Zen. Peace. Bliss. Serenity. Contentment. Beautiful words, but pretty hard to achieve when you can’t remember the last time you saw your desktop or you haven’t filed your taxes in three years because you can’t find any of your documentation. Forget blissful; being disorganized is downright exhausting. Your head is swimming with things you have to do, but how can you do any of them when you spend your entire day looking for your car keys, cell phone and that overdue bill you were going to mail? Where does the time go? With everything you have in your regular schedule where will you ever find the extra time to organize your closet let alone set up a filing system for your home office? And that mail—it just keeps pouring in.
As a professional organizer, the first thing I tell my clients is to stop apologizing and feeling guilty for not being organized or for the “mess.” We are busy people and we have to prioritize. What is more important—picking your daughter up from school or “decluttering” the living room? What is more important—meeting your client’s deadline or purchasing a shoe rack? As soon as we acknowledge that we just can’t do it all, life gets easier. The other important thing to remember is that the clutter didn’t appear overnight. Usually a major life event (marriage, move, death, birth, job change, etc.) throws us off. We get out of our routine, assume new responsibilities, and our priorities shift. Gradually, our processes and systems (if we had them) break down because they are no longer being maintained. The piles start to build and grow. If the piles grew overnight, you’d be able to handle them in short order. But they didn’t, and now the piles are mountains which require a plan or a strategy to conquer.
Developing a plan for organizing your home or office is somewhat similar to developing a work out plan to get into shape. You need to establish clear goals, focus on certain areas, and set aside time to achieve the goals. For instance, your goal might be to organize your office. Instead of looking at the overwhelming goal of the entire space, break it down into smaller, more manageable areas. Start with the low-hanging fruit (easily achievable goals) so you can build your momentum. Perhaps your desktop would be easy to clear off. Start there and then set aside time on your calendar for the next area—perhaps the file cabinet. You just need a plan and you need to show up and take steps towards achieving your plan.
I think most of us know the basics for getting into shape, i.e., eat better and exercise more. Likewise for getting organized i.e., put stuff away and toss junk! When you begin a workout program, however, you might not know how to use the equipment or how to get started. Maybe you need a personal trainer to help keep you on task and motivated. Similarly, you might find that a professional organizer is needed to help you set up a plan and keep you motivated in order to achieve your organizing goals. A professional organizer will set up systems to help you stay organized, and will be able to recommend the best products for maximizing your space. I can’t tell you how many times I’m hired by a client who has bought and tried every organizing product The Container Store sells, and they’re all sitting collecting dust. Old, forgotten organizing products never die, they just add to your clutter. If you are buying organizing products and they’re not working, it’s not the product, it’s the process. This is where a professional can help. There are a lot of great professional organizers out there, but be sure to find one who will work well with you and who understands your challenges. The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) is a great resource for finding an organizer (www.napo.net). Just because they have that neat label maker, however, doesn’t mean that they’re going to be a good fit for you and your needs. You want someone who will help you set up a system that you will be able to understand and maintain long after he/she is gone. If you are struggling to keep up with filing, you don’t want a sophisticated system that requires that you whip out a label maker every time you need to create a file because that is just not going to happen.
The other thing to remember is that even the most organized people only have 24 hours in a day. Maybe it’s not so much a matter of not being organized as it is a matter of delegating and/or hiring additional help. We can’t be everything to everyone and think that something isn’t going to suffer as a result. It is good news if the only thing suffering is your closet.
I wish you peace, bliss and serenity, but most of all I wish you an organized life.
Quick tip: Take ten minutes every day and go through your mail. Stand over a garbage can while you sort through it and immediately toss junk mail. The last thing you want to do is to pay a professional organizer to sort through three years worth of piled up junk mail. Pay each bill as soon as it arrives to avoid late fees.
Lori Welch is the owner of JCL Services, Ltd. a professional organizing and personal concierge service making life easier for its clients in the DC/MD/VA area since 2001. www.jclservicesltd.com
