Table of Contents

-Introduction
-Did you know?
-Monthly Mission – Bedroom and Closet
-What’s New on Plan-and-Organize-Life.com – Recent site additions
-Being Organized Vs. Being Tidy

Introduction

I hope your organizing endeavors in this new year are still moving along. I still have some areas and things I want to work on, but it’s only February and we can only do so much at a time. The key is to keep moving forward, doing a little bit at a time. It’s about progress, not perfection.

We wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. Sounds like we could let go of some of the clothes in our closets that we don’t love and wear very often.

Your bedroom should be a peaceful haven, a place for you to relax and sleep. To get tips on how to declutter your bedroom and closet and to make your bedroom a little more relaxing, click here.

Here are some of the more recently added pages to the website you may have missed.

Before and After Photos - If you enjoy seeing before and after photos of organizing projects, you can find them all right here.

Living Room Storage Make-over - See how we recently re-organized our living room (play room) with a new Ikea wall unit that's great for storing lots of stuff.

Adding A Closet Shelf - See how adding a quick and simple shelf to a closet can add functional space.

Spice Rack - See before and after photos of my spice storage including my new spice rack.

Garage Makeover - before and after photos of my personal garage makeover. See how we tackled the problems and ended up with a functional garage.

Streamline Your Morning Routine - Ideas to help you get out the door in the morning and be on time for work or school.

Bathroom Drawer Make Over - How to organize a bathroom drawer, an example with before and after photos.

Stop Clutter - Quick simple tips on how to stop the clutter from coming into your home in the first place.

I don’t boast to have a picture perfect home with every single thing in its place. However, I truly desire peace and organization and I work on keeping organized every day, especially with small kids in the home! It’s not perfect, and there is always room for improvement, but I think I have a pretty good handle on it. Keeping organized is an ongoing process that never ends.

What do I consider to be organized? I think that being organized is a balance of being generally tidy, not too much clutter, having systems in place to get basic chores and errands done efficiently, a system to keep appointments and family activities organized, and a routine to get you out the door on time. Being organized does NOT mean having a spotless home. It’s not how your home looks, it’s about how smoothly it runs. It’s about living in a home that allows you to live and function easily.

I also feel that there is a healthy range of being organized. Different people have different needs. Only you can determine if you feel satisfied with your organizational skills and how efficient your home runs. Also, there is no one perfect organizing system. Different processes work for different people. For example, some people like things hidden away, while others like things neatly visible. If a person’s home is reasonably tidy, they get out the door on time, have clean clothes to wear daily, pay their bills on time and has a dinner plan, they’re pretty organized. How they do it is up to them.

Being organized doesn’t mean having a super clean home. Some people have spotless homes, however, they are late for school or work, miss appointments, don’t pay their bills on time, have mounds of laundry to do and couldn’t tell you what’s for dinner tonight. The laundry, clean or dirty, may be hidden in hampers or laundry baskets in closets, the bills in tidy stacks on the desk, and who knows where their car keys are. Their home may look clean, but they have no systems in place to help their home function smoothly.

Another condition in some seemingly organized homes is lots of storage boxes and organizing tools, except that they hold clutter…things that are not needed, wanted or used. These storage boxes take up space in closets, under beds, in spare rooms, garages and basements. Valuable space is given up to store clutter, very neatly. An extreme example of this is the storage unit that someone has been paying monthly fees on for years, only to realize that the stuff inside is not wanted, needed or of any value. It’s possible they’ve paid out thousands of dollars to store this clutter in order to keep their home tidy. So whether it’s in your garage, closets or in a storage unit, just because things are boxed up nicely and stored away, doesn’t mean you’re clutter free and organized.

If you’re like me, you sometimes get down on yourself because your home may be a little messy. But it’s what’s behind the daily mess that really counts. If the daily clutter can be put away in under a half an hour with the help of all the people who made the mess in the first place, it’s not really that bad. If your home runs smoothly and people are not stressing out daily, rushing around and trying to find things, it’s not really that bad. Things will get cleaned up and the rest of the home will get organized as long as you stay committed.

Now, if you’re shaking your head and thinking that your house doesn’t run very smoothly and it’s a much bigger mess than I described, that’s OK. You’re seeking out advice to change things for the better in your life, and you deserve credit for that. Focus on one area at a time, preferably the thing that causes you the most stress (getting out the door in the morning, paying bills, or that bedroom in the back stacked with boxes) and find a solution that works for you. Then move on to the next challenge. If you keep going, you too will eventually have a manageable home and life. We have many ideas and suggestions to help you on your journey.

Let’s all strive to declutter and organize our homes to a reasonable level, determined by us and our families. Let’s focus on the systems and routines in our homes that allow for things to run smoothly. Remember that living organized is more than just having a tidy home. And lastly, let’s focus on progress, not perfection!

Until next time, happy organizing!

Tracy Greene
Plan-and-Organize-Life.com