 For some reason, so many people equate getting organized
with achieving an enormous and impossible feat. Something
that only some lucky people are capable of having.
One woman, Elena, told me once that she felt she'd be
more likely to succeed at climbing Mount Everest than to
succeed at decluttering her living room. In her mind, she
was only half joking. She really believed that getting
organized wasn't something she could ever do.
If your thinking is not far from Elena's thinking, then
let me ease your mind.
Being organized does not require you to perform time-
consuming, complicated systems. It is not rocket science.
It is not something that's going to take you years of
soul-searching to start. And it's not something that
only some lucky people are capable of having.
Just a few small organizing tips--a few little, teeny-
tiny tips, applied with a positive attitude, can help you
be more organized today, than you were yesterday.
As you are able to apply tiny organizing tips to your
life, and those teeny tips becomes habits that you do
each day, you will be more and more organized.
Your goal should never be to get totally organized--
that's an overwhelming, difficult, frightening, major,
impossible goal--and something I would never recommend
you try to take on. There is nobody that's always totally
organized. Even professional organizers are occasionally
late for appointments, or sometimes even have a messy
desk.
Your goal should be to apply small organizing tips today
that will make your life just a little more organized
tomorrow. Small, teeny-tiny tips can help make big
changes in your life.
For example, upon further conversation with Elena, she
told me that one time her neighbor stopped by
unexpectedly to bring over some muffins she had just
baked. Elena reluctantly invited her in, but was
immediately mortified by the appearance of her living
room--mail was piled high on the end table, her
childrens' toys were strewn about and jackets were tossed
over the chairs. She even had to move a toolbox, a stack
of library books and a bunch of music CDs from the sofa
just so her neighbor could sit down for a minute.
She was so embarrassed about the situation that in the
days following her neighbor's visit, anytime her doorbell
rang, she pretended she wasn't home. She just couldn't
bear the thought of anyone seeing her mess.
But Elena didn't have to live like this.
a) My first teeny-tiny tip to Elena was that she had to
assign a home for the items that were strewn about. One
sheet of paper, a pen, and 10 minutes later, Elena listed
an appropriate home for each of the items:
- mail home: a wire basket in her den
- kids' toys home: toy shelves in the kids' rooms
- jackets' home: in the coat closet
- toolbox home: in the basement closet
- library books' home: in a tote bag on a hook near the
door
- music CDs' home: in the CD holder in the family room
Now that she had an appropriate home for everything, I
offered her two other teeny-tiny tips:
b) Once she, or other family members, was done using the
item that was removed from it's home, it should simply be
placed back immediately.
c) Third, every night at 6:00 was designated 'Pick-Up
Time.' Basically, for 15 minutes starting at 6:00, each
family member would join in and pick up any item out of
place, and return it to it's assigned home. Only after
everything was put away would everyone sit down and enjoy
dinner.
Elena made a sign that she hung on her kitchen
refrigerator to help her remember these tips. It read:
A: Assign a home.
B: Put it back when you're done with it.
C: 6:00PM Pick-up Time
After Elena saw these tips, she became excited. She said,
'It seems so simple. I think I could do this.'
I said, 'I know you can do this!'
To my delight, Elena contacted me a week later, and said
she could not believe how these teeny-tiny tips have
lifted such a weight off her shoulders. Her living room
had been magically transformed from chaos into calm--just
by sticking to these teeny-tiny tips each day.
She even said that when her doorbell unexpectedly rang a
few days ago, she actually went to the door and answered
it, and didn't feel embarrassed to invite her neighbor
inside. In fact, she felt proud to do so!
I hope Elena's story has inspired you to see a light at
the end of the tunnel--to see that getting organized is
completely possible --that is, as long as you keep
smiling and you apply some teeny-tiny organizing tips to
your life each day.
by Maria Gracia - Get Organized Now! Want to get organized? Get your FREE Get Organized Now! Idea-Pak, filled with tips and ideas to help you organize your home, your office and your life, at the Get Organized Now! Web site http://www.getorganizednow.com
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