▪ Enable your Lifestyle and customize your living space
There are all kinds of small and clever ways to organize your existence. Do you sometimes feel that life is just plain crazy? Do you struggle to get things done, and do you feel what you do is never good enough? You need to be better organized and stop rushing about looking for stuff. We all rush too much and should be planning much more to balance work, play, family, and friends. This can be demanding. If you want to have more time to do the things you enjoy, organizing yourself is KEY!
Having good order is the first building block to becoming better organized. Stop thinking of de-cluttering as this terrific and insurmountable obstacle that constantly intimidates you to keep putting off the inevitable clean up. Start thinking of it as one of the most effective self-improvement exercises ever available to you. Every magazine and piece of paper you recycle and everything you take to the goodwill store will liberate you. Giving unneeded items to charity will set your spirit free and let you breathe again! Free yourself now of clutter and open the floodgates of joy and energy into your life.
Exhaustion and significant lack of motivation to restore order in your environment signal that the balance in your life may be out. Lack of adequate time to do routine chores in the evenings suggest that you need to take a hard look at your lifestyle and make some adjustments to balance your life better.
Maybe you face health issues or life phase changes. Or perhaps you had to negotiate immense physical changes or experienced losses that influenced your emotional balance in a major way. That is no lasting excuse for procrastination or lazily avoiding facing your responsibility to restore order to your world.
Self-discipline is needed at difficult times to do what is necessary at that moment, to avoid undesired results later. Putting things off because you don’t feel like it now will inevitably cause a snowball or domino effect and make things much worse later for everyone. It can mean the difference between a happy or horrible day, between peace of mind or anxiety and many more things going wrong, affecting everyone that you come in touch with, at home or in the work place.
Establishing a habit of thinking and planning ahead is crucial and the mature and responsible thing to do. You may not be making full use of your available hours during your day or evening. A good balance of your time is needed for work, goals, recreation, and relaxation. Maybe too much time is usually devoted to “time stealers” like TV or internet.
Do you stay up way too late and get up in the morning tired and not in a good mood? Take a close look at your daily routine, examine your findings and come up with a plan. Resolve to follow your plan and become better organized. Don’t postpone things to tomorrow or put things off that you can finish now. You’ll thank yourself later for being accountable for your actions today.
Why be better organized? It will raise your self-esteem and cause you to feel in control of certain areas in your life that’s never been the case before. It is an empowering experience and a character building one for everyone in the household. Getting busy attacking the problem will keep your mind from worrying or negative self talk because you will be focused in a constructive way on conquering your challenge.
Extra time freed up because of better organization can be used to learn new things or hobbies and then to relax and be more content when experiencing an increased sense of wellbeing. Perhaps you face additional challenges being a single parent with a demanding work situation and are time-challenged every day.
Make a point to sit and relax a while each day and plan. Careful planning should afford you some time per day to work at becoming better organized. It will be an investment you will never regret. Exercising and improving your mind by more reading and learning exciting new things in the time you saved by freeing yourself from the chains of chaos will be a sweet reward for your efforts to straighten and control the clutter once and for all!
Most of us use only a small amount of our true capabilities and there is so much more to being alive! Learning new things will give you new incentives and purpose in life and a great feeling of achievement.
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor." - Henry Thoreau (1817-1862)
If you are under a lot of stress, a more passive and relaxing approach may be more advisable to start with. Set some time aside for your own unique enjoyment. When you do this, getting organized will not feel as much of a chore. You will naturally wish to work towards getting organized so that you will have more time for yourself.
Take a walk in the park, listen to lovely music, read an interesting book, work in the garden, or watch a bit of TV. Enjoy the time perks earned from living organized. How we spend our time shows much about who we are and how we think. All of this can be influenced greatly by culture and ethnic heritage, which for each of us should be precious and respected.
"When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
▪ Creative Genius can change your life FOREVER
Simplify your space and life! Create a simple organizing system. YOU have the ability….you CAN do it! Zones are key. Organize any space in different zones of activity and group similar or related items or required tools together close to where the activity happens. Create places for things and assign designated places for grouping related items together close to the relevant activity zones. Then your space will speak to you and support and help you maintaining order in it in a natural way.
When designing your management system, work with your natural habits. Note where your piles tend to accumulate and create storage there, and then putting away these piles are close by and your system is a breeze to maintain. Invest a couple of hours to analyze and strategize before attacking the challenge and start to organize.
You can work with your natural tendencies and habits to create a low maintenance system that works and will succeed and last. Analyze the trouble spot that needs cleaning up and study the outlay of the room and where piles or clutter collect. Ask yourself what is causing the clutter. Don’t just blame yourself for being lazy. Discover the real reasons.
There may be technical errors, like a mistaken way in which the space is set up that cause this congestion and make it very difficult to keep the space tidy. If things pile up it could be that they have no home or assigned space yet. Maybe you’ve never figured out where your calculator should live, therefore you can never find it and it is always gone when you need it.
The solution is simple – assign a home for it and make sure it is returned to its home every time. Another technical error is inconvenient storage. You have a place where to store something, but it is so hard to get to so you just leave it sitting on the counter top cluttering the place up. The solution is to make that storage more convenient.
Sometimes there are external factors out of your control that stand in the way of you getting organized, like an unrealistic workload. You have to get to the root of the problem and address that before you can tackle the clutter. You may have been in transition, and recently moved, or are going to move, or changed jobs or got married and blended two families, or retired, or moved into a new house where no shelves or storage spaces exist yet, etc. You cannot organize yet until you know more what you need.
There may be psychological obstacles. Sometimes that clutter is there because there is psychological resistance. No matter how much you crave order, there is some stake that you have in that chaos, and it is doing something for you. If you can identify what it is, it is the starting point to get beyond it and find another solution.
Some people have a need for abundance, to be surrounded by stuff, because it makes them feel good. Maybe some of those people grew up feeling that they didn’t have enough food, money, attention or love. If you grew up feeling empty, you maybe grew up into an adult that compensates by craving enough …. abundance.
If that is the case with you, you have to recognize that you’ll never be comfortable with clear countertops and a single vase. Rather recognize and celebrate who you are and adjust your organizing accordingly. Knowing yourself is key! Keep your stuff, don’t throw it out, but organize it neatly so you have access to it so you can celebrate that abundance and feel good!
Some people have a sentimental attachment to their stuff. It is so hard to let go of items because we infuse them with so much meaning. They define us, someone we used to be, someone we want to be, someone we once knew, etc. Some of those are very important to hold onto, but if it is taking over your space so that you have no place for who you are right now or who you are going to be in future, then you need to just reduce the volume.
Get a beautiful trunk or basket and create a treasure chest for yourself full of reminders of your past, so that you can from time to time open it and enjoy lovely trips down memory lane. Clear the rest of your life for who you are right now. Identifying what the actual cause of your cluttering problem is, will be the most liberating experience that you are going to have getting organized, as it takes all the self blame away, Stop beating yourself up – there is nothing wrong with you.
Get to the actual cause. That will give you hope, since technical, external or psychological factors can be addressed and you realize you don’t need to use the clutter for this and you can move on. So now you have this whole new outlook on organizing, have started this analyze process, and you’re well on your way to learning this new wonderful skill…
Ask yourself: “What’s working for me about this space?” No matter how cluttered it may seem, something is always working about a certain space. If you learn “what”, it is going to provide you with clues to what you like. For example, if the belt rack is the only part of your closet that gets used properly, and where you love to put things away because it is visible and accessible, it tells you that it works. So adding light, beautiful hangers, gorgeous containers and a nice shoe rack to your closet might cause you to like and use the rest of it too.
Another question is: “What’s not working about this space?”
Make a thorough list that will become your measuring tool. If you don’t and just make spot attacks, then you end up doing patchwork organizing where you fix some but not all of the problems. The remaining disorganized areas may spill over into your nicely organized ones and spoil them so you are back to square one.
Write down that you can never find this or that you have no place to put your or “When I walk into that space it makes me feel ….” As you progress, check down each remark on the list as you addressed it and when you come to the end of your list you should be thoroughly organized and you will not slip back because of some unfinished areas.
Ask yourself: “What items are most essential to me?” Generally speaking, we tend to use only 20% of what we own. We wear only 20% of the clothes that we own and wear them over and over again. We listen to only one fifth of the CD’s we own, etc. Keep asking yourself if this garment belongs to that 20% that you love and that defines you.
That’s who you are and that’s what’s essential in your life. If you write it down as you go it helps you to focus on what’s really important to you so you can have access to it. That is organizing; it is not about throwing things out, but about finding out what is important to you and getting easy access to it.
Why do you want to get organized? You need something to compel you to push through with this; you need something beyond the mess to motivate you. Write down your answer now, at the highest point of your motivation, so that 3 hours into the sorting process you can remind yourself why you wanted to do this in the first place. What do you gain? Why do you bother?
You want to gain time by not getting hung up looking for stuff that disappeared into your nightmare of a closet. You do not fully realize how much time you are losing when you can least afford it. Research shows that the average North American loses one hour a day searching for stuff, or six weeks a year! Add another hour per day to that hour due to procrastination and putting things off. That makes for 12 weeks or 3 months of the year…Wasted and lost to your clutter!
We all feel that we don’t have enough time in our lives for what is really important. So if you invest the time to reorganize, you will gain a quarter of the year back! How are you going to spend that time? More time with your family, more time for travel or hobbies, or learning a new language… More time… and feeling better about yourself, and not being ashamed of the mess you live in….that is your compelling reason.
Saving money is another compelling reason. It is estimated that up to 20% of our budgets is lost due to crises purchases related to disorganization because you can’t find what you know you already have. Late charges, rush charges, buying stuff at expensive places because you need it at that moment but can’t lay your hands on yours and there is no time to buy at economy stores! So if you get organized and get that money back in your pocket, what are you going to spend it on? Invest it in your retirement fund or take a vacation trip with the extra time and money you will now have available!
You will be free of the stress involved! Clutter causes stress! You’re always behind, always late, always apologizing to people. It’s distracting, demoralizing, embarrassing! You are terrified of someone calling you up on very short notice to say they are dropping in unexpectedly. You feel that you can do so much more if only you were organized! It is now within your reach! Go for it! Wouldn’t it be nice to feel in control, feel ready for life, and enjoying life? That is what organizing can do for you!
You now know exactly why you want to get organized, you know what is causing the clutter, you know what is essential to you, you know what is working and what not, and you have analyzed the situation. You know where you are. Now you are ready to strategize. Figure out where you are going. Plan your attack on the problem. Create yourself a roadmap of how to get to your goal.
Don’t just take off without knowing where you’re going. If you omit this, you may get lost 3 hours into the process because you lose sight of where you are heading and don’t know how far along the process you are. Break it up in measurable, workable chunks and arrange them in a sequence that makes sense. Then only start to dig into the clutter and piles, sort and relocate some to more suitable assigned places that make sense.
Develop an efficient and very simple model to use in every space you have to organize. Divide the space in activity zones, where everything needed is stored at its point of use, in cute, functional and efficient containers. All you need is right there - you do not need to run around to gather stuff from many other places when you want to engage in a specific activity.
It is therefore very easy and enjoyable to concentrate on this activity and make the most of the available time, since all your tools are right there handy and you don’t need to hunt for them all over the place wasting precious time and energy. Many people have given up doing hobbies they used to love because their time is being stolen by them being so disorganized!
Store things where they are used. We tend to store things where they fit, and that may be inconveniently far away from where they are used! It should be as much fun putting things away as it is using them. When you walk into a space it should provide a visual menu of everything that is important to the people that inhabit that space, with every activity or theme centered in its own spot. You should do this for yourself.
Your very environment will reflect back to you who you are, what your interests are and what there is to do. For every space you have to organize, think first about what the activities are that will take place in that room. In your living room there could be a reading zone. You love to read in the chair by the window, so store the books nearby there. If you love to play board games with the family, create a little hobby corner where these games are stored handy.
If every drawer and cupboard is miscellaneous and full to capacity, it will be impossible to find anything. Designate clear zones for different things, and label the zones so you have only to think of this once.
Be creative and “think outside the box”. Look with new eyes at possible fresh solutions for your storage needs. Look in your spaces for those hidden pockets of storage, like under stairways, inside or behind doors, along walls, etc. Use vertical space by hanging things up.
▪ Time, Priorities and lists
You too can live an ordered life! Life really does not have to be a mess. Take a few steps to ensure that it is not and you will have time for the things that really matter to you most. You will have all the time you want for family, friends, work and more, and best of all, you will be sane. The number one benefit to being better organized is being sane!
The more organized you are the more time you will have available. As you become better organized, start a new hobby or preferably something that the whole family can share in. Getting everybody on board about living organized is key to make it work and promote harmony in the home. Make it fun for the kids to help, and compliment and reward them for positive attitudes and trying to help as a team.
Be sure to make it a positive and encouraging experience for everybody or you may end up being the lone embittered struggler in the scene, feeling very sorry for yourself and playing the “poor me” game. Once you complete some projects successfully, you will start feeling better about yourself, your nice tidy organized environment and how you are managing your organized and planned time.
With a place for everything and everything in its place, you are freed up in body and mind to take on new endeavors. You will have more time to focus on improving relationships with your loved ones and spend more quality time together, working on creating a pleasant and comfortable living environment that you can be proud of, for all of you.
Why try to remember everything? Help your memory by writing things down immediately when you think of what needs to be done, or put it into your cell phone’s reminder function or on your electronic diary or device. It is the first step to restore order. Keep it all in one place to avoid wasting valuable time searching for different lists. A small hand held digital recorder may be a wonderful tool to carry around to record your thoughts while driving, or data you’ll need later. What you dictate to the recorder may be downloaded straight into your word processor using voice recognition software.
Prioritize your lists. Plan ahead for the next day and assign priorities to the tasks you need to do according to their importance. It is said that if you use 80% of the available time to plan very well, you’ll only need 20% of the usual time to complete the task efficiently and successfully. Estimate the time required and try to be realistic in your goals and expectations. Categorize your goals according to short and long term, easy and more complex projects. Try to break down complex projects in smaller workable chunks that can be tackled one at a time. Organize a bit at a time. Remember that time is money too.
During the day, mark down the tasks that you have completed and the goals that you achieved. Enjoy experiencing the sweet sense of accomplishment that is generated by reaching your targets. Use a diary to plan ahead for days or even weeks. Write in all appointments and commitments. Use a big erasable planner for the whole family on the fridge or somewhere central, so everybody’s movements can be coordinated ahead of time and last minute conflicts can be avoided.
Use available (and often free) email reminder services to help you remember things. There are many good and free e-mail reminder services available. Type in the data beforehand and you will receive an e-mail reminder when the date is approaching. Call ahead to your answering machine and leave yourself or relevant persons a message as a reminder. Sticky “Post-It” notes are amazing as additional reminders as the bright, neon colors will catch your eye. Alarm clocks and timers are useful throughout your day as reminders of tasks. Set your timer to beep a few minutes early to remind you to get ready.
Visual reminders will help you stay focused and to remind you of your longer-term goals every day. A picture on your desk that you can associate with your higher goals will help you to stay motivated and on track to achieve the longer term objective, e.g. to lose 30 pounds in six months.
Be confident in yourself. Brainwashing yourself by keeping on saying you have a bad memory will probably continue to cause you to have difficulty remembering and undermine your self-esteem. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is important to have a motivated and positive “I CAN remember” attitude. A keen memory needs a well-nourished mind to be able to stay focused and alert.
Eat and live healthily, get enough sleep and adequate regular exercise. Exercise and develop your mind and memory by reading stimulating books, playing challenging memory games and computer games for good, quick coordination and responses. Keep on top of world news and current issues and trends. Challenge your mind and memory and make them work for you every day. Schedule times to have a family talk-together-time during which you can start sharing your vision of organized living in a friendly way with them. Never nag, but try to convey the need for everybody to embrace a new positive attitude of empowerment and the practical possibility of taking back control of order in the family life as a team.
Emphasize working together to enhance your living space to become a pleasant and comfortable place you can all be proud of. Don’t become discouraged if they are not exactly enthusiastic at first. Just keep seeding your insights, and eventually they will grow when good results begin emerging. Don’t try to do everything on your own.
Enlist help by asking nicely and reward them with lavish but honest praise and thanks. Compliment them on jobs well done and never be critical or impatient. Resign yourself to the fact that kids inevitably come with some degree of clutter, but try and help them to develop habits of tidying up and organizing skills. Assign a place for everything from clothes to underwear and toys, and define it clearly, even mark it with name and place tags. That will make it easy for everybody to find things and find the places where things are supposed to go. “Make sure everything has its place and a place for everything!”
▪ Time is precious and unrecoverable … do not waste it!
Planning can save you enormous amounts of time. Planning means to allocate time. To plan is to design a roadmap of time to get you from here to your goals. Time can be your biggest friend, or your worst nightmare. Put time on your side, think and plan ahead, reduce your stress levels, accomplish your goals and feel in control so you can achieve your peak potential. Eliminate time wasters, distractions and frustrations.
P_L_A_N!
Prepare yourself through analyzing situations and challenges ahead of time, strategizing, organizing, formulating goals and working towards achieving them, keeping track of progress. Asking “Who, What, When Where, Why and How” can help you to plan ahead. Before you can organize, you have to plan. Think ahead. Visualize solutions and then plan how to achieve them. Plan for the long term and short term, and formulate your goals for each.
Lists are indispensable to live by. To reach your goals you have to do things within a time frame. Organizing your time helps you to track your progress so you get more done with less stress in a calm and efficient way. Use both a master and a “to do” list along with your daily organizer. Plan today for tomorrow. Plan now for later. The rewards are huge!
Act with routines and schedules. Learn to save time in clever ways. Get stuff done much faster by developing smart routines that will get even quicker as you get better at them. Routines bring sanity in a crazy world. Use your planner all day and also schedule time for yourself. Throw in the occasional "no" for less important things. Stick to your new routines. You will stress less and be happier. Be responsible and accountable to keep to your organized schedules and routines, so you can feel in control, be organized, achieve your goals and have more free time on top of it all.
Notice your progress and reward yourself, so you create a stronger incentive to accomplish even more. The positive reinforcement of your success will motivate you even more and you will feel so much better about yourself. Time management is a vital part of getting organized so you can enjoy life more.
More timesaving tips to help you towards getting organized:
Choose and use your day planner carefully. Make sure it suits your every need and is small enough to carry around, but big enough to accommodate your lists. It will help you to effectively lay out your day on paper, so you know where you are going.
Use a big visual dry-erase family planner. This way, everyone in the family knows what everyone else is up to and when. You can plan much better this way to accommodate everyone’s activities, appointments and commitments. Place it up in a convenient location, which might be the refrigerator or in a high-traffic area.
Learn to sometimes say "no." You are only one person can’t do it all! Exercise your stress management techniques by saying "no" occasionally when you are asked to do things that are of little priority to you and may reduce family time.
Take time to enjoy life and have some fun. Spend time with your children. Go out to the movies. Indulge at the spa. Attend sports or shows. Do some gardening. You may even find some chores relaxing.
Think of what you love to do most and reward yourself at times for your progress in getting organized. Schedule some "me time” and treat it like an appointment with yourself. Everything has a time of its own. Make some time for yourself as well.
Schedule time for installing time-saving devices around the house and for regular clean-up times for drawers, fridges, closets and more, e.g. more hooks for the keys so you don’t waste time looking for them frustrated over missing items. Make sure everything is located easily.
