Many give up on getting organized,

then a light goes on in a blessed AHA moment!

Over the next three weeks, I’m going to share with you a major key to having an organized home. You won’t want to miss any of them. Each key has a simple assignment, I hope you’ll follow. Each assignment will prepare you for the next key and in the process you will have that AHA moment

In 42 years helping women who were desperately disorganized, there has been a common thread that connects them. It’s a thread of love, caring, compassion and desire to have an organized home and a happy family. Many have told me personally they didn’t think they could get organized. Many had given up, until a light went on in a blessed AHA moment. Flylady was one of those women.

They were moms carrying the burden of being disorganized, and having low self-esteem because of it.

With the 3 elements to success in this series of blogs, you will have that AHA moment. These women I’ve met over the years who suddenly realized it was possible to have a clean, cozy organized home, were stay-at-home moms, moms who worked outside of their homes as doctors, attorneys, writers, bankers, artists, teachers, nurses, singers, computer geeks, ministers and a thousand other vocations. These were moms who were successful at jobs outside their homes and successful at being wonderful mothers. But they were also moms carrying the burden of being disorganized, and having feelings of low self-esteem, desperation and worry.

Key # 1 Make the Decision

With a decision to have an organized home, it’s good to know what you think that means to you. If you want perfection, you already know that’s not going to work for you, so give it up! If you want immediate change, you know that’s not going to happen either. So how about a decision to gradually get organized just to please you?

"I don’t know where to start!"

This is the number one complaint I’ve heard over these four decades. The answer is to start in the room in your home that’s bothering you the most. For many, it’s the kitchen, but it really is up to you to decide the room. Ask yourself right now, “What room would I love to organize the most?” Now you have a starting point. Congratulations!

Whenever you make a decision to change something that’s bugging you, whether it’s to lose weight, stop robbing liquor stores or get your house organized, you have to think it over with yourself. There’s that little girl part of you that still wants to “play” house, but life sneaks problems onto the scene which can temporarily sidetrack you into desperation and being overwhelmed. The sooner that fun-loving part of you can begin to see that being organized can be fun, the sooner you’ll get excited about this wonderful change that’s taking place, one baby step at a time. This is exactly what my book, "The JOY of Being Disorganized," does.

Getting rid of desperation

Make a decision to start in just one room and be realistic about a time frame. That will help to take that desperate and overwhelmed feeling away and that’s the first thing that’s got to go. Desperation is not a bad thing, because it’s what can get you moving. Once you’re moving in the right direction, you’ll eliminate desperation and begin your path to liberation.

You could think of this project like Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) did in the movie Shawshank Redemption. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for the murders of his wife and her lover. He was innocent, so you can imagine his desperation. I don’t remember how many years it took him to accomplish his goal (I won’t say what that was in case you haven’t seen the movie) but he made the decision out of desperation and then set to work with his vision of freedom.

You are going to have an organized home. I can say that with authority, because I know if I could get organized and if Marla Cilley the Flylady could get organized, for heaven’s sake you can! (Marla and I have had many conversations over who was more disorganized, but we’ve usually ended up crying “uncle.”)

Keep that vision of your organized home, but start with visualizing that room you’ve chosen to organize as clean, cozy and peaceful.

Your assignment for this first step to an organized home is to watch Shawshank Redemption and you’ll understand fully how important this decision to gradually organize your home must be. If you’ve already seen the movie, you know what the message is for you to take away, but you still can watch the movie again if you want to. Remember, you have your whole life ahead of you.

The next key to having an organized home is a very heavy word, but we’re going to chew it up so it’ll be real easy to swallow. The second key is Commitment.  More next week.

Enjoy the movie!  

Love,

P. S. My latest book, The JOY of Being Disorganized, is filled with new ideas on how to get organized...to the degree you want. I reveal my 88 secrets I have learned over the past 40 years of helping women.