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Conquer
Your Household Chaosby Sherry Borsheim
Have you ever put off doing something around the house? We can always think of something more exciting to do, right? Recently, I put off the dreaded household task of cleaning things off the floor of my garage.
Our garage is the most challenging area of our home to maintain. It’s the dumping zone for recycling, Costco purchases, product orders, and everything else that I don’t want in the house or choose to deal with later. Sometimes, later turns into a month.
Every morning when I walked into the garage to get into my car I said to myself “I should deal with all these things lying on the floor.” Then when I would return home, I’d open the garage door and remind myself again. Notice the negative language I was using, should, which leads to guilt and shame. This daily reminder was a constant noise in my mind replaying like a broken record for a month. I like to walk into my garage and have everything off the floor and in its place. It was really bothering me.
Finally, putting off this task hit a breaking point. When I opened the garage door I said “tonight, I’m making an appointment with myself to get this job done.” I rolled up my sleeves and in 30 minutes everything was off the floor and in its place. When I was done, I had to ask myself why I procrastinated on such an easy task. How many minutes a day and hours a week had I wasted and stressed out about getting the garage organized?
All that and it could have been done in less than 30 minutes?!
So ... if you have a task that’s driving you crazy, simply commit to getting it done. Schedule an appointment with yourself. Once I committed to getting the task done I set a time to do it. Secondly, apply the following organizing principle, One-In, One-Out. If your garage or closet or some other area of your home is at capacity, and you want to store something new in there, then one thing has to go to make room for the new item.
One-in, One-Out.
I didn’t have room for everything in the garage and that’s why it was sitting on the floor.
A lot of stress we put on ourselves comes from all the incompletions we have in our lives both at work and at home. Also, our organizing systems won’t maintain themselves, and as new things come into our lives, we need to find a place for them whether it is in our home or in our calendar.
Physical and mental clutter is a drain on your energy.
About the Author
Sherry Borsheim, is the author of "Conquer Your Chaos, fast forward to office efficiency." Her company, Simply Productive, helps businesses and homeowners organize their spaces to get rid of chaos and stress.
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