Let's Play Fetch

Jake, rest his soul (if doggies have souls and I hope they do) loved to play fetch. He would chase the ball we threw, bringing it back for another throw until his little tongue fell out, so to speak.

Jake’s replacement, Scotty, surprised us all. He understood the concept of going to get the ball. But once he got it, the game was over for him. He just ran around with it in his mouth or dropped it. He never seemed to realize that if he didn’t bring it back to us, we couldn’t throw it out again. No more fun for Scotty.

Organized people take things back as Jake did. Those of us who struggle with clutter are like Scotty. For us, it is exciting to get something out but not to put it back. We gather the wrapping paper, scissors, and tape to wrap a gift but when it is wrapped, for us the game is over. The same goes for many other items -- books we remove from the shelf to read, toothbrush and toothpaste from the cabinet, cups from the kitchen in the living room, and ... well, just look around.

The meaning of the word “fetch” is “to go get AND to take back.” Let’s play fetch, like Jake. Make it a point to return what we get out so that when we need it next time it will be there for us to do the exciting part again.

Trust me, the game of life will be much more fun if you do.

Warmly,
Sandra Felton
THE ORGANIZER LADY®
Founder, Messies Anonymous, www.messies.com
Author: NEW! Smart Office Organizing

Up the Down Escalator

Have you ever tried walking upstairs on an escalator that is moving down? If you have, you know how much effort you it takes. For a little while you may be able to make some progress upward. After a while you are lucky if you can just stay in place. And finally, the inevitable -- you are swept backward by the unrelenting force of the downward flow and plop! you are back at the bottom where you started.

Many of us feel the same way about trying to keep the house in order. The flow of clutter has us puffing to keep the house picked up properly. By working really hard we can do it for a while but fatigue inevitably wears out our resolve and the house drifts downhill again.
 

Get off the down staircase of disorder. Quit trying to overcome clutter by putting forth more effort. Change your ingrained habits, reorder the setup of your house, and abandon your old ideas of how to do things. The best place to figure out how to do this is by reading the book, Organizing for Life, that illuminates the factors that keep pushing us back.

Abandon what isn’t working. Open the elevator door to new ways of thinking and acting and you will be surprised at how high it will take you. 

Warmly,
Sandra Felton
THE ORGANIZER LADY®
Founder, Messies Anonymous
Author: NEW! Smart Office Organizing

Visit our newly designed website!

You Can Do It

There is a strange and virtually ignored something about how the body performs. Perhaps coaches whose job it is to evaluate movement of athletes could shed some light on the subject of the mind-body connection regarding moving. 

It makes sense that like everything else there is a bell shaped curve for ease of movement. A few rate 9s or 10s  because their bodies and minds run smoothly together. Most people are in the mid range of 4-6. And then there are a few of us in the lower numbers. Our mind-body connection does not work with the same ease as others. It does not fall into the smooth category.      

There is nothing very serious about this any more than it is a problem if you can’t carry a tune while someone else has perfect pitch. Or can’t draw a stickman well while portraits flow easily from another person’s pencil. We are all a conglomeration of a variety of skills and it may just be that some of us are a little shy in the ease of movement area.
     

All of this is to say that a task such as opening a tightly taped shipping carton that may seem simple, if slightly annoying to some, is a challenge to others. Neither one recognizes the difference in the other. But the one to whom activities come hard is likely to want to avoid tackling that challenge of opening the box, or at least put it off for a while.
     

Because of this subliminal reluctance, mundane things that need to be done, like taking out the trash and putting in a new bag or unloading the dishwasher may be neglected or postponed. Either of these will cause a backup and resulting clutter.
     

Recognize we all are different. We need to put forth a little extra effort when we notice that we hesitate to move.

Warmly,
Sandra Felton
THE ORGANIZER LADY®
Founder, Messies Anonymous
Author: NEW! Smart Office Organizing


Visit our newly designed website!










 

OH, GO AHEAD

This is what I find myself repeating to myself when I am tempted to stop just short of finishing a task completely. Like putting the jewelry in the jewelry box instead of just on the dresser top.
 

A voice inside says with a mix of encouragement and annoyance,  
“Oh, just go ahead!” 

And I do. And I am glad.

Warmly,
Sandra Felton
THE ORGANIZER LADY®
Founder, Messies Anonymous
Author, New Book! Smart Office Organizing

Care-less Equals Clutter, Care-full Equals Clear

If you are reading this, it shows you are one of the many who are concerned about clutter. You struggle with it but you are not winning the battle. Somehow the mess continues to develop -- on tables, counters, beds, and maybe even the floor. You are frustrated. You wish it were different. But somehow, although you really do care, it never gets much better.
    
On the other hand, your friend, Mary (or you fill in the name, you know who this is) seems to live clutter free. The puzzling part is that she does not seem to struggle like you do to keep her house neat. It just seems to stay that way.
    
The difference often is how much each of you cares. Often, the messy person could do better -- but they don’t put forth the required effort because they lack the pervasive intensity it takes to overcome the hindrances they face in the organizational arena.
    
They know what to do, they know how to do it. But they just don’t seem to be able to exert the effort necessary to overcome their particular hindrances.
    
Mary does. Somewhere like an underground river through her psyche, there flows an unstoppable determination to do what it takes to keep a neat house. She is consistently care-full. In other words, she cares enough to do what it takes to keep the house uncluttered.
    
If you face a chronically cluttered house, care enough to set goals wonderful enough to inspire you,  read books that meet your need, attend classes (in person or on line), ask for or hire help. Do whatever it takes to change what you are doing to make the house cluttered or not doing to make it neat. Caring alone is not enough, but without it nothing is enough.
    
Care intently, care passionately, care more. In short, raise your determination to a level that makes a difference.
    
Easy? Definitely not! Worthwhile? Absolutely!

Warmly,
Sandra Felton
THE ORGANIZER LADY®
Founder, Messies Anonymous
Author, New Book! Smart Office Organizing


    

Wishing for a Clutter Genie

“I need help!  Living in a disorganized house is the pits.”

• Paying bills by mail is hard because that process involves stamps, pen, and keeping up with the bill itself. A hitch in any one of these steps will derail what should have been a quick and easy job.

A genie sure could help. Maybe there is a magic lantern lying around here somewhere.

•  Laundry’s tough because you have to sort, wash, dry, fold, and put away. A back-up anywhere in this process leads toward piles of sorted unwashed clothes, molding stuff in the washer, wrinkling stuff in the dryer, unfolded clothes waiting attention on the sofa. or folded clothes not yet stored but being used out of the piles where they are.

Extra help would be nice. What’s this I found! A magic lantern? Oh, no. It’s just a creamer.

• Managing medicine and first aide stuff can get so complicated especially when you use it so seldom. Where did I put that alcohol when I used it last time? Do we have any more adhesive tape?

I need somebody to help me locate what I need. A clutter genie sure would help a whole lot. Where, oh where, can I find a magic lantern?

There is good news and bad news. The bad news is there ain’t no such thing as a clutter genie. The good news is that a sanely organized house will give you the support you need.

To get that help read organizing books by Sandra Felton, sign up for daily encouragement through the Yahoo! group called The Organizer Lady, and join an organizing support group. You can gain access to all three on the very valuable website, www.messies.com. Go there. You might just find your genie.

      

      

Fall in Love with an Organized Life

Real, long-term change comes only when the heart and mind embrace passionately the dream of a new, organized way of life. Maybe the passion is not there when we first start out, but somewhere in the organizing process we catch a glimpse that stirs a yearning. Seeing how others live, pictures in magazines, our childhood home, a visit to a friend’s house or model home, or even a television or movie settings remind us that another way of life is desirable and possible. Our prime motivation must be love for what we can barely see at this time of a new and better way of life.

Knowing that we can have more causes a strong distaste for clutter and what it does. The desire for release from disorder grows best in the soil of the love of order and beauty.

Many messy people have felt remorse over their life of disarray and  their helplessness to change what they so dislike. But deeper remorse come from knowing they have been denied a wonderful way of life. Pain of clutter prods us to begin the journey of change, but we move forward lured by the dream of what can be.

Fall in love with order and beauty.  Pascal was right when he said, “All men seek happiness without exception. They all aim at this goal however different the means they use to attain it...They will never make the smallest move but with this as its goal.” (Pascal’s Pensees, Section 7)  Seek the happiness you will find by getting the house under control and keeping it the way you dream it can be. You’ll love it!

Warmly,
Sandra Felton
The Organizer Lady ®
Founder, Messies Anonymous

Visit the Messies Website