Some people are organized and others are not. Right? This is a common misconception. Of course, some people are naturally more organized than others because they crave order. However, more often than not, being disorganized is not the result of simply being comfortable with disorder as much as it is an inability to figure out how to create and maintain order.
Give Items a Home
Continually creating and cleaning up messes is exhausting, and many people find themselves giving up and feeling like the chaos is inevitable; they believe the difference between themselves and those who have orderly homes and offices just clean up all the time. While this may be true for some, the more common reality is that orderly homes, offices and other spaces are those where everything has a place and everything is returned to its place when it is no longer being used. It may sound too simple to be the difference between chaos and order. But it is simple. That does not mean it is easy. Organization requires discipline: the discipline to take the extra steps to return the brush to the bathroom drawer and not sit it on the counter; the discipline to hang a coat in the closet instead of throwing it over the back of the couch. Immediate ease must take a backseat to creating the habit of putting things in their place.
Create a Plan
Another key aspect of organization is planning. Often, disorganization occurs when people are in a rush or have not planned for the events of the day. Therefore, it is vital to not only put things in their place but also events. Having a schedule makes it easier to visualize the number of tasks that are involved in a day which makes it easier to allot time for the day’s tasks–including the time that it takes to put items in their designated places.
Include Meals and Others
It is also important to find the small ways throughout the day that can make being organized easier. For example, it may be helpful to create a meal plan to help add to the structure of the day. There are sites, like Sunbasket, that offer suggestions for meal planning that can make meal planning simple. It is also important that the new practices and habits of the home be impressed upon everyone in the home. It is impossible to have an orderly and organized home if one person is expected to create and maintain that order alone.
The process of organizing a home and a life does not happen overnight. It takes commitment, habit-building and discipline. But the commitment to the hard work of organization will eventually pay off in the form of habits that become second nature and, therefore, easier to implement and make spaces easier to maintain. Organization is not for those with a certain personality type or perfectionists. It is for anyone who will initiate the process of organizing and creating and following through with a plan to maintain it. Perfection is not the key to organization; persistence is.
Speaks from heart, always too passionate and driven by emotions. Spins the words with kindness & sharpness, intriguing your ever-inscrutable minds.
