The Organizing Bug

January seems to be the time for the retailers to focus on all of the organizational supplies we need to make our lives better. We just need more filing cabinets, filing folders, pretty magazine holders, a bulletin board and a new calendar, and our lives will be perfectly organized from the get go!

I don’t know about you, but adding more stuff to an unorganized space has never worked well for me. In fact, it has usually had the opposite effect and simply added to the clutter that is already there! The organizing efforts that have worked for me involve sorting, purging, and recycling a majority of the stuff that has consumed an area, and then as a last step, looking around to make sure that I had a place to put it. After I get rid of nine-tenths of what turned out to be unnecessary stuff, I usually find that I already have an appropriate place to house it.

Some of us live pretty organized lives almost by second-nature. Some of us are baffled by organization and don’t know where to start. I must confess that I’m living by FLYlady’s mantra: “You can do anything for 15 minutes” and applying that to my own organizational processes. (Check out flylady.net to learn more about her encouraging system of “Finally Loving Yourself.”)

I’m wondering what organizational attempts you’ve made recently as the New Year has begun! Have you cleaned out the kids’ closets? Organized your home office? Started gathering papers and files in preparation for filing taxes? (UGH!)

I’m tackling the neglected music room at my church this month. Several people and I have volunteered time to “crisis clean” (another FLY lady term!), and now we’re at a point where we can begin to organize and sort specific areas of the room. Every time I’m up at church, I’m spending at least 15 minutes in there, tackling a pile of something, slowly bringing order to a room that nourishes the creativity of the musicians who use it.

How about you? This month, 15 minutes at a time, let’s all tackle the biggest organizational struggle we have, and let’s see what happens! Share your trials and triumphs here, and let’s encourage each other with the progress we’re making!