This is the second post in a new series on How to Organize Your Home. The series will focus on what it really takes to organize your home so you and your family members are happy with the end results. Enjoy!
Sometimes I giggle a little that I work for a professional organizing company. Why? Because I wasn’t “born organized,” and for most of my life I certainly considered myself to be pretty messy.
It has only been in the last few years that I realized something pretty key: Those people who have super organized homes? They learned how to do that.
Someone showed them, modeled it for them, or taught them how to organize. I think it’s true that some people have a more inherent desire for order than others, and maybe some people latch onto organizing principles quicker than others. But, the important thing is that being organized is not a personality trait. If you don’t consider yourself to be an organized person, I want to share the following things I’ve realized in hopes that it encourages you on your organizing journey!
- You can learn to be more organized. Really! If I can learn, anyone can– just ask my neat-freak husband. 😉 I’m teasing a little, but truth be told, my husband was my first organizing teacher. He modeled some really great practices for me keeping an organized house, including clutter control, decluttering, purging, and regular maintenance of organizing systems. That definitely got me started on my path to more organized living, and that path eventually led to simplify 101!
- It’s OK to ask for help. Do you ever feel like being disorganized is a personality flaw? I know that I felt that way. So, admitting that I was a mess felt like airing my dirty laundry. I wasn’t embarrassed at needing a geometry teacher in high school. I didn’t feel awkward getting watercolor instruction from an artist. We consult with nutritionists, register for cooking classes and hire personal trainers. We are unafraid to ask for help in these areas, but for some reason we want to just BE organized. Becoming more organized is personal development, and it’s OK to get a professional to show you how to organize your home. That leads me to my next point.
- We all learn differently. Research shows there are actually seven different learning styles – visual, aural, verbal, physical, logical, social and solitary. Do you know your learning style? I’m primarily a verbal learner, so it really works for me to read how to do something. Knowing this helps me understand why I can pin pretty pictures on Pinterest all day, but that doesn’t get me anywhere. In fact, sometimes it’s actually counterproductive because I see what others can accomplish and start feeling bad because it’s not getting me any closer to accomplishing the same for myself. The bottom line is that not everyone learns the same way, so it’s important to first understand your learning style, and then seek tools that will teach you how to organize in the way that works best for you.
If you’ve been laboring under the idea that you are simply “not an organized person” and therefore incapable of home organization that works (and lasts!), take heart. What it really takes to organize your home is simply a matter of learning how. You can do this! What’s one thing you’d like to learn to organize your home?
Happy Organizing,
Thanks for this reminder! One thing I would like to learn to organize my home and esp. my office is to actually designate functional homes for the free-floating stuff that collects on my desk and on surfaces, while I feel like I seldomly touch most of the stuff “packed away” behind doors. I would love to get rid of / find other spaces for the things I don’t regularly use and utilise the new-found space for the things I actually work with.
Another thought that fits the “learning” part: I like reading the “about” pages of blogs I come across and often marvel at phrases like “I love being organized” or “I am a list-maker and function better with lists.” Both are things I’d say about me, too – but especially the first one is an elusive state for me most of the time, so it would never have occured to me to say that about myself. Although it is true – it just sounds like I actually AM organized all of the time. Of course I love crossing off big projects or working in a neat and tidy office, but it’s not something I accomplish every day. I have come to the conclusion that this is actually just a shift of perspective – and actually something I can hold on to as a truth while I’m working on the goal. It is yet to be seen if I can actually embrace this though 😉
Thanks so much for your comment Johanna. Your second point about being organized is a terrific one. Here’s the thing…no person or home is perfectly organized all the time. Order is elusive for everyone…but it doesn’t mean that we aren’t organized. In other words, I consider myself an organized person, but I recognize that how that translates into my home and life is kind of like a wave. There are waves when things are in their spots and everything looks very organized. And then, there are waves where we’re in the middle of a big project or we’re just living life and things are not in their spots.
So even though when things are out of their places and it might not look organized, it doesn’t change a thing about who I am and how I think of myself in terms of “being” organized. The key might be this: do I know how to get it back to how I want it to be? The answer is yes…and so that’s why I consider myself “organized” all the time, even when my spaces might appear to be saying something different.
Let me know if that makes sense…and thanks for your thought-provoking comment.
Aby
Some basic tips to organise your home :
1. Start with an area in your home where you will see results quickly. I like to direct people to their kitchen junk drawers.
2.Establish criteria for what you’re going to keep and toss before you begin so you don’t waste time and energy on items you are just going to throw out.
3. Group by type of item (i.e. all extra tubes of toothpaste in a storage basket in the linen closet, etc.)
4.Identify and use the appropriate containers for items. If they don’t fit you probably won’t use it for too long.
5.Avoid mystery boxes by using clear containers and labeling them as soon as you fill them up.