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 Restoring
Order to Your Home
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CBN.com –
It happened before I knew it. I remember it
distinctly. Two months into motherhood, I sat on
the couch in my bathrobe with sleep-deprived eyes
and surveyed the scene. My living room had been
assaulted by baby equipment.
This just wouldn’t do. I spent a
half day with my mother-in-law reconfiguring the
long space. We shuffled the couch and chairs and
ottoman at least a half dozen times. We angled the
furniture and end tables to create seating areas.
After several tries, I successfully consolidated
the swing, bouncy seats, jumping toy, play mat,
and bag of toys into the bay window, where the
pack n’ play was nestled against a wall. With this
arrangement, when you enter my home you look into
the space and still see a peaceful, adult space
that looks inviting. Of course, once you come
inside you can see that a baby lives here, too,
but I haven’t allowed the plastic gear to take
over.
Later, I stood washing bottles at
the kitchen sink and I reflected on the many ways
in which my life and home have had to adapt to the
arrival of a little one. I put away the bottles
and cleared out the sink to make room for his
bath. This required that I put away all the pots
and pans in the drying rack and push the teapot
and coffee maker back to their home against the
wall. I sanitized the sink and wiped down the
counters. I felt like I had been in the kitchen
all day.
I thought about all the people who
don’t take time to clean up after one mess before
the new one arrives and I felt compassion for
their plight and how easy it is to become
disorganized. All of a sudden, I had this ah-ha
moment about the essence of organizing. Friends, I
wish I could tell you that my realization was some
little-known shortcut that we could all take to
get and stay organized. Instead, my ah-ha moment
was one single word: vigilance.
To become organized, we need to
ditch the deadwood in our space and in our
calendar. Lightening up brings us more freedom to
concentrate on the important things. Then, we need
to establish systems that help us run our lives on
a daily basis. These systems, if followed, will
help keep us in order so we can move on with the
business of living. Yet, even with a pruned
environment and good systems, if we don’t
diligently maintain our space and our systems, we
will tumble into disorganization.
Being organized is not what you’ve
probably heard. Likely, you’ve associated it with
quick tips, shortcuts, bins, and baskets. You’ve
been told that it can be done in three quickie
steps or five minutes a day. In truth, organizing
is about a lot more than tidying up or stashing
things out of sight.
Authentic organizing is about
keeping your home cleared so your daily activities
can move forward (like clearing the sink every
night for your child’s bath). It’s about making
room for your priorities and commitments by (by
refining and managing your calendar so you don’t
get buried or let things slip through the cracks).
Organizing includes the mundane tasks like putting
the things that go upstairs on the stairwell so
you remember to take them up next time you go. I
realize this may not be a popular or
earth-shattering viewpoint, but the fact remains
that the true key to organization is
practicing order as a lifestyle.
Hopefully it is an encouragement
to you that even a professional organizer deals
with change and has to re-adjust her household and
systems accordingly. I’ve learned that if you can
recognize and adapt to changes in your life before
they cause a downward spiral, you can prevent
disorganization from settling in.
A life of order isn’t meant to be
a chore. When you embrace order as a lifestyle,
you are refusing to live a reactive, haphazard
existence. You are choosing to trade confusion and
chaos for freedom and peace of mind.
Life changes can disrupt and
derail people who are not committed to maintaining
a life of order. In contrast, those who recognize
and adapt to change can welcome each new chapter
in their life as a new blessing and a new
opportunity.
Here’s to a lifestyle of order and
freedom!
 About
the Author: Vicki Norris is an expert
organizer, business owner, speaker, television
personality, and author who inspires people to
live out their priorities. She is author of
Reclaim Your Life™ © 2007 by Vicki Norris and of
Restoring Order™ to Your Home, © 2007, a
room-by-room household organizing guide, both
published by Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR
(available now at
www.RestoringOrder.com). 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. |
