Who Can Help You Organize?

All of us are at different stages of our lives and all of us need input from different people at different times, but here are a few places you can look for help to get organized!

YOU - Sometimes, it just has to be you. You have to try on the clothes. You have to figure out where to put something. You have to go through the stack of papers. If it needs to be you, do it.

KIDS - Kids can be great organizers. It can be tedious at first, but if you take the time to teach and train them, they can do it - at almost every age. My kids have done almost everything I've ever had to do with me. I try to look for something that will hold their attention, help me, and be something they like to do. My 11 year old is great at organizing pictures on the computer - downloading them, rotating them and putting them in folders. He also likes to put CD's on the computer, organize our tapes and CD's, and organize the tupperware cupboard. My 9 year old is great at organizing food storage, books, games, her room, clothes, etc. (She really likes to organize). My 5 year old can organize his clothes drawers and our shoe box. My two year old is great at organizing the shelves in the refrigerator.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE AN INTEREST IN WHAT YOU'RE ORGANIZING - if you are organizing something that isn't really yours (your kids moved out and left some of their stuff, your parents house, something at work, etc.), invite the people who have an interest in it to help you out or give you input. I don't believe in throwing out stuff that might have meaning to someone, so ask and have them help.

SIBLINGS - I love to help my siblings organize and I love it when they let me help. You can always ask. You might not have someone like me, but maybe you do.

PARENTS - When my mom visits me, she likes to clean. When I visit her, I like to organize. It works out nicely and helps both of us get something done. If you're working on organizing and someone (who wouldn't mind) comes to visit, let them help you. Put them to work.

HIRE SOMEONE - If you want to get organized and can't do it for what ever reason, hire someong to help you get it done.

There are several bonuses to letting people help you organize. Everyone that helps you organize will also be able to help you keep it that way. They will know where things go, they will know the process of getting them there, and they will know how to fix it if it doesn't stay that way.

How Can I Get Organized?

After you've written down the things you want to do, it's time to plan them into your life. Here's a few ideas of where they might fit in:

* Do something big. If you have a room or area that needs a lot of organizing, choose something bigger to do - like paint, recarpet, or even restretch the carpet. When you have something big to do - with a deadline - you can get a big organization done quick. Only put back the stuff you want and you'll have one whole organized room!

* Give organization as a gift. Giving organization as a gift also gives you a deadline, is meaningful, and may really be something the person wants. Some ideas of organization gifts include:
72 hour kits
Car kit
First Aid kit
Everything We Need to Know Sheet
Family Home Evening Chart
Calendars
Exercise Log
The list is endless - look at what area of your life or relationships need organizing and give that gift away!

*Keep your stuff where it goes. Don't do quick clean ups where you throw everything in the closet. If you can't put it in the right place, don't put it away! It's better to have a big mess in the middle of a room than a million messes in all your drawers, cupboards, and closets. If you're in an emergency, and have to have stuff cleaned up fast, throw it all in a laundry basket, and when the emergency is over, dump it back in the middle of the room until you can put it away in the right spot. (You don't want to let those laundry baskets pile up).

* Make decisions. Decide what is important to you. Keep the things that are important to you and get rid of the rest.

* Look for change that will help you stay organized. My sister had a table in her house that was handy right when she walked in the door. Naturally it gathered everything - The mail, stuff to return, stuff to throw out, newspapers - everything. Her kids would get into it sometimes too, and that made it an even bigger mess. Then one day, she decided to move it. It made a huge difference. Since there wasn't a handy place to put stuff, she didn't. Is there a change you can make to help you stay organized?

#1 Most Important Thing to Organization - By Far

The number one most important thing to getting organized is PLANNING. Some people like to rave about it, some people hate it, but if you can plan it, you can do it!

Planning makes all the difference in your ability to get stuff done. Planning can be done in many different ways, but I'll share the way it happens in our home. We have a calendar for each month of the year that we print off our computer. On the calendar side, we write all the scheduled stuff. On the back of the calendar, I write everything I want or need to do. I don't write everyday things like make dinner, vacuum, or wipe off the counters, but I would write those things if I didn't do them very often and really needed to get them done. The back of my calendar has things like:
* scrapbooks - June, July, August, September, October, November
* glue closet
* 72 hour kits - documents
* Christmas - decorate, presents - grandma&grandpa, Spencer, neighbors,
* and so on
I like to divide what I need to do into littler, more do-able parts, then if I have a few minutes, I can glance at the back of my calendar and do a little piece of something that helps me get to my goal.

Every Sunday, my husband and I sit down together and go over the calendar for the week. We figure out how we can get things done and schedule in the things we want to do. This puts us on the same page for the week and eliminates most scheduling conflicts and frustrations that could arise. Next, we flip the calendar over and look at the things we want to get done. We decide what needs the most attention and decide on things we would like to address that week. We also add anything else that has come up during the week.

Here's an example of how planning helps me in my life. I was giving a presentation on organization. One week before the presentation, I found out that it was supposed to be at my house. I felt like I should have a totally organized house if I was going to give a presentation on organization, but I was going to be out of town for the next 3 days and felt like there was no way I could get everything ready in time. I worried about it the whole 3 days I was out of town. Finally, Sunday came and it was time for our planning meeting. I decided to write down exactly what I needed to do for the house to be ready for the presentation. It was:
* straighten toy closet
* straighten book closet
* straighten cookbook cupboard
* pick up house
Suddenly, it seemed totally doable, and I didn't need to spend anymore time worrying about "all" the things I needed to do!

Another calendar story. We somehow missed writing down a club activity for my eight year old. When she found out she missed it, I spent about an hour and a half consoling her and trying to help her feel better. If it had been on the calendar, she could have walked out the door, and walked back in an hour later with no help from me. But our forgetting cost me an hour and a half's worth of time.

Planning truly does help you accomplish whatever it is you want to accomplish and is the #1 most important step in organization!

When do you do this?

Organization takes time and you have to carve out some time to do it. In the beginning, it takes more time, but as you get better at it, it takes smaller chunks of time. The easiest way to keep up with it is to schedule in an organizing time - I have a bunch of scheduled times to organize:

* Mondays. Monday is my laundry day and my project day - projects mean everything from cleaning out closets to putting together 72 hour kits. I look at my life and decide what needs attention most. By doing projects on Monday, I feel more free and ready for the rest of the week.

* Monday nights. After the laundry is folded and the kids are in bed, I do Quicken (a program we use to keep track of our finances). Monday night is also my big email night when I send out whatever needs to go out that week.

* Sunday night. Sunday night is planning night for my husband and me. I'll talk about this in its own post, because this is SO important!

* After dinner clean up. I can't keep my house clean all day. If I tried, I'd spend my whole day following my kids around making them clean up and I don't feel good about that. But I do want the house clean - everything works and feels better when it's clean. So every night after dinner, we all stick around (whoever is here) and get dishes done and the house cleaned up. I always know that there is a time it will get cleaned up, and that leaves me worry free about the mess the rest of the day.

* Red jobs. Red jobs just happen to be printed on red paper at our house and that's how they got their name. As part of their morning jobs, my kids pick one red job a day and do it. They are jobs that need to be done every once in a while, problem areas of the house or shelves or cupboards that collect and need to be cleaned off. Some examples are take 5 things downstairs that need to go downstairs, or throw away 2 things in your room.

* Organize for dates (if you can). We have many memorable dates going through things together. We feel especially glad when we're done because we had a good time together AND have something to show for it!

Why organize?

One day my sister and I were picking raspberries. I had a specially cut milk jug tied around me and she carried a bowl. We picked and talked and picked and talked. And when we were all done, I happened to glance in her bowl. She had half the amount of raspberries I had! I felt kind of guility because we had been picking raspberries exactly the same amount of time. It bothered me enough that I kept thinking about it. Finally, I realized that I had twice the amount of raspberries because I had had two hands to pick with! She had to hold her bowl with one hand, and I was free to pick with two. That's what organizing does for you - it gives you an extra hand to do the things you want to do! It gives you TIME, POWER, and ABILITY.

Why?

If you are organized, other people can help you stay that way. If you aren't, you stay on a slippery down hill slope. For example, have you ever picked your kids up from someone's house and tried to help clean up the mess? If the person was fairly organized, you knew where to put the toys and could help leave the house at least a little bit cleaner. If the person wasn't very organized, you soon realized the best help would be to take your kids and leave. In this case, the organized person was left with a cleaner house, and the unorganzied person was left with more mess!

If you are organized, you spend a lot less time looking for stuff.

If you are organized, you spend a lot less time shuffling stuff.

If you are organized, you spend less time driving to the store for whatever you can't find or forgot.

Organization gives you an understanding of where you're at - financially, preparedness, even toys.

Being organized saves money (on gas, repeat buys, and by buying things on sale).

Organization is Choosing What You Want

Organization is really all about choices - it's about identifying the things, people, or ideas that are important to you and eliminating the the things you don't want or that are cluttering your life. Those things can be:
* things
* trips to the store (especially extra trips)
* areas of the house that collect
* fighting, arguing, teasing
* time spent looking for things
* or any number of other things
There are millions of things you can choose to do every day, but you get to choose what is most important to you! Look at your life and decide if the things, people and ideas that are filling it are the ones that are most important to you. If there are things you would rather do than shuffle your stuff around, look through it, or find it, then it's time for you to get organized.

In the Beginning

Almost nothing gets me more excited than a big pile (or room, or closet, or garage, or house) of stuff that can be turned into - nothing and everything! I've been organizing as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories of organizing someone else's stuff was when I was about 9 and we were staying at my aunts house while my parents were on vacation. She had a dream playroom with cupboards lining the walls for all the toys. The only problem was, all of the toys were in different places - in no organized fashion. I couldn't stand it, so one day I pulled all the toys out (the easiest way to get things organized) and that's when my aunt found me. I blamed it on my little brother and volunteered to put it all away (organized of course.) Now here I am 25 years later and still loving organization. This blog is dedicated to organization of all sorts. I'll post successes, ideas, and hopefully some ideas and inspiration to get you on your own path to organization. When I get an area of my life organized, everything runs better. I have more time, more energy and more desire to do the other things I need to do. I know it can be the same for you!