What does it mean to be organized?

I feel like I need to break down a few myths about what it means to ‘be organized’. As a Professional Organizer, the biggest myth about me is that I live in house that could be featured in Architectural Digest. Well…not exactly. On the one hand, I am constantly organizing and reorganizing spaces in my home. Much to the annoyance of my husband, I am always updating a space to improve functionality. My work space (including my desk) is well organized and my inner mantra resonates with #crushinit when I’m in the zone. On the other hand, with a busy 8 month old, 2 dogs, 1 cat and a business to run, I can fall behind on tidying up.

We often accept a ‘good enough’ status and continue moving forward. So what does it mean to be organized? And how do you qualify that?

There are three ways to qualify yourself as organized.

1. You have the framework in place. This means you have a set structure for your time and your things. Does that mean you’re running at 100% efficiency all the time? That’s pretty much impossible. This means you have a flow for keeping up with day to day activities and tasks and you’re not always shooting from the hip. The structure of using your phone calendar to follow your appointments provides an easy-to-do habit of adding appointments and reminders. If it’s not easy, you just plain won’t do it! Other examples of good structure are that you open and file your mail at your desk and your apartment doesn’t look like it was recently abandoned from the zombie apocalypse. Perhaps you believe in Zero Inbox and email folders are set up but there are 20-40 emails rolling in the queue. Consider that close enough. You rarely miss paying a bill on time because you don’t let the mail pile up to the point of no return. If this is the case, high five!

2. Everything has a home. Can you find your car keys when you need them? Do you have a bowl or hook that holds them? Are you always searching for your phone? The idea here is that you can find what you need when you need it. When you set your phone down, always set it on the most open plane in a room preferably at waist level so it’s easily visible and not overlooked like a coffee table (careful of hungry couch cushions!). Does each item on your desk or in your room have somewhere ‘to live’ when you are not using it? A more specific way to judge, if all the shoes in your house were put away then every pair has a place. This also counts in data storage; when you need that insurance document, it is filed under a familiar name that can be recalled without much effort.

3. You do not feel overwhelmed by to-do’s or clutter. The acceptable level of ‘being organized’ will be different for each person. My level of ‘good enough’ will be higher than the average person’s considering my job and OCD tendencies. Your level of feeling organized may also be different at work and when you are at home. The most important part is that you don’t feel stressed out about how to keep up with your life. That to-do list may be 7 pages long but you have a to-do list and you know what you need to do!

Maybe Better Homes and Gardens isn’t calling you anytime soon for a front page cover on your house and I sure hope Hoarders isn’t calling you either, but maybe something in between will work just fine.

Unless you own one dish and one fork, you do not have a social life/kids or you hate TV/hobbies, then I would say establishing your “good enough” is needed. Sometimes the beautiful blog posts of the internet world can create unattainable standards that only fairy godmothers could help you reach. This blog will not be one of them! As Lara Casey, someone I greatly admire says, “progress over perfection”. Find that happy medium closer to function and farther away from chaos. Or as I would say,

Organize enough so you can stress less and play more!