Get Crazy Organized

If one looks around on any given day, they can be witness to the great battle waged daily in our home. The attacks and counterstrikes shift the lines of battle back and forth between near victory and near defeat week by week as two great forces face each other down on a daily basis. Each day the weary supporters of the Guardian of the Flat Surface and the raging, seemingly tireless minons of the Clutter Monster do battle. At stake is the very health and wellbeing of our home fortress and in all likelihood, that of the many who fight this battle in millions of homes across our nation each day!

Pretty dramatic, say what?! Hey, there is plenty of drama in the struggle to get organized. For many of us, the battle to get control of our space and our stuff consumes truly significant amounts of time, energy and of great importance.......Emotion! In some regards it is like playing a sport where ones success or failure can be determined by how psyched or psyched out the player may be at any given time. It can be much like golf where it is often said that the distance involved in the approximately six inches between our ears has much more to do with our final score than does the 300 yd. drive or the ten foot putt. Like a sport, getting organized takes attention, focus and practiced techniques.

We can say what we will but getting organized is about getting control. When we are surrounded by clutter and when our actions are viewed or labeled as messy, it takes a toll on us both physically and mentally. We need balance and control in our lives and this demands that we manage both our space and our stuff. To allow ourselves to think or believe otherwise, is an unhealthy form of rationalization and denial. Trust us, we have been there and still are on many days, as the great battle rages within our home. The solution does not reside in any form of manic complusion or require one to become a neatnik. It is a managed process with the techniques and tools which provide the reinforcements for the warriors serving the Guardian of the Flat Surface!

There are areas or facets of our lives that would seem to work against our noble efforts to get organized. An example: my wife is a collector. She even has a blog on the subject, http://www.lolcollections.blogspot.com. Like all of our stuff, collectibles must be managed. Her angels and other statuettes have their shelves and mantle space and some rotate with others from storage boxes in the garage. I am not immune with a cap collection and fondness for sun symbols. All must have their hook, peg, wall or box that is their place. Just like all of our stuff and things, (books, papers, clothes, dishes, and cookware in our home,) they must have an identified place. When we buy something, we have to ask ourselves, "where is its place?"

All of this is driven by what we view as the cardinal rule of getting organized. The first person I heard say it was my Grandpa John. This was a man who had the outline of his tools on a peg board in his shop and if a grandson did not return a tool to its place, he was threatened "with getting his ears boxed!" To quote Grandpa John:

"A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place!"

Simply applying this Cardinal Rule to the management of your stuff and space will strike terror in the hearts and minds of Clutter Monsters minons! In addition, going forward we will be reviewing and providing information about tools, books, products and even about help that, dare we say it, could be hired to support your goal to get organized.

Keep this in mind....You can let your clutter drive you crazy or you can get crazy organized!

Get organized