It is not uncommon to hear one of the following comments when I first meet with a client:
“I installed my dream closet system but my room is still a mess.”
“I thought once I set up this file system, my desk would be clear of papers and it is not.”
“I bought these cute wall pockets for the kids to store their homework but we are still running around the house every morning looking for stuff.”
They show me great organizing systems they installed (including lovely labels) and wonder if I know of a better product that will "make them organized." I gently have to point out that what they have is great but that they need to work on the habits to actually use the organizing system they have installed. This is usually the last step to getting organized and the hardest.
You can have a closet the size of a bedroom but if you don’t have the habits to put dirty clothes in the hamper and clothes that are still clean back up on a hanger, then your space will quickly become a disorganized mess again.
We often tell clients in our first visit that containers do not make people organized; it is changing habits that makes a person and their space more organized.
Let’s say I have a client I’ll call Lucy in this example. Lucy has a dining room table that is a drop zone for mail, magazines, chargers and cords, and other miscellaneous personal items like earrings and barrettes. Her vision is to have a clear space so that if she wants to host an impromptu dinner, she can do it without having to shove everything into a bag and hiding it in her office. She has already bought several different file trays, letter sorters, and racks to help with the paper piles but she can’t seem to use them consistently.
Here’s a few suggestions and what I would do to help Lucy start changing her habits to become more organized…
- Help her to stop focusing on the containers and to start focusing on the habits. We examine her steps from coming into the house after work to going to bed to waking up in the morning to leaving for work. What are the papers landing on her dining table? How does she sort the reading items from action items, recycling, shredding, and filing?
- Set up a temporary system of cardboard boxes and sticky notes. We put it right next to the dining table.
- Outline a new habit for her to start practicing from this point forward. We decide she will come into the house, put the mail on her dining table and quickly sort it. The junk mail is automatically thrown in the recycling bag. Catalogs and magazines are put in a bin to read later. Important looking mail is left in a pile next to her place setting to review right after dinner where it will be further sorted into an action pile, shredding pile, or filing pile.
- Put the focus on establishing one habit at a time. I don’t have her focus on filing the paper work immediately or determining if or when she’ll read her magazines/catalogs. We focus on just processing the mail so that it doesn’t pile up on the table. By focusing on the habit of processing the mail, she is able to maintain a clear dining room table for weeks after we begin work.
- Notice any regression? We go through the steps of the new habit again. Each time we focus on the habit, it becomes much easier to bounce back from the disarray and stay organized.
So if you have an organizing system in place but stuff is still in disarray, take a minute and ask yourself a few key questions and look at your habits:
What is collecting here?
Does it have a home?
Why or how does this item land here?
How can I change my habits to put it where it needs to live?
Break down your movements into mini steps. Examine where or when your organizing challenges form so that you can find solutions to fix them and create a new habit. Then practice, practice, practice. By focusing on your organizing habits, you'll see lasting results.