You Can do this Yourself

You can organize your own spaces.

Cleanliness, order, beauty, and clarity -

The ability to find what you need without thinking, or the ease of putting things away quickly with the confidence you can find them again -  these are the gifts of getting organized.

Being organized opens time and space. It offers control over your environment and efficiency in your endeavors. Think of getting organized as a makeover for your systems. It will change how you live and function. It is a process. To do it well takes consciousness of how you interact with your environment and your things.

So, how do you dig out from the piles and untangle from the snarls in oder to to never spiral into them again? Start by trusting the process. Be gentle. Have patience. Don’t lose sight of the end within the details. No matter how small the drawer or how massive the life-rearrange, you can organize it. With diligence and mindfulness you can pare down clutter and design your space to be whatever you want it to be.

Over the years of helping people with this process I have learned that there are three phases to getting thoroughly organized.

1. Learning your habits and desires to create a plan for your project.

2. Clearing the clutter. Deciding what you need and want in a space and taking everything else away.

3. Organizing your spaces into systems that are easy to maintain and that support the unique ways in which your life functions.

So, there’s some freedom in the order in which you do the first two steps, planning and clearing. But give them both the same amount of reverence.

Without a plan you risk flailing, throwing things into new piles, creating new tangles, or shutting down. In the act of planning, you learn your needs and habits, which will help you avoid pitfalls as you go. And without clearing the clutter, you will have no idea what things to build your systems around.

I do maintain the one absolute: creating organized systems comes last. Until you clear what doesn’t serve, it’s impossible to know what you have left to fit into your systems.

 So, let this resonate. Get excited about what's possible. Then when you're ready to learn strategies for the crucial step of creating plan, keep reading!

Up Next: Planning by Journaling