Man, I gotta tell you – time has just flown by since the first of the year. If this whole year is going to go this way, I’ve got to get organized – stat! I haven’t been particularly scattered, but the time still just disappears. It’s the 11th. How the hell did that happen?
On the other hand, if it had to happen, the timing couldn’t be better. I ordered a trio of books designed to help me get organized. However, these are not your average “get organized” books that show you how to spend money on various storage options and so forth. They’re designed to show you how to play to your personal strengths rather than telling you your methods suck and you have to change them. A small example: Are you a pile-maker? Look at where you make piles, and put something there to “catch” them. Piles on your desk? Make a “project box” out of mail slots with ten (or so) slots that allow you to tuck those piles into categories in plain sight, rather than burying your desk with “things to do” so that eventually everything is buried and forgotten.
The author of all three books is Julie Morgenstern, and I’m knee-deep in the first one, Organizing from the Inside Out. I’m very excited and I’m only on Part 2. I’ve been taking notes, and I intend to immerse myself in the rest of the book today and tomorrow to get to know what drives me, what’s in my way, and how to play to my strengths while reducing the impact of my weaknesses. The next book is Time Management from the Inside Out, a book that is hopefully going to help me get my projects in order and figure out what to prune or delegate and what projects need push to drive forward. The final book, bought only to get me over the hump of free super-saver shipping at Amazon, is “When Organizing Isn’t Enough – Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life.” Space is at a premium around here.
I live with my 19 year old daughter in a 700 square foot converted garage apartment with one closet. Our bathroom is 100 square feet, enormous considering the overall size of the apartment. It doubles as a laundry room, and the closet opens off the bathroom. Unfortunately, said closet’s door is blocked more often than not. Our clothes tend to be stacked on top of the dryer rather than hung up because the closet doesn’t really inspire us and we don’t like to go in there even when the door is available. So we need to transform the closet into something we use and that we enjoy using. One of Morgenstern’s key points is that we will use organization that inspires us or plays to our sense of pleasure, and we will not use anything that we find droll, boring, or a pain in the butt. I like her style. 
I think you can probably tell by the nature of the scant few posts so far this year just how little time I’ve had to write, and yet when I list the accomplishments of the year to date, what I see is mostly financial in nature or has to do with post-holiday recovery (e.g. putting away decorations). The worst thing about the holidays, in my opinion, is trying to get my head back into “nothing special about right now” mode. It’s similar to coming home from vacation – I tend to need a few days to reorient myself back to mundane matters and the daily grind.
I want this year to be a year full of positive accomplishment, and I intend to do all I can to build a foundation that inspires and promotes that. I want an environment that eases the way rather than holds me back. And I feel awesome at the mere prospect. Let’s find out if I can pull it off, shall we? I’ll keep you posted! I’d love to hear what’s worked for you, if you care to comment.
About Sheta Kaey
I have to confess that I have something of an organizing fetish–to where I toy with the idea of becoming a professional organizer. (and that’s well on the back shelf until I get my Master’s degree) As of yet I have not gotten myself so organized that I don’t revert back to the pile system, but I’m a LOT better about purging anything unnecessary and not letting the piles get out of control.
I have Virgo rising and a moon in Virgo, so I “ooh” and “ahhh” over the organizer section of Home Depot etc., myself. I get you. I don’t have trouble organizing, but I do have trouble creating systems that are easy to maintain. I think this book is going to help me create methods that are fun to use rather than a chore. I clean my desk and within an hour to a day, it’s buried again. One big problem around here is stuff not having a space assigned to it, so it gets shuffled around and never really put anywhere permanent.
I do look forward to the process… and that in itself is just sad.
I should have a social life, but instead I have a computer and a bunch of stuff to organize. lol
Ha, and I’m a Leo who’s been dubbed an honorary Virgo by a few friends for my organizing skills. Interestingly, in Vedic astrology I’m a Virgo. For the cleaning and organizing, when I first got into this period I used Get Organized Now and FlyLady. One of my friends has started a FL-esque list but a bit more acerbic, and if that’d fit you I can get you the information. It doesn’t have nearly as many reminders and members can also post there.
Ten ten minute burst also works. Tell K if she can clean that long without complaining she may get a lot done.
Ha, I told her — and she just looked at me like, “uh huh.”
One thing I liked to do when I first started keeping the house clean was to do timed cleanings. I would usually do 10 minutes and just clean as much as I could in that time. That way I didn’t have some huge task to tackle and I got an amazing amount of stuff done in just 10 minutes. It made things less stressful for me.
My daughter would probably find that very helpful. She gripes now about things that take 10 seconds though. lol. She spends more time arguing and trying to avoid work than she would if she just did it and got it over with.
I clean in increments the way that Aydira does-but I give myself an hour. And, I set a timer-when it goes off, I am done, done done! But I need to ask, what is an inspiring closet? The only thing that comes to mind is something that costs far more to set up than anything I would put in it would cost.
According to the book, everyone has systems they enjoy and systems they don’t, and to buy a bunch of stuff before evaluating your style and your very specific needs. She provides guidance on how to determine these elusive qualities, too. lol
I’m enjoying it, but my house is a catastrophe right now as I attempt to rearrange various things.
Test, since I think the comment I left yesterday got eaten.
Okay, let’s see if I remember what I posted yesterday.
On astrology, I’m a Leo, so in my case I think part of my organizing is the desire for control. Though I’ve had a few Virgo friends dub me an honorary Virgo for my organizing skills.
Interestingly, in Vedic astrology I am a Virgo.
For cleaning, definitely use the 10 minute clean. Set a timer, and tell K to stop complaining and just do it until the beep. And if you’re interested, a friend of mine has started a Flylady-esque email list that also allows posting and at least PG-13 language.
When I started on the organizing kick, one of my favorite sites was Get Organized Now. You may want to check it out for some ideas to help long term. Also, David Allen’s Getting Things Done has such a cult-ish following with good reason. I need to get back to reading that.
Sheta, I just tried to leave a long comment and it seems to have been eaten. The only thing I can think of is I used an a href tag for a link. Halp?
I found two in the spam filter. They should be showing up now.
Oh man, I am SO a pilemaker myself. I do my best to keep my house from looking like a hurricane hit the inside of it, but there’s almost always a variety of piles of papers sitting around. My living room table tends to catch the worst of it.
…and yeah, this is exactly why I tend to forget about bills that need paying. Out of sight, out of mind.
This is gonna be great, but right now it’s a huge mess. lol It gets worse before it gets better.
*sheepish*
you can delete my extras if you like. I guess the html tag set it off then.