Everything has it's place in order
When we are faced with a mound of paper, mail, a cluttered desk, a kitchen table piled with books, letters, clothes and assorted things, we find our minds fog over and we can’t think clearly. We may find we are alone in a sea of stuff that we try to push aside each day and find a way around it. The problem is that it doesn’t go away until we make a decision about it.
My recommendation is not to sweat the small stuff for that is what clutter is. Of course, in our minds when we face a garage that hasn’t been organized in 20 years and has had stuff added to it on a regular basis or a closet that has buried “treasures” of who-knows-what, we can feel like this is anything but small.
My job as an organizer is to break this stuff down into bite-sized pieces so we can begin to untangle the web of confusion and to get to the surface area beneath. “Everything has its place” is an effective principle in which to work. It gives the user the foundation that everything goes somewhere and that once we begin to find homes for specific things, all it’s relatives will easily fall in line.
Paperwork has a place to go–not on the floor in piles, nor stacked on the TV, couch, dining table or the desktop. Paper goes into files and files go into a filing system and each file is clearly marked so that all related paper can now be funneled directly into those files. They have a home and they belong somewhere specific. It can prove very exciting when a client, who once held a piece of paper and would unconsciously set it down somewhere for uncertainty of what to do with it, now, often with excitement, has a place for that paper and she knows exactly where to place it. It shows that a system is now in place and she can do something with the paper and the other belongings she owns.
Getting organized is a process. It’s not an end result. It requires patience and persistence to follow through and get to the point where things have a home and they go there on a consistent basis and they are retrieved from there as well. Order is a way of life. It makes sense when we begin to put things in places that we designate and that works for us. It does us no good to continue on as we have. It keeps us mired in the past and keeps us from living in the present. We can’t seem to get past what is in front of us because we have procrastinated and been delinquent in choosing what to do with the things we have and own.
Once we realize we can get organized, that it is a doable proposition, we move into the present with more energy and more choices. We feel freer and have a clearer vision of what is possible. The key is to remember that the stuff around us is just a thing and things don’t control us, though it can feel like it does. We don’t have to sweat the stuff , just put it into order and watch as the currents flow again.
If you feel in need of help with this process, Creative Space Organizing can readily help you get the order you want and need as you need it. Call us at 510.501.1213