Clutter, piles of things here and there, piles of clutter, and items laying in areas they don’t belong. Any of this or some of this sound familiar. Hold on, you might say, “I know exactly where to find anything I need,”. Or you may be the opposite who feels like they can never find the thing they need, when they need it. In both situations, clutter still affects your health both physically and mentally.
For a condensed video version of this information, please click this link https://youtu.be/uUiIqRQ43Cw
When you see these two pictures, you feel calmer looking at the tidy room. And it looks good! It’s appealing. The reason for that is the way our brains and bodies work. They do not work in a cluttered or haphazard manner. They’re very precise and organized. And when our eyes see unorganized rooms and clutter, the brain and body put out stress hormones. We don’t want that, we want the feel-good hormones (serotonin and dopamine) so we don’t feel stressed. That’s why cleaning the clutter and getting organized is so good for us.
THE ORGANIZATION STRUGGLE IS REAL
It’s not just about getting organized but staying organized. It really is a challenge with so many things competing for our time and attention. However, it can be done!
Becoming unorganized tends to fall into the following habits/reasons:
-You feel overwhelmed with trying to clear the clutter and be organized
-It’s going to take too much time to get organized
-Not knowing how to be organized and stay that way
IT’S OVERWHELMING
Just thinking about getting organized can feel overwhelming. However, starting small and breaking up the project into more manageable parts can get you started. Such as the following:
#1 PICK A PROJECT
Figure out which area you want to start with. You could go with an easy simple area first. Or the area that causes you the most stress.
SIMPLE EASY TO DO AREA – If you do one of these first, it’s an area you know you could organize easily and be done. That gives you some satisfaction of success. A good motivator to try the more difficult areas to organize.
AN AREA THAT CAUSES YOU THE MOST STRESS – Sometimes it’s also the most difficult to organize. But when it’s done, the stress is gone. That’s an incredible feeling, making it easier to tackle the other areas.
#2 BREAK IT DOWN
Figure out what are the different parts that need to be done to make an area organized. Then focus on one part at a time. You could do this all at once or spread it out within a few days or week(s). For example, if you want to organize the garage there may be different parts that need to be done. You may need to sort everything into the keep, give away and discard piles. You may have shelves that need to be given the same consideration. It may need to be swept and washed. But you could break it down into doing one shelf at a time. Sort through 10 items at a time. Sweeping could be one time. Washing it all down another.
#3 PLAN THE TIME
You may want it all over with in one day, but do you realistically have a whole day. And do you really want to spend a whole day working on only organizing. And along with time what about having the physical or mental energy for the whole day. If it works for you, go for it! If not, maybe plan your time into 1-2 hours working on it each day, week or month. Whatever works for you. When you see the progress you’re making, you’ll feel good and motivated to do more. And speaking of time, that leads us to the next reason we don’t want to organize.
IT TAKES TOO MUCH TIME
Most of us don’t like taking time to organize because it’s usually not a fun task. To help, consider some of these options:
MULTI-TASK – Organize some things while doing something you like. Like sorting papers while watching a movie or tv show. Put on some fast-paced motivating music, like you’re going to exercise, and dance or sing while organizing.
ONE THING AT A TIME – Organize in minute increments. 10, 15, 20 or 30 minutes a day. Or only 1 or 2 hours a day or a week.
While you’re spending time whittling down what needs to be organized, we need to make sure we keep what we’ve organized… organized. And that takes us to the next challenge in organizing.
HOW TO ORGANIZE AND STAY THAT WAY
There really is something to the adage “A place for everything and everything in its place.” Credit for this is given to Benjamin Franklin. Not sure if he did say it, but it helps us to understand that to be organized our things need to have a specific place. Books on a bookshelf. Clothes in the closet. Tools together in one place. Papers in one place. Emergency items should have an accessible place. Having baskets, trays and other containers can be a huge help with this. More on that in the next paragraph.
To get organized, start putting like things together in whatever you have to contain them. Later, if you need to, you can purchase bins, totes or other utensils to keep them in. Dollar stores have them pretty cheap and so do places like Ikea. And places like Ikea are a great to walk around and get inspiration on how you can have things organized.
To stay organized, plan to spend 10 minutes a day putting things back where they belong. Or start to practice the 2-minute rule. If it takes less than 2 minutes then don’t delay, just do it. Taking 10 minutes before bed is an awesome time to do this. Because you’ve cleared the clutter, your mind can go to sleep peacefully. It would make a great part of a bedtime routine. The result is better sleep and less stress when you wake up to a beautifully organized and non-cluttered home. Of course, any time of the day that works for you is good. You can set a daily alarm or reminder to keep you on track with it. And if you don’t get to do it one day, it’s not so bad to catch up the next day. Let’s just not get back into the habit of delaying. Focus more on that good feeling of having it done, than the time and effort it takes. Normally, it takes less time now than later when the problem has piled up. Taking less time now will definitely make you happier.
CONCLUSION
You now have some tips to being organized and staying organized, therefore living with less stress. There are many other ideas on getting and staying organized that you can google. Starting is the hardest part. So just go for it. Even if it’s something small. You got this!
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