Six
common mistakes
How you can get organized for good
By Vicki Norris
The Times, Jan 24, 2008
Are you one of those people
who panics when guests are scheduled to come to your house?
Do you begin the frantic “dash and stash,” running around
your house trying to conceal your piles of clutter? Do you
slide your arm across surfaces, piled high with paper and
clutter, and shove the contents into a bag or box, then
stash it in the closet? If so, you are like a lot of my
clients, who inadvertently have taken enticing shortcuts to
true organizing.
As you begin getting organized, you
will likely discover bags, boxes, junk drawers and even
entire rooms that have been a receptacle for your organizing
efforts. You might begin to wonder how this pile-up has
happened to you. In the trenches of disorganized homes and
offices across America, I’ve discovered six common shortcuts
to true organizing. In reviewing them, I hope you can
discover where you may have taken a wrong turn that has
derailed your organizing progress:
 The Product
Panacea – In an effort to address our disorder, we often
rush off to the store and buy a hunk of plastic (usually
with multiple drawers) and throw it at our mess. Product
alone is not the answer. I’ve seen people with hundreds of
bins and baskets who are still disorganized. I recommend
partnering a good organizing process with the appropriate
product introduced at the right time in the project. If you
preemptively buy product without determining exactly what
you want to contain and how it will improve functionality,
you will likely have wasted your money.
The Rearranging
Remedy – A lot of us take the approach of entering a room
and “getting it organized” but at the end of the day, all
we’ve done is rearrange its contents. We grouped, stacked
and shuffled, but that’s as far as we could take it. We
didn’t know what to do with the contents of the room so we
simply rearranged it back into the same space. Instead, take
the time to ask questions and assign a purpose of each space
and organize around those purposes.
The Cleaning
Cure-All – While it is wonderful to have a clean home, it’s
not the same thing as an organized home. Cleaning simply
de-grimes your living space, while organizing requires
planning and space allocation to activities and items.
Cleaning can actually create clutter, since many of us hide
things as we clean in order to get to the surfaces. The good
news is: when you’ve taken the time to organize your home,
it is also easier to clean, because nomadic items can be
returned to their appropriate location, and surfaces aren’t
clogged with clutter.
The Stashing
Solution – We stash even when we’re not cleaning. If we are
trying to “pick up,” we look to the nearest empty spot to
stash it. We highjack open spaces on shelves, counters and
drawers, and in closets, stacking them full of odds and
ends. In our attempt to get things off the floors and
surfaces, we stuff our way to a disorganized environment
where nothing has a home. To stop stashing, you’ll want to
observe the assigned purpose of each area of the home (ie:
the game closet) and use my “Only Policy” to limit the items
landing in that closet to “games only.”
The Tidying Trick
– It is likely that at some point, we have all tidied up our
space instead of organizing it, aiming for a neat
appearance. This organizing mistake is especially easy to
make because it feels so productive! With good intentions,
many of us have stayed late at work or come into the office
on a weekend to deal with our messy workspace. We tossed and
recycled and purged and we were proud of our progress.
Sadly, within a couple of weeks we found ourselves sitting
in a messy space once again, shaking our heads in disbelief.
Tidying up never lasts very long. If you have not
implemented systems for capturing and processing incoming
paper and information you will be stuck in an endless cycle
of tidying.
The Cookie Cutter
– We so badly want to believe that there is a magic potion
for our organizing challenges that we will try almost any
solution. The last serious organizing mistake we make is
when we take a universal tip or method and try to apply it
to our own mess. This is the “cookie cutter” approach to
organizing. I have come to believe that there is no one tip
or trick that will work for every person. Each person needs
and deserves organizing solutions designed with him or her
in mind.
Just like frantic dieters trying to cut
pounds, the disorganized masses are looking for a quick and
easy shortcut to their messy homes and offices. We all want
to believe that “in three simple steps” or in “five minutes
a day” we can get organized. Yet, deep down I think we all
know – as we survey the landscape of our rooms layered with
clutter – that there is no way (short of arson) we can
untangle our mess in three steps or five minutes.
We come to a moment of truth where we
finally understand that shortcutting only short-circuits our
organizing efforts. Our compulsion to cut corners isn’t
going to help us truly restore order. We’re going to have to
retire our haphazard attempts to get organized and look for
a better way.
I’ve shared a solution to each of the
shortcuts described above. In order to achieve lasting
change, you must “dig out” of the backlog that you’ve
created over the years and “dig in” to set up new systems to
help you manage in the future. Here’s to “restoring order”
to your space and reclaiming your life in 2008!
Adapted from: Reclaim Your Life™
copyright © 2007 by Vicki Norris, published by Harvest House
Publishers, Eugene, OR. Used by permission.
(Vicki Norris is the owner and
president of Restoring Order®, a local professional
organizing firm. Together with her team of organizing
consultants, they are Portland’s Organizing Team. Norris is
an life management expert, business owner, speaker,
television personality, and author of “Reclaim Your Life”
and “Restoring Order to Your Home.” She’s a regular on
HGTV’s “Mission: Organization” and on KATU’s “AM Northwest.”
For organizing services, books or products, visit
www.restoringorder.com.)
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