Getting There with Baby Steps

It can be quite overwhelming to begin on your resolution to get organized. It seems as if everywhere you turn, clutter abounds! Piles of paperwork, crammed closets, packed cabinets, and overflowing drawers lurk all over the house. When looking at the "big picture", organizing can indeed seem difficult.

To overcome this, it is really best to take baby steps by breaking down the project of "getting organized" into smaller tasks. Rather than thinking about the whole house, select one room to work on. Continue to drill down to smaller areas - instead of the bedroom, think about the closet and the dresser. Perhaps you could start just by organizing your sock drawer, pairing up the socks, discarding socks with no mates or those with holes or stains.

By creating manageable tasks for yourself, you set yourself up for a win-win situation. You are moving along with your goal of getting organized, and you are also getting a feeling of accomplishment with each small area you tackle. This, in turn, should serve to keep you motivated to continue.

Organizing often entails sorting through many years, or even decades, of accumulated belongings and clutter. It is not realistic to think you can totally revamp an entire house in just a few hours. It is very comparable to losing weight - you can't expect to lose 30 pounds all at once; rather, you have to keep at it and you will see the pounds go down gradually each week. Taking small steps towards your goal will eventually have the payoff you are looking for.