How many times have you said, “I’ve got to get organized?” Some of us have said it hundreds of times and yet still find ourselves buried in clutter. There’s a secret I’d like to share with you about why some people can never seem to get organized and stay organized. Are you ready? The secret is, “You will never have time to organize; you organize to have more time.” It’s that simple!
I have a good friend, Sue McMillin, who is a professional organizer. She has been my inspiration for getting my sewing room and quilting studio organized. In fact, she is responsible for the above quote about organization and gave me the keys to make it happen. We all have 24 hours in any given day. Lack of organization eats up huge chunks of time as we go through our work to get to our work. Imagine a home or workspace where everything is assigned a place and is readily available to you in just seconds. Just think how much more productive you could be with the time you save. However, to get to that point, you must be willing to make the time commitment to get it done.
One of my excuses was if I didn’t have enough days in a row to get it all done, then I didn’t even want to start. I got so overwhelmed just thinking about it, I felt paralyzed and unable to accomplish anything. It’s funny, because I knew the steps I needed to take in order to sort, throw away, give away, and contain, but I lacked the motivation to act on it. I was amazed at how much I was able to accomplish by having an organizer at my side, encouraging me and giving me the courage to just dive in and get it done. In one day, we were able to go through all the stuff in my studio and sort it into throw away, give away, and put away boxes. Once that was done, I went through a box or two a day until the project was complete.
I had to learn that by doing a little each day, it did eventually get done. Thinking about it never got me anywhere. I kept my mind on the goal of a well-organized workspace and all the freedom it would give me. Every little bit of progress I made kept me motivated to continue. Yes, there were times when I wondered what I had gotten myself into. But each organized area made me feel so good that I couldn’t wait to get it all done. It’s a lot like what I wrote in my last post, New Beginnings, about getting quilts finished. Dividing the work into small steps will eventually lead to a finished quilt!
Perhaps the most important tip Sue gave me is that “organization is not perfectionism.” I think many of us, including myself, equate the two. For example, we were sorting large quantities of ribbon that I thought should be carefully separated and wound into neat bundles. Sue asked me, “Why?” She said I really just needed to put all the ribbon into one container so that I could get to it easily. Someday, if I have lots of time with nothing better to do (like that will ever happen), I can separate it. In the meantime, all my ribbon is in one container, and I can easily get to it. So, it’s not perfect, but it’s organized. This change of mindset has brought me great freedom!
I’ll share more of my organizing secrets in future posts. If you’re thinking about getting started on your sewing room, don’t hesitate any longer. It will not only give you great satisfaction, but it will give you the wonderful gift of time.
The Infamous "Not So Perfect" Ribbon Stash
Not Perfect, But Organized!
Organized and Contained