Those of you who have followed me for a while know that I wasn’t born organized. I hit bottom when we had our third child and knew that I had to do something. We had three little boys – 4, 2, and new. It was before organizing was an industry and there was no where to turn for help. I made a list of my problems and worked on one problem at a time. I just used trial and error and kept starting over when I messed up. I’ve said this a million times: organizing is just like dieting. You want to lose weight and you’re doing really well for a few days – then BINGO you eat a bag of cookies. Next day, you start over. Just like organizing. The closet looks magazine ready. Then you start shoving things here for now and stashing things there and promise to put them away correctly later. Just keep starting over. When the computer gets goofy – we just re-boot. Re-boot, re-boot, re-boot. Just keep starting over and you’ll get where you want to go. But, that’s not what I want to talk about.
One thing I learned early on is that I made note of things that bugged me. Sitting at the computer, I always had to get up and walk to a trash basket. That was an easy thing to correct – but it made a difference. I was always looking for the scissors but they were in the bathroom because one of our gorgeous hunk sons had taken them in there to trim his hair. Another easy solution. Store a pair of scissors in the bathroom. All the pencils were always in the drawer in the family room. When I needed one in the kitchen I had to make an unplanned hike. So, I let everyone know that the mechanical pencils were in the kitchen and the wooden pencils would be in the family room. When you picked up a pencil, you knew where it belonged.
Anyhow, if something bugs you – don’t nag and scream about it. See if you can alleviate the problem. Label things. Simple color coding might help. Label shelves, the lips of drawers, etc. so other people will know and understand the system.
You might be surprised how that one little change can make a big difference in your life.