Last night was Wednesday night which means cleaning night at my house. (“Woohoo!” right? Well…yes, “woohoo” on Thursday morning, but not so much on Wednesday night. But that’s a different blog post.)
Anyway, as I was vacuuming it occurred to me that no one expects to clean their house just once and have it stay that way forever. Instinctively we know that cleaning is an ongoing process. If we want to enjoy a clean house, we have to clean it over and over and over again. While you may not enjoy the process of cleaning (oh, wait, that’s me) you don’t expect your home to stay clean forever without any intervention or action from yourself. Right? For many people, however, organizing is a different story.
An obstacle that I often hear when working with my organizing coaching clients is that they fear they won’t be able to keep their home organized after organizing it. This fear previously prevented them from getting started in the first place.If you’ve organized your home before only to see it return to disorder, you may relate to this thought and it may be a roadblock for you, too.
My thought last night while vacuuming was that expecting our homes to stay organized after organizing it is like expecting our home to stay clean after cleaning it. Both cleaning and organizing are ongoing processes—processes which require time and attention on an ongoing basis.
The good news is that with both cleaning and organizing, there are simple ways to make the ongoing process easier. Keeping up with it a little bit at a time, works for both cleaning and organizing. The more often I do light cleaning on my home, for example, the less time overall I spend cleaning. If I scrub my shower once a week, it takes less time to clean it than if I clean it less frequently. (And believe me I have tested this theory many times…I’d rather do most things than scrub my shower.)
Organizing is the same way. Once you get a space organized, the more often you do simple, routine maintenance on it—decluttering unnecessary items, putting things away when you’re done using them, and so on—the easier it is to keep a space organized.
So if you’re resisting organizing your home out of fear that you won’t keep it that way, consider letting this idea go. Just as with cleaning a home, it won’t simply stay that way. But just as with cleaning a home, keeping a home organized is doable with the right strategies in place.
Oh so true. I was just noticing that my pantry & a closet are really needing to be organized again. I don’t love the process, but I do love the results.
You are so right, and once I came to this realization there was a sense of freedom. First, it doesn’t have to be perfect to be clean and organized, and second it doesn’t take near as much time as I thought it would.
Wow isn’t that true. The disorganization creeps back in just like the dishes pile up. And if you left your dishes for a week it would be overwhelming and take a long time to clean up (and would be disgusting). So if you leave your organized closet untouched for months things are going to start to pile up again. Routine maintenance.
After taking your class Aby I still try to “finish today, before starting tomorrow” That is the single best thing I learnt from Organizing 101 & the Clutter workshop. But I am now adding this to my list of inspiring things to keep myself on top of the mess.
I am still trying to find the maintenance plan. I am very good at cleaning and very good at organizing but it doesnt stay that way. I love when you clean a room totally you get this ahhhhhh.. feeling which feels so good. I wish that it was enough to keep me motivated to do more or to keep it that way but it doesnt work. I am not sure why do you ?????????
Do “green products” really clean?
I can not wait tell my kids get older so I can distibute some of the regular cleaning chores to them. LOL. I’ve just grown accustomed to the constant cleaning but it does make a difference if you organize your storage places so that there’s a place for everything.