Trouble maintaining organization

[veronicam]

OK, so I love organizing and getting things neat, but I just can't seem to maintain the organization. After a while, I get overwhelmed, and everything turns into a disaster. What's the best way to not let the chaos of your life affect work and home?

[SuzyLee]

Then you haven't gotten rid of enough stuff.

It doesn't help to organize it if you still have too much stuff to handle on a day-to-day basis, IMO.

[justmeandmybrood]

I agree with Suzan. I also wonder if besides still having too much for your space/needs, perhaps your organization systems are also not working for you most efficiently? Is it just you who is having difficulty, or is it a combination of yourself and other family members in your home...?

[larablue]

I recommend the following book: Making Peace with your Things in your life.
By Cindy Glovinsky.

It has helped me tremendously.

[bluebunny]

I feel the same way and I think I know what the problems are but I have a hard time fixing it. One, I agree with the pps that I have too much stuff. I need to continue to declutter until I've gotten my stuff down to a manageable level. Two, I think I need a better system. I read somewhere (it could have been on this board) that you should organize things in a way that suits your habits rather than making yourself change your behavior. For instance, if you come home and put your keys and purse and mail on the kitchen counter, put something on the counter or in that area to contain that "stuff", like a bowl or hook for your keys, hook for your purse, and bowl or letter holder for your mail, instead of putting the organization system in the hall closet. Another example would be to put a shoe rack by the door if you take off your shoes when you enter the house, rather than forcing yourself to take your shoes off and carry them to the hall closet.

Does that help?

[veronicam]

Thanks for the great advice. I definitely don't have tons of stuff. I have made a great effort to declutter my life, plus my fiance HATES knick knacks and the such. So I have very minimal "clutter". It's just the everyday things that end up getting messy. Dishes, mail, purse, work stuff, etc. And yes, my fiance also has difficulty maintaining order (he tends to leave his work clothes all over the house).

Blue Bunny....you make a great point about organizing in a way that suits my habits.....I'll have to try that.

[green_momma2007]

I find that when I do the flylady emails, it helps me keep things orderly and under control. I just ignore the other emails (she sends out a lot of emails). Better yet, just go to her page and see what the daily to do list is.
www.flylady.com

[veronicam]

thanks so much for that site green momma!

I'm definitely going to use her advice to make my own routine.....but I think I will pass on her 10 e-mails per day.

[Crayfish]

Re:

"Thanks for the great advice. I definitely don't have tons of stuff. I have made a great effort to declutter my life, plus my fiance HATES knick knacks and the such. So I have very minimal "clutter"."

I wanted to comment that "too much stuff" isn't necessarily about knick knacks or in any way about decor. It's quite often about too much of the everyday stuff - dishes or clothes or books or saved papers.

For example (and I keep using this example - apologies), if you have to stack the dessert plates on top of the dinner plates because your cabinets don't have enough room to have each in its own stack, then I'd say that the cabinets are too full and there are too many dishes.

And if the magazines don't easily all fit in the magazine basket with plenty of room for more, or on the bookshelf in a tidy stack, I'd say there are too many magazines - or too much stuff on the bookshelf, preventing you from making that magazine space. And if it's not easy to shove the clothes in the closet aside and get a foot or so of clear space to insert a hanger in, again, I'd say too many clothes.

And if there are things that you find yourself always dumping somewhere, you may need to make a "dump space" for them, and that, again, may require getting rid of more stuff in order to make that space. For example, if there's a bookshelf near the front door, then you might want to clear one of the shelves and use that as the place where you dump your keys and mail and purse when you come in.

So I'd still argue the possibility of "too much stuff", even if you don't have a single knick knack. Unless your storage areas are only sparsely filled, and everything has a permanent home in a storage area, and quite possibly _also_ a temporary home (like the temporary home for your purse and keys and mail, near the front door), your efforts will be hampered by too much stuff.

Have I entirely achieved this? Nope. But where I have, it works well, so my goal is to extend it throughout the house.

Crayfish

[veronicam]

You make a good point Crayfish. Despite the fact that I don't have that much extra "stuff", I still feel like everything is cluttered. It's the maintaining that I have the problem with---things don't get put in their "spot" the first time so everything then tends to get cluttered in certain spaces AKA the kitchen counter!

I'm working on getting a daily routine down on paper so I can reference it everyday and hopefully make a habit of it.

[bobandjess99]

Originally Posted by bluebunny

I feel the same way and I think I know what the problems are but I have a hard time fixing it. One, I agree with the pps that I have too much stuff. I need to continue to declutter until I've gotten my stuff down to a manageable level. Two, I think I need a better system. I read somewhere (it could have been on this board) that you should organize things in a way that suits your habits rather than making yourself change your behavior. For instance, if you come home and put your keys and purse and mail on the kitchen counter, put something on the counter or in that area to contain that "stuff", like a bowl or hook for your keys, hook for your purse, and bowl or letter holder for your mail, instead of putting the organization system in the hall closet. Another example would be to put a shoe rack by the door if you take off your shoes when you enter the house, rather than forcing yourself to take your shoes off and carry them to the hall closet.

Does that help?

I love this, but dh disagrees. He thinks you make a sytem for orderliness, and then you follow the system rithlessly, even if it is contrary to how you would normally do stuff (i think this is military coming out, lol) And I want to make the system fit my life. IT is one of our significant disagreements.
That, and the fact tha he doesn't seem to be able to process the fact that i am SHORT and can only recah the very bottom shelf in all our cabinets, so ALL THAT SPACE he thinks i have in the kitchen, is completely WORTHLESS, if i can not REACH it. So no, i do NOT have 9 shelves, i have THREE. THREE SMALL shelves onto which i must fit ALL of the plates, cups, food(this incoludes all pantry food, cans, boxes, bags, etc - anything not refridgerated), spices, etc that I use on a daily basis. And no, I'm not gonna pull out a stool and use it every 5 seconds all day long, thanks. I'm clumsy as heck, have a bad back, and wear floor length skirts i trip on half the time anyway, and that would surely spell disaster, not to mention that having to use a stool to reach stuff is the exact OPPOSITE of CONVENIENT.
This is my button, lol, can you tell?

[justmeandmybrood]

I had to giggle - DH and I have been married going on 12 yrs and only very recently has he learned that *my* systems have to fit *my* life and needs...there have been many times that my husband, who never enters the kitchen except to help with the dishes, has come into the room and reorganized according to what what he thinks makes sense. He then proceeds to get frustrated when that system does not work for me - he is also military and also thinks that if I conform my actions to the new system, all will be right with the world! I can definitely empathize!