Get Organized to Get Organized

Hello Friends,

I’m finally back to posting. Yay!

I can’t believe January is almost over. I mean…I can… it feels like it should have been over 3 weeks ago! So what I mean is: I can’t believe January is almost over! January and February really do feel like the longest months of the year!

And if, like me, you don’t go south for a vacation – 4 months of hard winter can feel like 8! I’m just happy that this frozen tundra weather that has been dumped on us so late in the season now includes some sunshine & blue skies.

Anyways, I missed the “New Year, New You!” period at the beginning of the year. Which I’m actually OK with. When I was back to work that first week of January a colleague asked me if I made any New Years Resolutions. I ranted and rambled a bit. I’m not really one to make or keep resolutions – in fact I’ll flat out admit I don’t believe in them.  I make plans, goals & attempts all year long – many I give up on almost as fast as I come up with them and others work out and I move on to the next one. So, no, I don’t make New Year Resolutions. I admitted that my main goal was to get workouts in more – I tend to be better at this if I do it first thing in the morning rather than waiting until after work. And he kindly pointed out that I sound more like someone who focuses on habits and routine changes than resolutions or promises I’ll inevitably break. How true! 😀 . In true-to-Tori-fashion I have not done that. LOL. I have kept up my workouts but I have been doing them after work mainly. So we’ll see – I’ll keep at it.

I posted this on New Years Eve because this is what I actually believe:

I think people should do whatever they want when they want and when it feels right. Goals and objectives don’t need to be grandiose. You don’t need to spend tons of money or buy a bunch of new stuff to start anew. It really is a mind shift and a commitment that is needed and it can happen any time of the year.

Which leads to the point of my post. Organizing and Cleaning! I don’t do Spring Cleaning in my house. I do Winter Cleaning. If I’m stuck inside with longer hours but less daylight – why not clean & organize?

I thought I might share some techniques I use to stay on top of it. To keep your house clean, organized and clutter free takes constant effort. Being disciplined, diligent and doing a bit at a time is so much easier than dedicating an entire weekend (or more!) to cleaning and organizing your whole house.

I’ve been here too many times, LOL…

Story Time & a Lesson Learned:

I remember years ago when we were preparing to sell our condo – we wanted to spend a Saturday “staging”. As in, get rid of the personal picture frames, most of your books, any knick-knacks and de-clutter. Staging a home basically means you still keep it homely but nothing personal or distracting – like a hotel room. Potential buyers can instead look at your place and imagine themselves living there rather than thinking “why on earth would a grown women do her hair like that for graduation photos??” (…I don’t want to talk about it, lol).

Anyways, we’re all ready – bins, boxes, tape, labels…let’s get this crap into storage! We started around 10am on a Saturday, expecting to be done by 1pm and call it a day. The whole day flew by and only one room was done 🙁 . We both realized we underestimated how long organizing and going through years of built-up “stuff” can take. All day Sunday went by – one more room. URGH! We had like 4 more rooms to go and the condo was days from being photographed and listed online.

Long story short – we powered through days of work to get our condo to look and feel more staged. The parts that took the longest were the hidden spaces – the closets, cupboards, drawers and shelves. You know…all the areas that didn’t factor into our planning at all because it was ‘out of sight, out of mind’. We completely underestimated it and vowed never to make that mistake again. I’m happy to say it was a good lesson learned and we got there. While I reminisce – here are some pics I took after we finished. I miss that 20th floor view of Mississauga, Toronto and Lake Ontario <3

Now we plan ahead for our de-cluttering or purging activities. When we had to clean our basement for a Renovation – we took 5 days to do it. Everyday after work we’d head immediately to the basement and do one corner for 30-45 mins. It makes it so much less daunting and cumbersome to chip away at it.

Here’s an after picture. I forgot to take a before…just picture this completely full of stuff and mostly junk!

If you’ve ever undertaken an big organizing or de-cluttering task you know you’re making way more mess at first. And if you’re like me and you can’t sleep if you know there’s mess in your house – this is painful. So plan it ahead into smaller more actionable and realistic chunks I have found work best.

So I always like to say, “Get organized to get organized” for this reason.

1. Write it Out & keep it doable!

I start by writing out multiple detailed lists – short term, long term and “to buy”. Most of my lists are the short term. I don’t write “Clean Kitchen”, “Clean Garage”, I write the header: Clean Kitchen: “clean cutlery drawer”,”organize and purge mugs” “wash outside of all cupboards” — get specific and make it small less daunting tasks. List are most effective if they are written out thinking of them as SMART items (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timed).  I leave that list out and when a job is done, draw a line through it or a check. I do this when I’m prepping to entertain or host as well.

This is so I get my brain to do the hard work for me 🙂 ….

2. Get your hit of “Dope”!:

There’s something really satisfying and fulfilling when you can check off an item on a list of To Do’s. Even a small task – that rush of excitement and accomplishment just gives you that boost of energy & motivation to keep going. So what is that all about? That’s Dopamine! Good old healthy natural “dope”. That feel good hormone oozes out when your brain recognizes an accomplishment or something rewarding. Let’s be honest – the best time of a workout is when it’s done! yes, yes, you can feel good during… but that burst of “I did dat!” (that’s how my cute little nephew pronounces, “I did it”) feels so amazing and gratifying. The same thing happens when you strike or check off an item on a To Do list. When you release dopamine enough you’re tapping into the motivation area of your brain – meaning you’re getting into new habits and desires to get back to that feeling. This simple built-in feature you have is at the root of so much research around what makes people successful, or keeps addicts sober, or how some people manage to stay so effective & driven in times of immense stress. This is why achieving small goals by attacking actionable tasks and projects is an incredibly effective way to stay motivated during long-term projects, processes, and ordeals. This also helps avoid the inevitable mid-task regret or slump. Getting small things done actually biologically keeps you motivated to keep going until you’re done the larger jobs.

P.S. this method is also strongly recommended to help those who battle depression or SAD in the winter -so it’s why I move my “spring cleaning” up to winter. If I don’t I’ll just binge-watch a bunch of Netflix and hate myself come April when I want to be outdoors more.

3. Get your family in on it!

If more than one person is contributing to mess and disorganization around you, get them in on it! Even if it’s painful at first and you feel like a nag or a meltdown and temper-tantrum results – keep pushin’. It’s so valuable in the end because it’s re-training the brain to take mundane chores or tackling organizing projects and translating into a rewarding experience. This is the beginning of better habits and the more they do the more automatic, appreciative and desirable it will become. You shouldn’t, and really you can’t, do it all alone. It’s not good for you or the people around you.

We know kids love to spend time with adults. They want all your attention, praise and involvement lavished on them. Put them to work! There’s a lot of research out about how kids adopting good habits at very young ages helps instill good habits as adults. Putting the toys away they’ve used. Washing the dishes they’ve used. I know this sounds easy – I get that most kids will resist, meltdown, freak out, or give you that ‘f##k off look’, when you push them – but it’s important in building the new habit. Apparently if you do this often enough it will start to program their brains that need to do this and it will feel good and rewarding – read it from the pros. Yes, you got it – they’ll get a dose of dopamine! Once this is done enough you’re in autopilot mode.

I really liked a segment I saw weeks ago on The Marilyn Denis Show. Kasia Waloszczyk was showing organizing vertically and had some great tips on organizing kids toys and stuff – especially those small toy pieces like cars, legos – brilliant! Find the segment video here. These techniques make it easy for young kids to participate.

Just going to plug a really great book here, The Power of Habit. It’s excellent and really breaks down how to build new habits, the process and the rewards and the whole bio-chemical reaction we’re all feeling. Highly recommend it.

Get your partner or roommate in on it. The more you clean and organize together – the more value sharing and accomplishment you can bond over. I hate “Honey-Do” lists – the term and quite frankly the need for them should be outdated by now as traditional roles shift more in the home. But the reality is they are usually still required & effective. If it works, I say do it. (But guys, some women really resent having to do it!) My husband and I happen to both be list people – we each have a coiled notebook we write out lists to get us organized and it motivates us to check those items off. I don’t often do “honey-do” lists anymore, which I appreciate because I feel like less of a nag. But if you need them, and they work – do it! Lists are so important. Do what works!

4. Calm anxiety and Depression

You should clean more – even if you don’t want to or think it will make you feel worse. Did you know cleaning is proven to be very effective in calming anxiety? More and more it’s being recommended for anxiety and ADHD disorders. Control, routine, habits, repeat, help us deal with our day to day lives. The trick to getting clear is getting clean. Cleaning is something you can control and it’s something you can see and feel rewarded by almost immediately – hello instant gratification! 😀 Small cleaning tasks can just give you little hits of dopamine that push you forward. At the same time it’s building good, rewarding habits. For the longest time I thought I was procrastinating – now I see it’s an important step for me to get the job done- clean first!

5. Maintain!

Spending 10 mins every so often to tidy up something you’ve already organized is well worth it. I actually create maintenance list as well. Each weekend I try to do one or two of them just to keep at it and avoid  making it a big deal. And these lists are detailed – “clean out laundry room cupboards”, “organize ad de-clutter dishware”. A few years ago I spent hours cleaning under our master bathroom sink. I now spend about 10 mins every few months re-organizing and tidying just to keep it as organized as possible. It’s worked so well I started apply it to other areas of my house.

Maintenance is the best way to stay super organized and get as close as you can to that Martha-Stewart-levels-of-bliss. You know where your stuff is, you can see it, find it, prioritize it. It’s a huge time saver. It sounds easy but it’s not. It’s way easier to jam freshly clean folded towels into your disaster of a linen closet and chalk it up as “ugh! i’ll do it later” — you do that enough and hello major multi-hour project. I use that as example because my Linen closet is in need of WORK! But maintaining prevents the big job. Instead of a 2 hour project (120 mins), 10 mins every month 10×12 = 120 mins — it’s easy to see what is less daunting and more of time saver. So, I try – I don’t always succeed, but it does work and it is easier! Cue me showing off my new Pottery Barn dishes 🙂 I love them, especially the big mugs <3

6. Add some space for the clutter

Clutter is a part of life and clutter means different things to different people. I think a table covered in action figures or toys is clutter – to others it’s their precious belongs that bring them the most joy (yes, I have now referenced Marie Kondo who dominated early January 2019 with her smash hit Netflix show: Tidying Up with Marie Kondo) My collection of magazines or books to others is considered clutter. If you love it, and yes, if it brings you joy – find a place for it and enjoy it.

7. Daily Lists:

I also like to start the day with a daily list. I have a chalkboard in my kitchen which I use for the main things I want to get done in the next day or two – things like dishes, laundry, dog clean-up, Groceries – I do this so I can scratch off those daily tasks as well and get my daily hit of dope! 🙂

8. Careful! Not planning the pet or passion projects could piss you off:

Years ago, on Pinterest I saw a gorgeous pantry and thought – we need that! Here’s what inspired me:

I was on vacation for a week. I immediately headed out and went to Kitchen Stuff Plus – spent tons of money and came home all excited – I was going to have a Pinterest worthy pantry.

Cut to 3 days later and I was still working on it!I ran back to Kitchen Stuff Plus for a bunch of stuff I forgot to buy – I’m frantically adding to amazon things I need that I can’t find at the store. My kitchen was a mess, I was pissed off and my husband was whatever beyond pissed off is. I was halfway through this passion project and I was hating life. I start thinking, ‘why do I do this to myself? I start something, I get all excited, then I’m pissed off and I take it out on anyone within’ ear shot.’

Pet projects are fun but they can add stress unnecessarily – especially if you don’t plan! I wasted precious vacation days all in the end to frustrate & stress myself.

In the end I kind of got there.

BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

But the moral of my story here is to not rush into pet or passion projects. It’s costly, stressful and will waste time. I’m happy in the end my pantry looks better and is more efficient. If I had to do it all over again would I spend the money, time and energy…nope! My pantry was fine! But Pinterest pressure and idealization kicked in and before I knew it I was in it.

I’m notorious for this, I have to work to catch myself when I do it. So when I do this now – I plan better and I ask myself if I want commit myself to the time, money and energy required for this project. And whatever I assume the estimated time effort will be – I triple it. I stop myself a lot more now – but not always 😉 .

Confession time…

If you’ve seen my house on Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest you may think or “she cleans up to take those pictures – she doesn’t live like that”. I really don’t clean up and I do live like this (most days, not all). But, I have always been and always will be a neat-freak! I adopted cleaning at a young age to calm my anxiety and it still does. I am Monica Gellar (if you don’t get this reference we can’t be Friends…get it? HAHA, no? okay…) My husband even has a saying in our house “I’ve just been Gellar’d” which means he put his keys or his sunglasses down and he turned his back and they’re gone. Being a neat-freak and an organizing-freak is not easy to live with. I give the hubby credit for putting up with my ways. But I’ve learned I have to be like this to keep anxiety at bay – to keep my head clear to work, sleep, etc. BUT, I have my messy spaces. I think we all do and we all need them. There’s only so many hours in the day. Life takes over and we’re not all Martha-Stewart goddesses. My cupboards, drawers and, oh god, the worst place…my garage – often turn into “Monica Closets“. My garage – every year, without fail, becomes a big Spring cleaning to do. This was the worst year – after our basement reno – but my garage is about 1/6 of this right now and I hate it! But, it’s freezing our and I know I can park it and deal with it later.

So I’m not perfect and not pretending to be and you shouldn’t either! So cut yourself some slack. Having pets, kids, a demanding job, a busy life, a messy partner or roommate or lack of desire (and you know, life!) can contribute to mess and can make organizing feel like such a huge “To Do”. It can even feel like a waste of time because you’ll do all this work and someone or something else may ruin it. That’s why I try these tips to be successful most of the time.  As I go forward tackling specific projects, like the Linen Closet and Garage, i’ll post some info on some specifics.

I’m hoping my method helps inspire you to find a process and habit that works for you. That’s the key – it has to work for you!

Happy organizing!

Tori