It’s a new year and perhaps a good starting point to make some positive changes in your life. Order is important to healthy living. It helps you to feel calm and in control, especially in a time of crisis. How many times have you been walking out the door at the last minute to an important business meeting and realize you can’t find your car keys? That five or 10 minutes it takes to look for your keys are not only making you late, but also leaves you feeling stressed and frazzled. But for many, getting organized and staying organized can be a challenge. So at Suwanee Magazine we sought out some help from a professional to help everyone get organized for 2013.
Becky DeWitt, a Suwanee resident and owner of Organize All Your Stuff, said she has been passionate about organizing even as a child.
“People feel out of control and burdened because of the lack of order in their lives,” she said. “I love to create order out of chaos; making a messy place look nice and neat and clean. It gives me a huge sense of accomplishment.”
She added that when she saw the overwhelming need for people to get their time, schedules and possessions organized, she felt she could help others while doing something she loved. She became a professional organizer with a goal to help people feel less overwhelmed in their lives and environments so they can be free to pursue other passions.
DeWitt said when it comes to organizing, people try to do too much at once which can be overwhelming and can cause one to give up. She recommends starting on a smaller scale, tackling an area of a room such as a desk or closet. Once the small area is organized, it gives you a sense of accomplishment and you’re ready to tackle the next area.
She said when organizing, getting started is the hard part and it’s important to ask yourself why you want to get organized and what do you expect to feel like once it is accomplished. The answers will help you keep focused.
“My dad taught me to create a space for everything and put everything in its place,” she said. This philosophy does two things. It allows you to find what you need when you need it. And it allows you to clean up clutter easily by being able to quickly put things back where they belong.”
Tips to help make the process of organizing easier:
1. Begin with sorting: Whether you are organizing your time or your stuff, the process is basically the same. First, begin with sorting. Put everything in one place and sort by like items.
2. Purge: Get rid of things. It’s hard but necessary. We need to continually let go of things to create space for other things that come into our lives. If it is not serving a purpose or you don’t love it, then consider donating or giving it to someone else who may have a need for it. Give yourself permission to throw things away!
3. Assign homes: Find a place for all the items that remain. Put things where they are going to get used or stored. For instance, tools go in the workshop or garage not on the floor next to your desk.
4. Containerize: Things should not remain in piles you’ve created. While you are assigning each item a place, consider how to store them. Baskets are great for magazines, piles that need to go to the second floor and shoes when you first walk in the door. Files are good for paperwork. Use “To do lists” as you containerize your on going tasks, and consider a master list for everything that comes to mind and jot it down. Then as often as it makes sense, (every night or once a week) review that list and create a daily to do list.
5. Evaluate: Evaluating is important to see how you did during each step of the process. Ask yourself what was most difficult and are there containers or systems you put in place that are not working. Evaluating also helps to maintain the organization put into place. And accountability to a friend is extremely helpful.
DeWitt added that one of the biggest joys is to hear people tell her how they feel like a new person with a new sense of freedom and extra time in their days and months.
So instead of spending time hunting for keys or that important document that’s lost somewhere in the heap of paperwork on your desk, get organized and use that extra time to enjoy!
For more information about Organize All Your Stuff, visit organize-this-mess.com.
BY: Tana Christian Suggs
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