Problems are a sign of life. If you’re alive, you have them. Some problems are bigger and more painful than others. But we all have them.
Someone gets sick. An appliance breaks. There’s a leak in the house. The computer gets a virus. Your phone stops working. The car needs a repair. Something unforeseen happens at work. Something doesn’t go as planned. You receive an unexpected bill. You lose trust in someone. The list goes on and on.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, where you live, single or married, children or not, working or retired, or how much money you have, as long as you’re alive, one way or another, you’ll have problems that need to be solved.
When these challenges pop up (and better yet, start to stack), it can be easy to dwell on them to the point where we drain ourselves emotionally and other things in life start taking a back seat.
For example, things like starting to declutter or keeping up with everyday organization may fall by the wayside.
Before you know it, you feel overwhelmed with life and your problems, AND the house is a complete mess on top of everything else.
It’s easy to look at the mess in the midst of it all and tell yourself, “I’ll start organizing once [insert problem here] gets resolved.”
And so, clutter on horizontal surfaces and floors continues to pile up and disorganization continues to get worse.
While not everything can always be a priority and yes, sometimes there are more important things than organizing, I’m here to remind you that as soon as one problem gets resolved, a new one will eventually show up. It’s inevitable!
If you keep waiting for the storm to pass to start getting organized, you’ll never start. If you’re human, there will always be something. And if you’re creative enough, you’ll always find an excuse to never begin!
The key is learning how to navigate yourself through the storm instead of letting the storm navigate you.
In the case of organizing, one way to do that is to consistently do a little bit each day regardless of what is being thrown at you. I know you’ve heard this before. It’s no secret. Consistency is crucial.
But consistently working on an organizing project (or even just tidying up) can be hard when you don’t feel well emotionally because of whatever problem you’re dealing with.
I get it.
If you’re like a most people, you seek comfort when you feel out-of-control. Things like TV, surfing the internet, reading fiction, eating, mindless entertainment, or doing something extreme can bring us temporary calm amid the chaos.
While just looking at your clutter can be uncomfortable enough, a good question to ask yourself is: How can organizing actually bring me comfort?
Maybe there’s comfort to be felt once you get past the uncomfortable starting point. Or maybe playing music or listening to a podcast in the background makes it more enjoyable. I don’t know what the answer is for you. Only you can answer that.
Whatever it is, I highly recommend doing at least 10 minutes of organizing a day regardless of what’s going on in your life. It can be 10 minutes of sorting the tall stack of mail from this past month or 10 minutes sorting the hodge podge in your bedroom closet.
We can all find 10 minutes in the 1440 minutes available to all of us each day. And each 10-minute organizing session surely adds up. Find your comfort in doing this stuff and it’ll be much easier to stay consistent.
Sending love your way,
Alejandra
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