivers in their own area and hammers hung near the screwdrivers.
  
• The general rule in garages is to have everything visible. If things are kept behind closed doors in garages, people usually forget about them and buy more. If you can see that you already have four quarts of oil, you won't buy more. Open shelving works well for visibility, and for storing yard chemicals and other poisons on out-of-reach shelves so little hands can't reach them.
  
• One of the challenges for parents is to organize kids' items like balls and in-line skates. Ideally, store similar sports balls together. Buying an inexpensive, tall trash can is a great way to house the bats, hockey sticks and tennis rackets. Label containers so you know what's inside.
  
• Other options include installing a garage system which can range from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars. Some of the garage systems look like aluminum siding on the inside of your garage. you then purchase accessories that house everything your garage contains, from tennis rackets to flower pots. Some systems can be installed yourself; others are purchased from a company like GarageTek. These are great systems because everything is visible and is at your fingertips to grab at a moment's notice. Just think about it, you can hang those huge hockey bags in the garage instead of smelling up the mud room. My clients who have installed these systems have virtually eliminated the need to organize their garage on a regular basis.
  
• Taking time to label containers in your garage is critical. It doesn't guarantee that everything will go back in the right place, but it increases the probability that that will happen. Having things labeled is like having a big brother looking over your family's shoulder when someone tries to put the garden gloves in the golf ball container. You will be surprised at how much easier it will be to maintain your garage.
  

Start small

If you're ready to get better organized, start small and stay focused. And remember, it's Ok to ask for help. Not everyone was born to organize.

By Alice Everett

Alice Everett is the owner of Absolutely Alice, Inc., where she organizes homes, offices, events and parties. To learn how Alice can organize your home or business space, give her a call at 612-220-8318 or visit her Web site, www.absolutelyalice.com.