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Six Rules to Remember when Getting Organized

image © 2010 Professional Organizer Lea Schneider

If you think of organizing as a game, you are most likely to be successful. Games have rules. As we all know, when someone is playing a game, and they don't follow the rules, chaos is the rule.

With organizing, if you try to get organized, but you don't follow the rules, then chaos will rule. You'll wonder why you can't get ahead! So, here are a few rules to keep you moving forward with your goal to stay organized.

You can't organize clutter. It's true. It simply can't be done. You can't organize clutter. You can go through clutter. You can sort clutter. You can purge out what you don't need. Then the clutter is gone and what remains are the things you really want to keep. Those things you CAN organize...but you can't organize clutter.

More organizing products are NOT the answer. Every store wants you to think that they have the perfect solution for your mess. If that was true, with rows and rows of plastic tubs available to us, we'd all be organized. The solution lies inside you, not inside any organizing product. You have to be willing to change the way you've been doing things. Never buy organizing products at the start of your project. Wait until you've sorted everything, disposed of the clutter and decided where and how to store what you are keeping. Then, and only then, are you ready to buy an organizing product.

Don't do "pinball" organizing. Have you ever picked it up, put it down, left the room, picked something else up, took it somewhere and then repeated it all day long. You are bouncing around like a pinball in a game. At the end of the day, you are really tired but you can't see you've accomplished anything. Don't be a pinball. Pick a room. Pick a spot in that room. Work on that spot until it is finished before moving to another spot...in the SAME room. Finish a room before starting another.

Recognize that not everything is worth knowing or keeping. If you want to get organized so that you can have more time to do things you want to do, rather than fooling around with "all this stuff," then you need to be prepared to let go. Tell yourself that not everything is worth keeping. Before you begin to organize the first spot, decide how you will get rid of things. Donate? Garage sale? When? Give away? Ebay? Make a decision. Don't set stuff in piles to figure it out later. If you do, you are back to square one!

Have realistic expectations. Organizing TV shows show those before and after photos in 30 or 60 minutes. If you could be organized in 30 or 60 minutes, you'd already be done and not be reading this. It took awhile to get disorganized and it will take a while to get organized. Take a deep breath and realize it will be a process rather than a miracle. If you follow these rules, you can do it!

Plan on success. You really can be organized. Just follow these rules. Decide to get rid of clutter. Decide where it is going to go. Pick a spot and stick to it. Know that it might take awhile to finish the job but you can do it. Don't buy any organizing products until you've gone through and removed the clutter.