10 Important Truths about Organizing
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
I am continuing the process of organizing and decluttering my creative spaces.
At first I planned to share the process with you and then quickly realized that each week I would have repeated, “I’m still working on it.” Well, after several months, I can proudly say, “I’m still working on it and it’s making a positive difference!”
It has taken me much longer than I thought but it has been worth the effort.
In the past, I’ve cleaned up the surfaces and made things look relatively neat, only to have the clutter reappear in what seemed like an instant only to have my hard work vanish.
Each time, it has gotten better and easier but I could tell this time is different.
I am ready to make lasting changes that enhance my quality of life rather than repeat the same habits and behaviors that drain me.
I thought I’d share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way.
1. It’s Not about the Stuff
I’ve learned that keeping every piece of paper and every shiny object I see doesn’t feed my creative process or quest for inner peace.
Instead, keeping too much information, paper, supplies, etc. has had just the opposite affect. It has kept me from actually doing the things I want.
Part of that has been fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. Fear of success.
It seems that sometimes the lizard brain, the part that does things on auto pilot can work overtime cleverly “protecting” you with convenient excuses and plausible reasons why you can’t get to what you want.
Sometimes, it is just about the stuff. Either you don’t have a place to put it and a home for everything as your circumstances change. That is a much easier fix.
2. Choose to Let Go
You may think I am talking about letting go of some of the stuff but that is only a small part of it.
When you are ready to choose to let go of the convenient excuses and plausible reasons why you have the clutter, you can choose to have a different story and a different outcome.
And even if there is some fear, keep going and you’ll begin to move through it.
3. It Pays to Analyze your Clutter
My sister and I have been working on this ongoing project together, even though we live in different states. It has been very helpful to share the process and figure some things out together.
I am writing another article on this with some of the questions we asked ourselves that made a world of difference.
(Note: if you want to stay tuned in so you don’t miss any of the good stuff, sign up for my email newsletter and you’ll receive updates of the blog posts).
This felt like a break through because I started to see the patterns of things that were causing most of my problems.
For example, I have an endless stream of ideas. Ideas for projects. Ideas for writing. Ideas for other people. Ideas for improving things. And it goes on and on.
I am grateful for this gift yet I could see that I needed a system to store and access my ideas. My sister has the same issues.
4. Create Systems That Work for You
Creating systems and experimenting with what works for you is really important.
I’ve read countless books and articles on organizing, yet they often didn’t address some of my specific needs.
The more you can find things that work for your way of thinking the better. As a matter of fact, I picked up lots of great ideas in most of the things I read but it wasn’t until adding my own twists that they started to work more for me.
My sister realized that we tend to think visually. For example, as we design and create things, we often put them together and then leave them in a pile.
In the past, if I just jotted down a note of my idea, it didn’t have the same excitement when I came across it later. Not wanting to lose this great idea, I would keep it out until they just piled one on top of another.
She came up with the brilliant idea of photographing our ideas, designs, and supplies.
Now we can more readily see what our idea was. And we can jot notes next to the photo.
In the future, I will also be posting articles about some of our solutions about how to store your ideas.
5. Sticking with the Process even when it gets uncomfortable is important
I was surprised to find that even though I said I wanted to finish*, so I could move on to more exciting things, the closer I would get to clearing everything away, instead of hurrying toward the finish line, I found distractions to slow the process down.
Hmmmmm, isn’t that interesting? See above comment about it’s not about the stuff. My fear was coming closer to the surface.
6. Hold on to Your Vision
Even if it gets hard to keep going, hold on to the vision of what you are trying to create. Continue to see your end result and imagine how you will enjoy your beautiful, inspiring, organized space and/or systems.
But don’t just imagine it…..keep on moving toward it!
7. Throw in Some Instant Gratification Now and Again
As I continued to go through the notebooks, files, and papers, I did some smaller organizing projects that I could see immediate results which gave me some instant gratification and encouragement to keep going.
The funny thing is I didn’t really plan on that but found it easier to “see” how some other areas could work better and it felt good to make a quick improvement.
One example is we got a new refrigerator and as I loaded up the new freezer, I created labels and separated things in large Ziplocs so it was like a filing system.
I also cleared the table in my sewing room (ok, it wasn’t all that instant) so I could make my new polar fleece jacket.
8. Alternate Work and Play
I certainly spent more time working than playing so I could make a big dent but now I spend more time playing and creating as I continue to organize.
Even though it can be better to stick with one area until you are done, I chose to also clean up and clear my studio space so I could work on creating jewelry.
That gave me some incentive to keep going.
9. Experimenting and Being Flexible can be Fun
I have gotten very frustrated when I think I have a solution for some aspect of my clutter ,the perfect container, the perfect system, etc., only to find it doesn’t work.
My attitude is changing. I’ve started to see the value in trying something out to see if it works. If it doesn’t work the way I’d hoped, instead of scrapping it, I see what is working, what’s not, and how I might tweak my solution to work better.
If you allow some flexibility, you can play with your solutions, without spending a lot of time or money first to see how you like it.
I was able to test out putting things in large Ziplocs in the freezer to see if it worked. Since it did, I purchased bins at the container store, already knowing this would work.
Keeping track of my aha’s and what is working with Simplify Your Success has been very helpful in this process.
10. This is Your Ongoing Support System
*The definition of Finish here doesn’t mean you are really done. This is an ongoing process that needs to be maintained and tweaked as circumstances change.
Instead of being frustrated by that, you can look at this as a support system to help you do and have what you want.
The best rewards for clearing my space go beyond just looking good on the surface, even though that makes me happy. It is getting clearer about what I want, feeling more relaxed, and having more time to create and play and blurring the lines between work and play.
