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February 1, 2013
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February 5, 2013

organizing

 Is Organizing Your Home

A Puzzling Thought?

Are you looking at the mess around you and not knowing where to start?  Are you having trouble finding the motivation to even want to start?  Many times we find ourselves in an overwhelming mindset that prevents us from taking any action at all.

 

 

Just as I described in another article, your disorganized clutter is like a big gig saw puzzle. organizing

When you dump the 1000 plus pieces on the table, initially it looks impossible, right?  What if you did not have a picture to reference and no idea what the picture was going to be when you finished?  Now that really seems impossible and some would say why bother.

 

 

 

You see, if you do not see the big picture before you begin, you are not sure you will finish or even like the picture if you do.  This is an overwhelming mindset.

 

organizing

So let’s break it down into bite size pieces.  The first thing I would do is turn all of the pieces right side up.

 

 

I would relate this to knowing what you have to work with.  Exposing the dirty truth of your clutter and shining a light on it.  There is no way you can deal with it, if you do not acknowledge it.

 

organizingThe next thing I would do would be to pick out the corner pieces.

 

The corner pieces are the beginning of your vision.  You are starting to see a glimmer of hope that you can do this.  When you find those pieces of the picture, you hold on to them because they are very important when it comes time to bring it all together.

 

organizingMy next step would be to find all of the flat edge pieces. This is a time consuming process, so I multi-task while I am doing this by also sorting the flat edges by various colors.  Soon I will have many piles of flat pieces sorted by color.
The flat pieces are the bones of the picture.  This is when you actually start going through your things and taking a hard look at them to determine which pile each piece goes in.  Keep, donate, sell, or trash?  The sorting process must be done in order to cut out the pieces that do not belong where they are.

 

My next step would be to take a corner piece and find the pile that is closest to it’s like color and start fitting some pieces together.  As theorganizing string of pieces start to take shape, I am beginning to see some results of my effort.

 

To me this is when you take a piece of your vision and act on it.  These strings of pieces represent the different areas in your home (Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, etc).  As you are sorting, you are now able to identify which room they go in and put away accordingly.

Now, it is important that every piece have a home.  You cannot force two pieces together that do not belong.  Why would your toothpaste be in the kitchen?  It belongs in the bathroom!  You get the idea.  When you take the time to place things in their logical place everything starts to make sense.

 

organizingNow the bones of the project are complete.  The frame of the big picture is now in place which helps me to identify many places to start.  Do I want to start on the sky or the grass?  It really doesn’t matter as long as they both are completed.  This puzzle may take me weeks to complete, but each day I can see progress.

 

 

 

At first you were not sure where to start, but now you have many choices.  Now you can zero in on one small project and put those pieces together such as organizing your kitchen drawers.  It gives you a sense of accomplishment to complete each small project that you do instead of waiting until the entire picture is put together.  I had much rather have a bunch of small accomplishments to celebrate than one big one.  Wouldn’t you?

 

organizing Regardless of what your big picture looks like, remember it is uniquely yours.  Breaking it into smaller projects helps you to achieve the end result sooner!

 

Happy Organizing!

 

 

Does this article make you want to start organizing one small project at a time?

10 Comments

  1. Susie says:

    Thank you Jo. Most people do procrastinate because they feel the job is too big. But when you break it down into smaller projects it all falls into place over time. Thanks for sharing!

  2. Jo Cornelison says:

    I love your logic! For me it’s a little problem with procrastination though. Great article!

  3. Susie says:

    Hey Pattio, Send me a picture of the closet and I can help you with that. suu_suu@yahoo.com

  4. pattio says:

    YES SUSIE! I do have a closet i neeeeeeeed to organize, my problem is it is filled with teaching supplies and I am not happy with the idea of throwing them away. I just read on another blog post about freecycle and now i have to check that out, I don’t mind sharing, i hate wasting resources. 🙂 so i will whittle…..until i find an edge.
    I like how you related this to doing a puzzle…and I am a puzzle person and up to a challenge….there are edge pieces…RIGHT?! 🙂

  5. Susie says:

    Hey Dominique, There are many people that do not struggle with organization. My articles are for those who do. I will have to check out your puzzle post this week.

  6. Susie says:

    Susan, I am so glad you found this helpful. Good luck with your tiny projects and feel free to visit my fb page anytime you have a question. http://www.facebook.com/letsgetorganized

  7. Susie says:

    K’Lee, I really appreciate your kind words. For some reason the puzzle was the best way for me to get my point across. I am so glad you liked it.

  8. I too talked about puzzles in one of my post this week:) I don’t find organizing puzzling but it does take a lot of dilligence to get it done.

  9. Yes, it does make me feel more hopeful about moving forward, one small step at a time! I just happened to post in the UBC group after you and ended up here to read and comment on your post. But it’s perfect for me since I am struggling with clutter and chaos in my apartment.

    Your analogy of sorting the puzzle pieces resonates for me since I used to do a lot of jigsaw puzzles. (No time anymore since I started my business while working fulltime!) It really got me thinking about how to break down my decluttering into small manageable steps. Thank you so much!!!

  10. K'Lee Banks says:

    Susie, this is a great post! It’s timely because my hubby and I have been working on de-cluttering and organizing since doing some home improvements last summer. We still have *stuff* to sort through and decide whether to keep it or get rid of it.

    Also, it’s funny you mention the puzzles, because I have watched my hubby systematically assemble two large jigsaw puzzles recently, so I can relate to what you’re saying very well! 🙂

    I know it’s all about doing one thing at a time, taking one step at a time, fitting in one puzzle piece at a time, and not feeling overwhelmed by the big picture right now. Thanks! ~~ K’Lee

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