Colour CODE your clutter!

Brilliant four-page pullout

THIS might sound funny to some, but for me, tidying and organising has become my form of meditation. Honestly, if I go to a spa, or someone says you’ve got to try this calming meditation — blah, blah, blah — I just can’t lie there and think of nothing. I find it absolutely impossible.

I end up thinking: ‘Oh, I’ve got this thing to do later, will I get it done . . . and also, what if that other thing happens?’ My brain will just not shut up! Things slip into my mind and out again, and it just doesn’t work for me — I don’t find it relaxing.

But while I think traditional meditation might not be for everyone, I genuinely think there’s some form of meditation that is. Mine is to focus on something completely — and that’s what crafting, tidying and organising lets me do.

When I’m sitting there, pulling everything out of a cupboard, looking at all the colours and the sizes of all the items I’ve got, working out how best they’re going to go back in there, I’m not thinking of anything else other than the task at hand. My brain can’t chatter away because it’s too busy thinking about how it’s going to achieve what is in front of me.

Maybe tidying and organising could become a form of meditation for you too.

One of the things I find particularly therapeutic is colour coding when I’m tidying and organising things away. After taking everything out of whatever cupboard or drawer I’m working on, one of the first things I do is take in the colours of the stuff.

And then that becomes one of the things they can be organised by. So, for example, candles get sorted by their colours first, then their sizes, and I organise the boys’ packets of crisps in colour order in the snack cupboard.

I even have my phone apps ordered by colour so they look like a beautiful rainbow on the home screen!

But, how you organise is down to your personal preference. Some people prefer things in size order, others go by colour or brand (so everything from one brand is grouped together) when organising. My personal preference is generally to go by size first and then I like to colour code — for some reason seeing things ordered that way makes me happy.

But if I put things in colour order, if they’re not in size order too then there’s something about the unevenness of it all that really gets on my nerves. So I’ll go in size order first, and try to balance out the colours as best I can.

Just remember though, it’s up to you to pick a system that suits whatever you’re tidying and organising — and that’ll be what feels right to you personally.

And the great thing about that is there’s no way you can get it wrong!