Article from Marilyn Bohn, a professional organizer who works with women and seniors in clearing clutter and providing organizing tips. Visit her website www.marilynbohn.com for free organizing tips on her blogs, articles and videos.
“The other day Rick was pulling out the last two of our Dill pickles when he noticed something floating in the jar. In fact, there were two or three something’s, bobbing around in the pickle juice. Yes, there were flies in our pickle juice.
It’s amazing how something so small can spoil something that otherwise would be so good.
Do you ever feel like the smallest things can ruin something great? The pickles we had eaten were good, but once we discovered the flies, those last pickles were thrown away. What changed?
It’s so easy to focus our mind’s lens on what is wrong in life. And when we focus on just that, we let it spoil everything else”.
This got me to thinking about organizing. Have you had a bad experience with organizing so you have just given up? I suggest that you don’t give up. Clearing clutter can make a huge difference in your life and in the life of those around you.
I was working with a woman who had someone come into her home and just put everything into boxes. Things weren’t sorted; they were just thrown in a box and then hidden under the bed, in the dining room around the chairs, in corners of the living room and in the hall. Her idea was to “hide” everything so her home looked good. It didn’t actually look all that good because there were boxes everywhere and she couldn’t find anything.
The woman’s plan was to come back and start putting everything where it belonged. But that never happened; she broke appointments and just didn’t show up. Much to the home owners credit she didn’t give up. We started clearing clutter one box at a time making sure everything that came out of a box had a place to go. We created “homes” for everything and put like items together; crafts, first aid supplies, clothes, even canned food, cosmetics, manicure supplies and the list goes on. Trash went in the trash, and things that were to be donated went in the donation piles.
This opened up such a great feeling energy in her home we moved furniture around and created space while clearing clutter in every room and ultimately in her life. Another benefit of clearing clutter is that it gives us room to welcome positive things to come into our lives. When we live in clutter we are actually weighed down by all the stuff around us. It is hard to impossible to find things we need and want. We spend more time looking for things than we do when our homes are clutter free.
When we are surrounded by clutter we are stuck and we focus on that instead of things that make us happy and bring us joy in our homes and lives. If you have attempted to organize and you feel you can’t, hire a professional organizer who can help or get a trusted friend to help you clear clutter. Make a goal right now that you are going to clear clutter in one room in your home. Set your timer for 15 minutes and work as fast as you can and then see how clearing clutter made you feel. You’ll feel so good you can do some more clutter clearing each week until your home is just like you want it to be.
I like to clear a little clutter while I’m waiting for something to cook. For example, if I pop a dish in the oven and have twenty minutes on the timer, I take those twenty minutes and clear out whatever task I’ve been dreading. It’s also a good way to find out how long it takes you to do something, so you can psych yourself up the next time. For example, it takes me 3 minutes to clear out the recycling bin.
There’s a typo in your first paragraph. It says that you found “files” in the pickle jar, not “flies.” I’m sitting here (okay, it’s 8:42 in the morning, and I haven’t had all my coffee yet) trying to figure out how you get files in the pickle jar. Thanks for the chuckle.
Thanks for letting me know.
Perfect timing for this post. I have a clutter issue I need to tackle, and I’ve been putting it off. I was just putting together a plan to clean it up working 30 minutes at a time, so I don’t get overwhelmed.
The fridge is one place that I never get clutter. I faithfully go through the refridgerator and cupboards every Sunday night (Monday morning is trash pickup) to make sure there’s nothing expired or nasty hanging out in there. I’m big into food safety and expiration dates!
Acceptable, that was an inspiration to me. I am considering my personal website