Get Motivated To Organize

by Andy Mangold

Just about every organizing book out there will tell you the first step in organizing is to get rid of the clutter.  While I think this is great advice (who wants to organize a bunch of junk you don’t need anyway?), I believe there is something that you have to do first that can make or break the whole project.  Getting organized is just like any other goal you might have.  If you don’t have a good reason or motivation or a “why”, you most likely won’t get very far.  You might get started, but you won’t finish.  Just having a cluttered home usually isn’t enough motivation to get it in the shape you would like it to be.

Motivated by an urgent need

This weekend, we got hit with our first arctic blast of the season.  The temps went from the 60s to the 30s overnight.  I found myself scrambling to find our winter coats this morning.  Up until I walked out the door, I was in complete denial that is was really that cold.  So, there I was, looking for the coats that I haven’t seen since last March.  That caused me to get into the coat closet that I hadn’t really taken a good look at in months.  Yikes!  The coats were in there and so were the gloves, hats, boots, umbrellas, two brooms, a paper shredder, an Ants In The Pants game, some golfing instruction books (who golf’s in my house?), a cooler, a flyswatter and a stepping stone kit.  Wow!!   There’s some motivation right there!  That’s a lot of stuff for a 2 feet X 2 ½ feet space.  I need to get my coat closet back so I can actually use it daily for….coats!  So, tomorrow, I will work on organizing the coat closet since it is a pretty urgent need.  That urgency motivates me.

Motivated by others

My kids love to create art.  There is always some project going on in our house.  Just this week, the kids made cards for friends, painted Aboriginal masks and made giraffes out of cereal boxes and paper rolls.  We have always had an art area in our toy/TV room with a kids’ sized folding table and small easel.  There were also shelves to hold their art supplies along with their toys.  But, their projects had become too large for the area as their imaginations and art materials increased in size.  Our basement is unfinished, so I thought that would be a great place to set up an art studio for them.  Only problem was I would have to de-clutter and re-organize the basement and the art supplies to make it happen.   Organizing the basement had been on my to-do list for some time, but I had never really been motivated to tackle that project.  I don’t go in the basement that often, so it’s been out-of-sight-out-of-mind.   But, once the kids got excited about having a larger space for their art studio, I was motivated to get it done.  Suddenly, I had a good reason to organize the basement.  The whole thing took us only two afternoons.  One to de-clutter and re-organize the basement and one to move all the art supplies and put them in their places.  I wondered why I waited so long!

So….how do I get motivated?

These are just two examples of how motivation is what gets things done.  Those areas of my home could have sit just as they were, full of clutter and disarray, but something happened.  I found a “why” to get the job done.  When the question of “Why do I need to organize the basement right now?”  got answered I was motivated to action. With any project or endeavor, if you can ask yourself “Why?” and give yourself an answer, you will accomplish what you set out to do.

Do you have any organizing projects that need to be done?  Why?  Are you hosting a holiday dinner?  Is it hard for your little ones to find their favorite toys?  There has to be a good reason.  If you find it, you will be off to a great start.