organized is not the same as tidy
when we focus on function, organization becomes easier. Someone once asked me, “How did you get so organized?” To which I replied, “Once I realized I did not have to be tidy to be organized, the second half of my life began!”
Organization means having a place for everything in your home and having a system for getting it there. “Tidiness” and “messiness” describe how quickly things go back to their place. A tidy person typically returns things to their home immediately whereas a messy person does not.
Some people are messy because they are not organized. They don’t have adequate storage solutions or they struggle to find
permanent homes for their things. However, you can be messy and
organized. In my home, almost everything has a place, but ADHD and two small kids mean things don’t really get returned to their places very quickly. Instead, I have routines like closing duties and
techniques like five things tidying that create space in my day to reset my space. Being organized means tidying moves more quickly and
makes my life more functional and cleaning less overwhelming. My countertops are almost never tidy, but they are functional.
There is a difference between a countertop that is cluttered to the point that you can’t use it to do the things you want to do and a
countertop that is cluttered because you are actively and currently
using it to do the things you want to do. A functional countertop is not morally superior to a nonfunctional countertop. The difference here isn’t an external measurement of whether you are doing it right. The
difference is your enjoyment of your own space. And you do deserve to enjoy your space.
organization does not have to be pretty
One reason why we have a hard time setting up systems that work for us is that we confuse an organized space with an aesthetically
pleasing space. You can spend a lot of time organizing things the
“Instagrammable” way only to find that the system is not functional for you, especially if keeping it pretty requires extra steps you don’t always have the capacity to do. I once got the great idea from an
organizational magazine to buy a clear shoe box for every pair of shoes I owned. “Then I can see them all and they will look so
organized!” I told myself. Well, the truth is that the extra steps of putting shoes inside their own boxes and trying to pull the shoes I
wanted from the bottom of the stack created more frustration than it was worth. I kept exactly one of those shoe boxes for my only pair of expensive heels and threw the rest of the shoes into a big basket all together.
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I love a calming visual as much as the next person, but it’s
important to remember that not everything has to be aesthetically
pleasing to be organized and not everything aesthetically pleasing is functional! No one is coming to take photographs of the vitamins,
Pledge spray, salt, and cup of pens sitting on my island turntable. But that doesn’t mean it’s not organized. The truth is that if it’s where you meant it to be, then it’s organized.
In conclusion: being messy is not a moral failing, tidy is simply a preference, organization is functional, and you deserve to function. How would your approach to functional organization change if you threw pretty out the window?
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An Ode to Baskets
Big baskets, little baskets, clear baskets, wicker baskets, baskets from the Dollar Tree, baskets that I got for free.
Baskets of shoes, baskets of books, baskets in all my crannies and nooks.
And here’s the key, here’s the trick:
the baskets go where the stuff already went. Laundry that ends up on the dining room floor, put a basket there and there’s mess no more. The stress of a cluttered counter easily ends when you put it all in a box or a bin.
If you’re feeling fancy you could purchase a basket’s cousin such as a tray or a lazy Susan.
My organizational system is, on its face, just putting a basket in the right place.
