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This year, I’m going to get organized! There’s a good chance you’ve
pledged to do just that, as one of your New Year’s resolutions. Like
diet and exercise, however, getting organized is often easier said than
done. Right up there with eating right and getting fit, adopting an
orderly lifestyle requires discipline and commitment. And with our
scattered, often frenetic schedules, there is barely time to stop long
enough to evaluate why there is so much disarray in our lives, so much
to get done, and simply too little time in which to do it. Not only are
we working harder at our careers, which leaves less time to spend
clearing the decks at home, we simply have more stuff than our parents
ever did. Good news for the professional organizing industry, which has seen its ranks increase two-fold in the last six years. These pros are reaping the rewards of our chaotic lives as we pay them up to $200 per hour to clean our closets, organize our offices and attempt to point us toward the blissful state of clutter-free living. Retailers like The Container Store have found a gold mine in providing us with a solution to our shambles, resulting in increased revenues of almost $100 million in just the past two years. HGTV’s “Mission Organization” captivates us as we vicariously watch someone else achieve the serenity that an orderly environment allows. Even Oprah Winfrey proclaimed on a recent show that cleaning your closet can be a life-changing experience, saying it will cause you to stand taller, eat less and move through life more fulfilled. It’s no wonder that the covers of women’s journals that used to announce stories about fashion and cooking now tout that readers can enjoy the calming effects of tidiness after reading their pages. For example, Real Simple magazine, which pledges to help subscribers simplify their lives, has seen readership triple in the last four years. True organization, however, involves more than putting your home in order. It also means creating order in our LIVES. It means having the time to make the ortho appointment, finish the marketing presentation for work, pick up the kids from practice AND still have time to bake the cupcakes for the school event all without racing from one task to the next, trying to squeeze it all in. It doesn’t take Super Mom to accomplish all this. It simply takes a better system. Joan Goldner, mother to 12-year-old Jake, developed a grid system on which to record the activities and appointment of every member of the family. Her solution led to a new book for busy moms called the “BusyBodyBook: A family organizer” ($19.95). The spiral-bound organizer prompts users to list the names of family members across the top of the page and the days of the week down the side. The grid system allows users to organize, review and coordinate each family member’s activities to create a visual tool that helps eliminate overscheduling and conflicts. The book can be ordered through www.busybodybook.com. Maria Gracia, author of “Finally Organized, Finally Free,” ($17.95, www.getorganizednow.com) says that the same tools that work to help us eat better and exercise more can be applied to achieving and maintaining order in your life. She writes, “The first step to getting organized is goal-setting.” Write down specifically what you want to achieve less clutter, more time with the kids, less commuting and assign a deadline to each goal. Then, she suggests, break down each goal into smaller tasks. Don’t say, for example, that you’re going to clear out the entire house. Instead, set the goal of clearing out one room. Gracia encourages clutter-free wannabes to enlist the support of family members and even to plan a reward for accomplishing the small goals you’ve set. Once a room is organized, allow yourself to buy new curtains or a new lamp as a reward. Organizetips.com is a website that offers a ton of tips and downloadable checklists to help you move toward a more streamlined life at home and at work. Everything from cleaning techniques to a mandate to delegate chores, the site urges visitors to aspire to live a more orderly life. Once achieved, the far-reaching effects of being organized will touch every member of the family. The satisfaction of structuring a life that allows family time, personal time and time to dedicate to our passions is worth the effort.m Kimberly A. Porrazzo is a senior writer with OC Family Magazine. MAINTAINING ORDER Getting organized is a feat in itself. But how do you maintain that clean closet, a tidy family room or perhaps most important, the home office? Maria Gracia suggests that in order to keep things in order, you do the following. • Put one family member in charge of the “penalty box.” Every time someone drops an item on the floor or fails to put something away where it belongs, they are fined a quarter. • Make doing something you enjoy contingent upon having a particular area organized each night. Don’t take a bubble bath, for example, until you’ve picked up the towels and cleared off the bathroom counter. • Post a sign in the area you worked hard to clean out, which reads something like, “I worked three hours to get this area under control. I will not mess it up again.” HOW ORGANIZED ARE YOU? Send us your best tip for organizing your family’s home and life, to be printed in an upcoming issue of OC Family Magazine, and the first 25 respondents will receive a FREE BusyBodyBook organizer. Include your name, address, city and phone number (phone number will not be published). Send your organizing tip (no more than 50 words) to OC Family Magazine, 1451 Quail St., Suite 201, Newport Beach, CA 92660. E-mail: kimberlyporrazzo@cox.net. |
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