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What It Really Takes to Get Organized

Writer's picture: Susan McCarthySusan McCarthy

If you want to get organized at home, you need to do more than declutter ... you need to imagine that you can become an organized person.


Tidy kitchen counters.

Here’s a big thing about decluttering and organizing that isn’t usually mentioned. Disorganized people don’t live in organized homes. (Conversely, organized people don’t live in disorganized homes.)


Why am I mentioning something that seems fairly obvious?


Because I want you to consider how you identify yourself. Do you consider yourself organized or disorganized?


Now, you may be thinking, “Well, after I declutter, I’ll be organized.” But when you say, “I’ll be organized,” do you mean, “My home will be organized,” or “I will be an organized person”?

If you struggle with your identity, you’ll struggle with keeping your home organized.


Self-Perception and Decluttering

I came to this realization while thinking about my struggle with my weight. How, I wondered, could I develop the habits of being organized, but I couldn’t develop the habits of being thin?


Then, one day, I caught the way I was making decisions based on being fat. That’s when I realized I couldn’t make the decisions a fat person would make if I wanted to be thin. As James Clear said in Atomic Habits, I couldn’t use the identity that got me to where I am to change into the person I want to be.


And if you’re trying to organize your home, you can’t think of yourself as a disorganized person who’s decluttering and organizing their home.


Changing Your Beliefs

However, you won’t have any luck thinking of yourself as an organized person if you can’t see your kitchen counters for the stuff on them and you often choose what you’re going to wear for the day from the clean clothes sitting in the laundry basket.


Decluttering your kitchen counters won’t necessarily make you feel organized but keeping it organized will. Habits, by their repetitive nature, change your beliefs about yourself and confirm the identify you want to embrace.


To change your perception of yourself –


  1. Consider the identity you want.

  2. Ask yourself, “What would a (identity you want; for example, organized person) do?”

  3. Break down those actions into small, doable steps. Which steps need to be done on a regular basis?

  4. Repeat those actions until they become habits.


By taking the actions of an organized person, you become an organized person.



Cover of the free downloadable guide, Clear the Clutter and Keep It from Returning.

 

Information versus Implementation

I love reading and will read deep into a topic. The problem is when I gain information but don’t put it into action in some way. While I feel that I understand a topic, do I really? Can you really learn about decluttering or dieting or knitting by reading and watching videos about the topic?


Someone once told me that they felt they couldn’t start decluttering until they truly understood the process. While they’d read about decluttering, they felt that this didn’t answer all their questions. What they really wanted, they said, was a real-time video showing someone decluttering. (There’s a good reason videos are edited to a fraction of the time the clutter clearing process truly takes)


What this meant was that they didn’t trust themselves to make decisions about their own possessions.


The best way to learn to declutter and stay organized is to … drum roll, please … declutter and practice maintaining order. By taking these actions, you learn what to do … and do with increasing confidence.


Get Curious

Instead of asking, “What should I do?” and then looking for the answers, ask that question of yourself. Get specific about what you’re trying to figure out and then allow the question to sit in the back of your mind. Frequently repeat the question to yourself and see what answer comes up.


People often ask me how they can decide what to keep and what to get rid of. While you can use all sorts of questions to prompt your thinking, ultimately you need to make the decision … “What do you really want to do with that item?”


Ironically, I think we spend more time trying to convince ourselves to keep something than to get rid of a thing. Don’t think so? How many times have you thought something to the effect of, “I should keep this just in case I need this.”


What that really means is, “I know I don’t use or display this, but I’m uncomfortable making a decision about it.”


Get curious about what keeping or getting rid of the item could mean to you -


  • What benefits can you gain by keeping this? What benefits can you gain from getting rid of it?

  • What’s the disadvantage of keeping this? What’s the disadvantage of getting rid of it.


No list of “The 10 Things You Should Declutter Today,” can offer you information as valuable as that which you know is true for you.


Visualize Your Desired Outcome

When you imagine achieving a goal, it’s normal to focus on the result. You see yourself in your organized home, showing off your weight loss in a new outfit, holding a copy of your published book, or whatever your goal is.


This can be very motivating. Unfortunately, it turns out that our brains can interpret these imagined results as us achieving these goals. So, focusing on what we want to accomplish can leave us less motivated because our brain figures we’ve met that goal.


The more effective way to visualize your desired outcome? Imagine the process … in detail. What steps will you take? What are you looking at? What do you hear? Feel the movements you are taking in your body as you carry out an action. What emotions are you feeling? What thoughts are you thinking?


Instead of imagining your organized home, imagine yourself going through the process of decluttering.


So, why can we imagine a process but not the result? My non-neuroscientist guess is that focusing on the process doesn’t complete the task. Our brain knows we’re taking a step toward our goal … without achieving it. (And our brain likes when something’s finished because then it doesn’t require immediate attention.)

 


Cover of the free downloadable guide, Clear the Clutter and Keep It from Returning.

Visualize Obstacles to Getting Organized

Yes, while you’re imagining the process, consider the obstacles you might encounter along the way. And then, figure out how you resolve those obstacles.


This is about creating an “If … then …” plan. If you know, or imagine, you’ll end up dealing with a distraction or detour, imagine (in detail) how you can solve this problem.


If you’re working on becoming organized, you know you’ll be decluttering. You may also know that your partner or spouse may complain about you getting rid of things (even if those things aren’t theirs). Your sister may tease you about your disorganization. There will be times that you don’t feel like decluttering, even though you planned to.


And on and on. Visualize dealing with common obstacles you know you’re likely to encounter. Again, layer on the details. Repeat your If…then… plans. This can require less than a minute but can prepare you to deal with obstacles with confidence.


Conclusion

Do you really need to think like an organized person to declutter your home? If you want to create a permanent change and keep the clutter away … yes.


When we’re in a decluttering mindset, we can clear clutter, but the task ends the moment we decide we’re done. Slowly the clutter returns until it gets to the point where we realize we need to declutter … again.


As an organized person, you realize that there’s no finish line for staying organized. (If you identified as, say, a knitter, you’d know you’d continue knitting.) Your actions, your habits, reinforce the identity you want to claim.


Are you ready to become an organized person?


To review, to change your perception of yourself –


  1. Consider the identity you want.

  2. Ask yourself, “What would a (identity you want; for example, organized person) do?” Visualize taking the action of a person with that identity.

  3. Break down those actions into small, doable steps. Which steps need to be done on a regular basis? Come up with an If…then… plan for how you’ll handle obstacles. Which steps need to be done on a regular basis? Become comfortable dealing with these detours and distractions by visualizing putting your If…then… plan into action.

  4. Repeat those actions until they become habits.


By taking the actions of an organized person, you become an organized person.


Pinterest pin showing tidying kitchen shelves under the headline, "What it really takes to organize your home."

A Pinterest pin showing a tidy desk with plants and a planner with the headline of "the mindset shift that will help you to get organized.

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