Harmony At Last, LLC

There is a very humorous and accurate quote I made up related to clutter and organizing that I wanted to share with you. Here goes…

“Clutter mates in the dark of night and forms clutter babies.”

I usually get a chuckle from my audience whenever I say this quote because it’s quite funny to think of clutter saying, “Quick… no one is looking… let’s multiply before someone catches us…” as more and more clutter secretly adds to a pile that has formed.

The reality is that clutter piles, if left unchecked, can grow. It’s just not during the dark of night. Rather, our choices cause the clutter to grow or shrink. Let’s imagine the following scenario…

There’s a pile of papers on one part of your counter- it’s a combination of unopened and opened mail, bills to pay, thank you notes to write, the school permission slip to send in with your child, the takeout menu for your favorite restaurant, etc. On the other side of your kitchen, the counter is spotless- a perfect surface for food preparation, etc. If you were to enter your kitchen with your hands full of more paper that you weren’t ready to address immediately, where would you be most likely to place the paper?

If you’re like most people, you’d probably choose to add items to the already cluttered surface, leaving the spotless surface spotless.

So what do you do to nip the “clutter baby” problem? Making some different choices will help you with this…

1. Commit to not adding any more clutter to the piles you already have. This begins to address things from today and into the future.
2. Eliminate the clutter piles that have already formed. This addreses the past.
3. Choose not to let new piles start. If you notice a small one that has begun, deal with it before it grows bigger. This maintenance is an important organizing habit to adopt.

With these simple choices, clutter will have met it’s match with you!

Please note, the previous parts to this series can be found here: Part 1 & Part 2

“Is There Really a Human Race?” is a great question and one that Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell explore in there fantastic book by the same name. When I first stumbled across this book at the bookstore with my children, the title caught my eye. I was intrigued at this “adult” question packaged in a colorful children’s book.

Why do we run this race each day? The term “rat race” comes to mind and it’s not a vision that’s very appealing. I’d like to consider myself not to be a rat so participating in a “rat race” doesn’t seem like much fun. If I were a rat on my way to winning a delicious meal of cheese I might be convinced to participate but… I digress! When we spend the day running… to childcare drop-off, to work, to a never-ending day of meetings, to child care pick-up, to make dinner, to get the kids to bed, to pick up the house, to do more work, to flop into bed exhausted, to do it all over again… what are we accomplishing? Asked in a different way, what are we missing?

In our haste, we may have missed love, laughter, and life.

Curtis and Cornell question the race with insights such as: “Is it a sprint? A dash to the end? Am I aware of the time that I spend? And why do I do it, this zillion-yard dash? If we don’t help each other, we’re all going to CRASH.”

Just for a moment, let’s reflect on our past few days and on our work / life balance. How much racing did we do? How much of it sped by in a blur? What were the treasured moments? How can we get more of these precious times?

I have heard some people say that “they are trying to get organized” as if it were a constant process and struggle. Others say that “they are organized” as if it already happened and continues to be like that. So is organizing an ongoing journey or is there a destination?

My personal answer to that question is “both”. I believe that organizing is both a journey and a destination. Let me explain…

The process of organizing something is just like any other project that is undertaken. This includes the goal setting, commitment to a project timeline, actual implementation, and celebration of its completion. In this description, the organizing task could be a destination… the project is now complete.

Ahhh, but there’s more… you see, once the project is complete (aka the destination), there is this little thing called “maintenance” that comes up. For an organizing project to be successful in the long-term, you need to maintain it. Ideally, this maintenance would take place each and every day as part of the new habits you have formed. If you chose to ignore this maintenance (aka the journey), your organizing project will unravel.

What do you think???