Get Organized

A dear friend of mine told me that she had once been told, "You love the idea of organization, but you're not."  I'd say that is the case with the majority of us.  In my particular weird case, I am...organized that is.  I'm compulsively, OCD, anal-ly organized.  Since I always self analyze, I would say it comes a great deal from a young life where I had very little control.  Keeping order in my surroundings is my way of controlling.  There's still a huge portion of life that I have no power over but I can keep my little world ship shape and no one can stop me from it.

Of course, there are multi degrees of organization and dis-organization; from the complete slob, the person surrounded in clutter and disorder or the dysfunctional hoarder to the irritating nut that you literally could eat off of their kitchen floor and their home feels cold, you're afraid to touch anything.    You never sat a dish down in my grandmother's living room, it went straight to the sink and was washed, dried and put in it's place.  My mother-in-law was  not a dirty or unsanitary housekeeper but an incurable clutter bug and my own mother was a complete little pig.   I do have to say, I never knew a truly messy and unorganized person that seemed truly happy. There is something to be said for the Chinese philosophy of Fung Shui, the art of being in harmony and balance with your surroundings. 

Honestly, a person that is buried in their own clutter is truly a frustrated person. How much time can you happily waste, searching for something that you never put back in the same place twice, moving things around so you can put something else down, digging through piles of clothing or papers or what-ever?  Wouldn't be the first time that I was completely wrong, maybe some unorganized people are perfectly happy, it seems to me that most are very scattered and unhappy.

In the spirit of  let's get our s--t together, here's some of my personal suggestions to clear away your life a bit.

            ---Make up the bed. I know, you're going to get back in it. Doesn't matter, just make it up.
         
           ---Don't let the clutter of all the things you need to organize, overwhelm your mind.  Just pick one small thing.  Maybe the closet where you've been piling everything or smaller, just that catch all drawer.  Maybe the desk where you want to sit down and write, but depresses you to even look at it. Just choose one small area and work on organizing that spot to the max. 

          ---Containers and labels are BIG.  Contain it...herd it up...get six cheap laundry baskets, get six free boxes, empty coffee containers....don't place loose piles of any thing any where. Those piles tend to grow and spread. Label it. Socks, shoes, dirty, clean, mail, tomorrow, today, pencils, take outside....once you've stuck a label on, NEVER put anything except what it says in that container, even if one is empty and the other overflows.

          ---Do it right now, not in a minute.  If you're through with whatever is in your hand, walk right to where that "thing" goes and put it there.  If you're taking off your shoes, the moment you stand on your bare feet, walk to where they go.  And, I don't mean go outside in a huge storm to put away that "thing" in the shed.  You have a box for that, don't you?

         ---Chairs and sofas and beds were not designed as clothes racks. That's what hangers, closets and drawers are for.  Floors are supposed to be covered with rugs, useful pieces of furniture and feet. Flat surfaces, counter and table tops are meant to have smooth expanses of clear space. Cabinets, drawers and shelves were created to keep these expanses clear and available for all the temporary tools of daily life that we need to place there.

You will be amazed at how much simpler life will be if you just organize.  The best thing is when you have no control over other things in your life, when you are feeling depressed or overwhelmed, you will find such reward in just pulling together a single area of your world.  Even if it's just one drawer, it's a physical accomplishment. You can stand back and say Now, that looks good. Just do it.