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Amber’s Home and Office Organizing Blog index

Don’t Complicate Organizing

Perfectionism Doesn’t Equal Organization

The most common question I’m asked is “Amber, is your home organized? “ I think that’s a funny question. Of course it is. How could I teach and show people how to organize and then go home to live like a slob? I could not live with myself if the latter was true. However, it’s also true that right now

• my socks are not lined up in the drawer
• I rarely iron my clothes
• my clothes are not hanging by color and are not facing the same direction
• our dvds are not alphabetized
• and I only wash out my refrigerator shelves 2-3 times a year.

Some of my clients would be surprised to know those things. Well, the cats out of the bag. I don’t keep things in perfect order, just in order. I can’t keep up with perfectionism. There’s no way I’d have enough time. Let’s pause and define a perfectionist. Webster defines a perfectionist as “a person’s disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable.” Well then, what’s perfection? Webster says, : Freedom from fault or defect. That definition proves it’s unrealistic and a waste of time get things just so, or just perfectly organized. We’re all imperfect beings. We can’t do anything perfect and even more importantly, we can’t keep it at a state of perfection. 

So I shoot for what I call “simple organization” and I choose where I want to spend extra time on more “detailed or fancy organization”. For example, my kitchen spices give you a picture of my simple organization. I have two small baskets. Spices that start with the letter A-L are in one. And M-Z spices are in the other. A more fancy or detailed approach is seen in my filing cabinet. All files are typed out and color coded. That type of detail saves me a ton of time so it’s important to me whereas, my spices don’t make or break my cooking time. 

I think that’s what it boils down to- where does detailed, fancy organization matter the most in your life? Maybe it’s your purse? Maybe it is your closet? I don’t have a corporate job where I need to look classy and current in my wardrobe so it’s not that important to me. I still make an effort to keep things hung up and neat looking, but things are not at a high level of fancy organization. 

This philosophy carries through into my organization style with clients. I slow down and spend the time on detail when it really matters, and the rest of it gets simply put in order in the quickest way possible. I think sometimes you and I make organizing systems way too complicated and tedious. That’s not a solution. That creates another problem because who on earth has time to maintain complicated systems? So when you’re organizing, think about keeping it simple. Then take time to slow down and get a little more detailed and fancy with the extra important areas in your home. 

Share with us where you’ve really organized in detail in your home. Where do you let it slide and keep it simple? Does that approach work for you? 

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