The million dollar question I get asked often

Do people really stay organized after you leave?

Oh do I hear that question a lot.  Not often do I hear it from potential or actual clients. Although the people that ask are probably curious if this thing called “get organized” actually works.

And of course it does. But it does depend on a few factors:

• your desire to be organized
• your willingness to dig deep, let go of, and reassess your stuff
• your conscious effort to pay attention to how things look and feel after the work is done
• what organized means to you and whether you continue to “choose” order over chaos

Many people come to me ready to change, ready to feel better and more efficient in their space and with their time, all so they can do more with their life, and feel better about their lot in it.

So we make changes, and we purge, and we decide on things – together. And we set systems to help keep up with what is always changing and the things that are always coming in. To that end, organization isn’t something you do just once. Sure the hard, often time-consuming work is hopefully done once, but keeping up is something you have to be committed to doing – daily.

And when you do, it becomes easier to let the prospect of living in a space where everything you own has its place sink in and be your new MO.

“Staying” organized is about systems that get set for dealing with all that comes in – daily, sometimes minute-to-minute.  Good systems, that feel good to the person using them, yield good results.

When a system feels good, you are more likely to use it.

Now that doesn’t mean that everything always gets put away or stays looking tidy and neat. Life happens and at any given time things get out of order – sometimes quickly.  But when you do the work of questioning and uncovering and deciding on what you really like, need and use, and then craft a system for where those items go, you often can get back to tidy – almost as quickly as you got out of order.  Usually it requires about 15 minutes of dedicated time to put things away, wash things up, and discard what is unnecessary.

That rule of thumb is what I teach my clients to help them stay organized.

Staying organized is really a matter of staying conscious — of what you let in and why — and tidying up.  It is, in fact, a practice you choose.

If you let the fluidity of life get under your skin and sweep you away, you will end up cluttered and disorganized again.

But if you flow with life, keeping your vision of your space intact, and do the simple work of questioning and deciding before the piles get too high, you will adapt to the systems set and never feel like a hamster on a wheel.

Here is what I know for sure: when you take the time, whether with a professional or with your self, to organize {keeping and storing necessary items in a way that makes sense to you and allows openness in your space} you’ve taken a great step to staying that way.

Forever isn’t a word I use often when I talk about getting organized. I think we’d have to stop the world from spinning, and you from living, in order to achieve that.

You want to get organized and stay that way?

Be willing to do the work. Think of the systems that work for you and give them a try. Hire someone to help you work it all out.  Let order and tidy become part of what you do, daily.

The end result – which in truth really isn’t an end, rather a consistent way of looking at and living with your belongings – will be order.

Get organized once and you have an infinitely higher opportunity to stay organized…

…for as long as you choose.