A Perfect Mess
In my never-ending quest to become a better organizer and increase my knowledge of all things organizing, I have picked up the book A Perfect Mess. As an organizer it takes courage to read this book - it's all about the hidden benefits of disorder.
"The Tower of Power" - you can make almost any mess look tidy if you pile it up neatly. You don't need to organize the pile itself. Just by creating a neat pile you feel more organized.
"The Archaeologist" - you have a large heap of items crammed in a drawer, a closet, a filing cabinet or even behind your couch with the most important items on the top of the pile. Every so often you can have some fun by excavating the area looking for those rarely used items.
"The Maintenance Plan" - you regularly scan through piles of stuff to keep it under control and functional by making sure nothing important is buried. Or you regularly corral enough of the clutter into one corner of a room to make the rest of the room usable.
"The Code Blue" - someone is coming to visit which requires an intense period of frantic organizing. You can employ this technique at home or in the workplace.
"The Satellite Mess" - if all else fails, rent an offsite storage facility and move all your mess there.
Mess is not really the issue; it's our ability to tolerate mess that's the problem. We all seem to have different tolerance thresholds and once we reach that threshold we then have to kick into gear and get organized. Figure out what works for you not what works for others and stop pressuring yourself to be super organized if that's not what you need!
Jane Veldhoven is a Certified Professional Organizer®, who owns Get Organized by Design and loves working with busy people to help them de-clutter, redesign, and redecorate their spaces, move to a new home, or renovate their existing home. For more information visit http://get-organized.ca/.
