 Restoring
Order to Your Home
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CBN.com –Lots
of people try to get organized and wonder why
their efforts fail again and again. If you suffer
from backsliding and can’t seem to remain
organized, ask yourself if you’ve really resolved
the reasons you are disorganized. By
figuring out how we became disorganized, we are
giving ourselves the best chance of getting
and staying organized.
Together, we’re making our way
through the causes of disorganization. We’re
discovering how we became so disorganized in the
first place. Last week we examined historical
disorganization—when our past is keeping us
cluttered and chaotic. This week, we will explore
social disorganization—when our need to acquire is
contributing to our haphazard existence.
Our Mountain of
Accumulation
The other day, I drove past a storage unit near
where I live. The sign said: “If you can’t find
your lawnmower, bring your garage clutter here!” I
couldn’t believe the message that the sign was
sending! It was encouraging passersbys to ignore
their mess by simply relocating it! Instead of
dealing with and eliminating the mess, the sign
recommended a stashing solution!
As I thought about the sign, I
realized how enticing its message would be to a
lot of people. Wouldn’t it be a lovely, blissful
world if we could just ignore our stuff? It would
be easy to buy into this approach, but deep down
we all know that it doesn’t work. Eventually, all
the things we’ve delayed or hidden come to light
and we have to deal with them.
A Culture of Collecting
The sentiments of that storage unit sign reminded
me of the attitude behind the bumper sticker we’ve
probably all seen, “He who dies with the most toys
wins!” Our culture encourages accumulation. We are
told through advertising and social norms to
collect enough belongings to fill up our garage or
to gather more toys than the next guy. Some of us
wear our stuff like a badge of honor. We think
that if we have more stuff than others that means
that we are better, or smarter, or richer. We want
to have name brand stuff so that we can tell the
world about our financial status. We get more and
more stuff, yet we are more and more unhappy and
stressed. We are the socially disorganized.
The dichotomy is that once we
stockpile all this stuff we don’t know what to do
with it and it begins to enslave us. Whatever we
collect we must save, dust, store, protect,
inventory, and insure! In my experience as a
professional organizer, I’ve observed that the
more stuff people have, the more complicated their
lives become. Having stuff isn’t wrong in itself.
The problem is when you have so much stuff that
you lose and abuse it. When we stop managing,
using, and appreciating what we own then we become
victims of a society that accumulates for the sake
of accumulation.
A Calendar of Constant
Activity
Social norms also encourage us to over-program our
lives. Children are as over-committed as adults
these days. Soccer kids in my neighborhood are
working out all summer long. They are even
required to practice and play games throughout
Christmas break! Gone is the summer at the pool at
holidays at home.
My clients have shared with me how
over-scheduled their lives are as well. Many
families earn double incomes but never seem to
have time or money to invest in their quality of
life. Instead of enjoying family camping trips,
dad has to work all weekend to get the promotion.
Instead of making cookies with the kids, mom is
trying to get her home-based business off the
ground.
Work is not the enemy here and I
work very hard myself. I am not criticizing
working hard. It’s just that when parents and
children alike are juggling so many pressures,
family life often suffers. We become
disorganized when we give into the attitude in
society that says, “I have to have it all.”
This attitude can lead us down a slippery slope of
over-commitment.
Digging Out
One of the reasons we collect too many belongings
and activities is because we have a hard time
saying “no.” If you have been a victim of social
pressures, your choices may have resulted in an
overloaded schedule and disorderly living. You can
now make a conscious choice to reject the social
pressures that surround you and extract yourself
from an out-of-control schedule. You will have to
practice the feared two-letter word to release
yourself from social disorganization. If you can
say “no” and stop accumulating you will begin to
restore order.
I encourage you to dig out of your
social disorganization. While the socially
disorganized are stuck with more stuff and less
quality of life, those who dig out enjoy the
surprising dichotomy of simplicity and abundance!
Adapted from: Restoring
Order™ copyright © 2006 by Vicki Norris (available
now at
www.RestoringOrder.com and in July 2007as
Reclaim Your Life™. Copyright © 2007). Published
by Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR. Used by
permission.
About the Author: Vicki Norris is
an expert organizer, business owner, speaker,
television personality, and author who inspires
people to live out their priorities. Norris is a
regular on HGTV’s nationally syndicated Mission:
Organization, and is a recurrent source and
contributor to national lifestyle publications
including Quick & Simple magazine, Better Homes &
Gardens, and Real Simple magazine. Norris is also
author of Restoring Order™ to Your Home, a
room-by-room household organizing guide. |
