organizing your house | Get Set Organize

How To Stay Motivated When Organizing Your Home

Does organizing your home feel like climbing a mountain?

Is it filled with cute and functional organizing tools; bins, baskets, tubs, dividers, labeled file folders? You name it, you’ve got it and they are all filled with the appropriate items.

Do you have a calendar on the wall and another in your purse to keep track of your (and everyone else’s) appointments and schedule?

But do you still have a problem?

I bet you can’t get into a rhythm of looking at said calendars except when you remember to write things on them (which isn’t always) and even though you started out with the best of intentions, you find yourself letting things pile up on the kitchen counter and your desk, even though they really do have a home (bin, basket, tub, divider or file folder) waiting to welcome them in. You want to be organized. But….

Being organized isn’t something you do. It’s actually more of who you are.

You don’t ‘do’ politeness or hospitality, you are polite and hospitable.

So while the key to organizing your house does include having bins, baskets, tubs and all the rest, having those things doesn’t make you stay organized. YOU make you stay organized. But, how, you ask?

Rule 1 – Achieve To Succeed

The ability to stay motivated to perform a task is often directly related to successfully achieving a similar task before. So use this to your advantage by breaking your overall organizing goals down into bite sized tasks and ticking them off as you go. Each one you tick off will motivate you to start another.

Be practical when considering how long it will take you to get organized. Once you take the leap into being organized, initial successes may spur you on, but if you are expecting overnight success, your enthusiasm may soon wane. Stay organized by recognizing that this is a lifestyle change, not a one-off event.

Recognize your successes as you proceed and reward yourself for what you achieve. Tie in your reward to the size of the task or to the amount of your overall goal you have completed – this could be a short break, a coffee, your favorite dessert, a trip to the cinema or even a short vacation.

Chocolate Strawberry

Rule 2 – Have A Daily Routine

Organizing every day will help you stay motivated by making the task habitual. Even if you can only spare 2 minutes a day, make sure you use them. As you will probably not be looking forward to these 2 minutes, it is best to get them over with first thing in the morning. This way you are more likely to stick to the routine.

Keep being organized easy by having your tools of the trade ready to go and on hand at all times. By ‘tools of the trade’ I mean your Keep, Donate/Sell and Trash bins. Keep them in your garage, basement or mudroom and take them with you to wherever you are organizing.

Surround yourself with ‘being organized’ auras to immerse yourself in this lifestyle change. Subscribe to ‘How to get organized‘ magazines or online resources (shameless plug!) so you will constantly be reminded about organization and can be inspired by others. Get excited about your plans and successes and talk about them publicly with friends and on places like Facebook.

Rule 3 – Acknowledge Life Happens

Take into account that sometimes you will not be able to perform your daily organizing tasks – you may be sick, there may be an emergency or any number of other things could get in the way. The key is to not let that demotivate you and to restart your program asap. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to get started again. If you have had more than a few days off, pick one goal and start really, really small. You’ll soon be back on track.

Life Happens