Recently I’ve been thinking about organizing and the economy. The first, I’m sure comes as no surprise. Organizing is what I think about. It’s what I talk about. It’s what a write about. It’s what I teach about. It’s what I do.
Economics, on the other hand, not so much. Sure, I took some economics classes when I received my MBA…but to say I think about the economy on a regular basis just isn’t the case.
Until recently. Now, it’s hard to go an hour without thinking about it.
What’s going to happen? How will this affect my family? My clients? Me?
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that I’m not alone in this. You’re probably thinking about the economy, too.
Because for me organizing is always on my mind…I wondered what impact the economy will have on people’s organizing efforts. Will it cause people who get stuck with the “I might need it someday” thinking to cling even tighter to items they truly don’t use, need or love? Or will people be even more interested in organizing because they realize that through organizing and decluttering you reestablish a sense of control?
Last weekend I did some organizing in my own home. There was an electronics recycling event in our town, so Jay went through our basement storage area and took out things that we were holding onto for someday…things like an old PC, a monitor, an extra keyboard, some speakers…and I dropped them off at the recycling event.
Gaining just this little bit of extra space and letting go of things we didn’t need, felt good. Really good. It was empowering. Despite the uncertainty of the economy…we knew these items staying in our midst weren’t serving us in any way. In fact, keeping them because we might need them some day would have been a physical reminder of the uncertainty we were feeling. Getting rid of them alleviated some of the uncertainty. It gave us power—power to change our environment and our perspective.
See, these items were just clutter. Sure, it was organized clutter—the items were sitting in a designated spot—but it was clutter just the same. These items were simply useless stuff taking up space and serving no purpose. Letting go of them felt so good.
I wanted more.
So after dropping off the electronics, I decided to thoroughly clean and organize our cars. The cars looked great when I was done. And I felt even more empowered. Despite the uncertainty of the economy…I was taking control of my environment, making things look better and making myself feel better in the process.
There are so many reasons to get organized. From saving time, to saving money, to making our spaces look better. And as much as I love the way an organized space looks, what’s even more important to me is the way I feel, and the way my clients feel, when we finish an organizing project. It is this feeling that I want more of—for me and you, especially now.
Organizing creates a sense of control. It creates a sense of ease. It creates a general feeling of calm. Organizing is empowering.
And now, more than ever, I want to feel empowered.
If you find yourself feeling a bit worried about the economy (or a lot worried!) I encourage you to take control of something you can control—your environment.
Do some decluttering this weekend.
Do some organizing.
Clean out your car.
It really doesn’t matter what you do, just do something to take control of your environment.
You’ll be glad you did it, not just because your spaces look better, but because you'll feel better, too.
