Organizing from the Still Center

It's easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start if you want to clean up a cluttered space, a chaotic calendar or a scattered to-do list. There are two ways to go about cleaning up a system that's gotten out of hand (or something that never had a system in the first place and needs one badly).

The first technique is to set aside enough time to overhaul the entire thing in one pass. I rarely recommend this approach for several reasons. First, it's often extremely overwhelming to contemplate, which can lead to a delay in getting started. Second, many people will find it hard to set aside this much time for such a project compared to working on other priorities instead. And lastly, if you succeed in doing it, you might feel so exhausted by the end of your stint that you burn out on organizing entirely, and then whatever you've cleaned up falls back into disarray.

The second technique, and my suggestion to you, is to start small and bring organization slowly into one aspect of your life at a time. You can really start doing this anywhere, but if you are starting from a place of extreme overwhelm, my suggestion is to begin by creating a center, an oasis of sanity which will radiate outward into other areas of your life as you continue to gradually set up systems that help you become more efficient, productive and organized. For physical organizing projects, this can be a room, such as an office, family room or bedroom. For more abstract time management systems, this could be your task list or email inbox... whatever you consider to be your base of operations, a space where you are spending a lot of time. Get that one space cleaned up... and get in the habit of keeping it clean. From there, gradually start working to improve other areas as well.

I had to come back to this advice myself these last few weeks. While I feel organized overall, the physical space of our home has gotten fairly unorganized lately because of the renovation work being done on our house. The remodelling has necessitated moving things around and squishing them into much less space than we are used to in a very short amount of time. I really enjoy open spaces and messiness bugs me. Some of this clutter is pretty unavoidable right now, but some of it is a result of having shifted things around so quickly while lots of other things were going on. And so I decided to approach first the room I spend the most waking time in: the home office that my husband and I share. Once it was back to normal, I could feel normal again doing the majority of my work. From that sense of peace and efficiency in a space that works the way I want, I can more easily move outward and into a few other organizing projects to lessen the chaos... and in my case, also just be patient for now about the fact that some of the furniture and boxes will need to stay where they are for a while longer.

Is there a part of your home or your organizing system that can function as your center and help give you more energy to keep the rest of your life organized in a way that works for you? What part of your home or more symbolic "space" is your center, your oasis of peace and calm?