Hi everyone,

Inspired by some thinking I've been doing about clients I've worked with who have really struggled with the organizing process, I've started a new series of articles about some of the hard truths of organizing.

The first article in the series is "Getting Organized Means Taking Risks." Check it out here, and then post a message letting me know what you think: what held back the woman I profile in the article? Was she truly unwilling to take even a small risk in order to reach her organizing goals, or was she reluctant to truly get organized in the first place, and thus grateful for a reason not to delve into the process?

I'm curious to hear your takes, and to hear about some of the other hard truths of organizing you might have encountered.

Happy reading!

Best,
Emily

That is a great article, Emily! It is so true that often we get nervous about forcing others to change. Maybe she should have started by helping them get organized? Then they would have taken up less space "naturally" and the landing area would then be clear for her!

It's like going on a diet, you cannot do it by yourself; the whole family has to be involved. Each is the other's support group.

My problem is I like to dabble in too many things. The genealogy stuff is all over the place. I like to read so there are books. Now I'm into beading. I have done sewing over the years. I began to dabble in spinning. Etc.

I definitely understand your dabbling desires Angie! I am the same way. The key I've found is that each hobby has to be neatly contained. My genealogy gets one drawer in the file cabinet and stays there. My lotion making supplies are in a handle-topped rubbermaid. So are my candle making supplies. Each "box" goes onto a shelf and can be taken down when in use, put back when not in use.

That sounds nicely done, Lisa. Where do you keep these bins?

We have a guest bedroom and the bins are all stacked in the closet in there They are labeled too!

oo, labels! I love labels. Do you have a label machine? I want one, but can't seem to justify the price to myself. I usually just put a piece of tape on the front of a bin and write on it, but that never looks neat.

It sounds like you have a big house, Lisa! Guest room, basement, attic, laundry room. wow. I forget how much bigger east coast homes are then the typical ones out west.

Jilly, did you know you can get hand-held label makers for about $20 now? And, you'd really use it for years--for bins, shelves, files, and well, just tons of stuff.

Yes I *love* label makers and ours was under $20 I think. I label everything. I consider it an extremely useful tool for keeping the house organized. Heck I even labeled my pens with their colors! All my binders are labeled with their contents - DVD backups, legal records etc.

Jilly - our house is actually a small colonial by standards around here. Each room is very small.

The basement is unfinished concrete. So it's great for storing things but not much else. Most houses around here have a basement like this.

The attic is unfinished wood beams that you can't stand up in. It is simply the space beneath the roof and you have to climb up a pull-down ladder to get into it. Houses in the north need pitched roofs to let the snow slide off so this is the "crawl space" beneath that triangle.

For the remaining rooms, it's a 4 bedroom house but each bedroom is tiny. So it's more like a 2 bedroom house that has been split in half Then we have one full bath upstairs with those "bedrooms".

Downstairs we have a kitchen, living room, dining room and half bath which is where the washer/dryer is. So that bath is really tiny with the washer/dryer jammed into it. The dining room is now my office. So for visitors all the have is the tiny living room (full of Rock Band 2 stuff) and the kitchen with a table in it. Which is also tiny

I want to add that I'm grateful for the space we have! I used to live in an apartment with a roomate so all I had to myself was one tiny bedroom, I had to share the bathroom and share the small living room / kitchen area. So I really do appreciate that now with this colonial house I have far more room than I did before!

It's smaller than what most people around here have - but it is big compared to what a ton of people have access to. I'm sure the half of the Earth's population who is living in poverty would consider this a huge mansion and each family would adore living in just one of the rooms. I think back to Dr. Zhivago when his home was turned into a communal living system and he was happy to share his space with the needy. So yes while I am commenting on the rooms being small, I also should keep in mind that I should whittle down the stuff I have. Then they would be perfect! And it just means we have to have small get-togethers, not bigger ones.