Are you unhappy with your organizational skills? Do you constantly struggle with disorganization? You are not alone. In fact, a recent study reported that nearly eighty-four percent of Americans stress that their personal space isn't clean or organized enough. This makes organization one of the most common triggers of stress amongst Americans. Fortunately, you can do something about your incessant disorganization. With these five tips from Flow Wall, you can not only get organized, but you can transform your lifestyle in a way that helps you stay organized - for good.
1. Know What's Got To Go
Annette Reyman, President of the National Association of Professional Organizers in Philadelphia, recommends setting goals for your living or working space. She notes that chronically organized people don't just stay organized because they can - it's because they want to and they do it for a purpose. Perhaps you'd like to entertain at home more frequently, or you'd like to host weekly meetings in your office; whatever your desires are with your space, having goals helps you to create a purposeful space where everything in the area is there for a reason. One of the biggest steps in creating this organized, purposeful space is to know what things aren't helping you achieve these goals. If they are not connected in any way or seem irrelevant to the environment you're trying to achieve, get rid of them.
2. Connect With Organized People
The concept is not new: who you surround yourself with, you become. If you surround yourself with co-workers, roommates, and friends who are neat, you yourself will become more organized. Not only do these people reflect an easier life, but they are also incredibly valuable resources for you on your journey to an organized lifestyle. You'll likely notice that organized people tend to have a positive, can-do attitude due to the lack of stress in their lives. Even if they are not picture-perfect organizers, they can give you advice on how to get started and encourage you to stay tidy through their own personal efforts.
3. Make Organizing Fun
For chronically messy people, the idea of getting and staying organized can be pretty far-fetched. However, by turning organization into something fun and rewarding, it won't seem so daunting or chore-like. Consider making organization into a game. Challenge your roommate, partner, or spouse to a month-long contest: whenever someone leaves laundry on the floor, or dishes in the sink, they get a tally mark. At the end of the month, the person with the most tally marks must do a particular task, like laundry for a month, or dishes for a week, etc. While these games might seem like a fun, temporary get-organized tip, they ultimately create long-lasting effects because you realize that not only is staying organized easy, but it can be fun and rewarding, too.
4. Create A Schedule
Breaking down your organizational and cleaning duties into small, achievable tasks makes staying tidy much easier. Instead of spending an entire weekend trying to clean your house, have small daily chores that you can quickly and easily achieve. For example, on Mondays, tackle your kitchen. Set aside 30-minutes to throw out old food in the fridge, clean the counters, put away/clean dishes, sweep the floor, clean out the inside of the microwave, and take the trash out. On Tuesdays, do a quick 15-minute bathroom clean by clearing counter clutter, swapping out old towels, spraying down the shower, etc. After a couple weeks of sticking to this schedule, you'll get into the groove of quick-cleaning your space, which can lead to a lifetime of organization.
5. Accept Your Imperfections
As an individual who struggles with disorganization, chances are it will be difficult to achieve absolute perfection. However, instead of getting discouraged and stressed out by messes, give yourself a break and know that being organized is achievable and disorganization is not forever. In order to achieve an organized lifestyle, you have to let go of perfectionism and accept your imperfections. If you start feeling overwhelmed by clutter or feel like you're taking steps backwards in your goals to achieve neatness, take a breath and review this list of five useful tips to help you master the art of organization. Along with these five tips, you can become and stay organized with help from Flow Wall's comprehensive organization systems. No matter how much clutter you have or what space you need to organize, Flow Wall has the organization solution for you.
