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Tag Archive for: Organizing habits
Organizing Made Easy
Putting things away is a very important part of organizing. It needs to be simple and easy. If it isn’t easy, we don’t do it. Therefore, a simple storage solution is the best solution.
For example a client of mine mentioned that she was frustrated with her children for leaving their dirty clothes on the floor where they took them off. I asked her where she wanted the dirty clothes. She walked into the bathroom, opened a linen closet, slid out the hamper, took off the lid, and pointed inside. I then asked her where her children changed into their pjs at night. She said right inside her bedroom door. So, she was confronted with a pile of dirty clothes each time she entered her bedroom. I’m sure we can all understand why she was frustrated. Laundry is a never ending chore that is only simplified with help from all family members. Can you guess at the solution we found? We found one that was simple and easy for her children to adopt. We moved the hamper to a spot by her bedroom door and took off the lid, and let all the children know that they were expected to put their dirty clothes in the hamper.
Another example is a client of mine explained how frustrated she was when her children left their bicycles all over the place. They were in jeopardy of getting run over when they were left in the driveway. They were always getting wet when they were left out in the rain. They were tripped over when they were left by the back door. I asked her where she wanted the bicycles to be when not in use. She answered honestly, that there was no specific spot for the bicycles to be put away, but in the winter they were up on hooks in the garage. This is understandable. Often, seasonal items are either in use or packed away. So, after some discussion we came up with a simple solutions. We used tape to mark off parking spots for the bicycles in the garage. We also labeled each parking spot and let all the children know that they were expected to park their bicycles in their spots at night.
In both of these examples we were able to find a simple storage solution with some discussion and planning. I encourage you to do the same. Keeping things organized will be much easier if you do.
© October 2016 Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer® All Rights Reserved
An Organized Bathroom
Schedule yearly bathroom purges to help keep your space organized. Items to purge include outdated lotions, makeup, and topical skin products, broken bath toys, soiled bath linens, and expired medications and prescriptions. The Drug Enforcement Administration website has information on safe drug disposal and the national drug take-back initiative in October.
How To Organize
My 9 year old niece slept over a few weeks ago, and several times throughout the weekend, she asked the definition to words my husband and I used which she didn’t know the meaning. It made me think of the definition of the word ORGANIZE. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word organize as “to arrange or order things so that they can be found or used easily and quickly : to put things into a particular arrangement or order”. I have found in working as a Certified Professional Organizer® that each individual I work with, has a clear idea of the definition of the word organize, but they struggle with how to achieve it. I think much of the struggle lies in the misconceptions of what it takes to become organized.
The first misconception is that we are either born an organized person or we are not. This is incorrect. There is no organizing gene. Organizing is a skill that everyone can learn and improve upon. How do we go about learning and improving other skills, like playing a musical instrument, typing, golf, knitting? We may sign up for classes. We may work with an instructor one-on-one. We would most certainly practice. This is what is required with the skill of organizing. What if we spent 20 minutes a day practicing organizing? Would we improve our organizing skill? I challenge you to do it, and let me know what happens.
The second misconception is that we can become organized by buying the “right” containers. Organizing is not product. It is action. Although organizing products and tools can facilitate the organizing process, the act of doing makes it work. The three most important actions that are required in organizing are:
- deciding whether to keep something,
- deciding where to put it,
- putting it in the same spot again, and again, and again.
These three action steps are what we do to practice organizing. Again, I challenge you to do it, and let me know what happens.
The third misconception is that we can organize just once and be done with it. Unfortunately, organizing is like dishes and laundry. It doesn’t go away, and it needs to be maintained or the disorder grows. It is important to reclaim order before clutter piles up and things get out of control. I recommend spending at least 15 minutes a day reclaiming order. Again, I challenge you to do it, and let me know what happens.
If you struggle with how to organize, take a closer look at these misconceptions. Do you practice organizing? Do you take action through decision making and putting things in the same spot? Do you give yourself time to reclaim order? What would change if you took steps to disprove these misconceptions? Do, and find out!
© April 2016 Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer® All rights reserved
10 Points on Which I Agree With Marie Kondo
The popular book by Marie Kondo, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tiding Up” has been a topic of many discussions between my Professional Organizer colleagues and myself. I found that I agree with many of Marie Kondo’s points, as long as you substitute the word organizing in place of the word tidying. Here is a list of 10 points on which I agree:
- In most societies tidying (i.e. organizing) is the job that keeps the home livable, but is not taught because of the misconception that the ability to tidy (i.e. organizing) is acquired through experience and doesn’t require training. I agree with this point, because organizing is a skill that needs to be taught, learned, and, most of all, practiced.
- Effective tidying (i.e. organizing) is discarding and deciding where to store things. I agree with this point, because organizing is action. It’s discarding, in a timely manner, what is no longer wanted, needed, or used. It’s also deciding where to put things, and returning those things to the same spot every time they are used.
- Tidying (i.e. organizing) is a dialogue with one’s self. I agree with this point, because when we perform the actions of organizing, discarding and deciding, we have internal dialogues with ourselves.
- Focus more on what you want to keep in your life and space than on what you want to get rid of. I agree with this point, because it’s easier to make decisions when we focus on what’s important to us and worth keeping in our lives and spaces.
- It’s easy to part with things where there is an obvious reason for doing so, but it’s much more difficult when there is no compelling reason. I agree with this point, because we often hold onto things out of indecision or obligation.
- Sometimes never comes. I agree with this point, because when we use the word “sometimes” it is most likely an excuse. The phrases, “I might need that sometime.” or “I might use that sometime.”, are excuses to keep an item, instead of accepting that we don’t need it, and that it is time to let it go.
- If you have lived in Japan or USA all your life, you have almost certainly been surrounded by more than you need. I agree with this point, because it’s estimated that the amount of unopened merchandise in an average American home is $7,00.00.
- Clutter is cause by a failure to return things to where they belong. Therefore storage should reduce the effort needed to put things away, not the effort to get them out. I agree with this point, because more people have trouble putting things away than they do in getting them out.
- Discarding hones one’s decision-making skills. I agree with this point, because practice improves the skill of organizing.
- Tidying (i.e. organizing) ought to be the act of restoring balance among people, their possessions, and the house they live in. I agree with this point, because it has been proven that organized people are less stressed.
©March 2016 Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer® All Rights Reserved
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