Have you ever had a time when you\u2019ve been looking for something and can\u2019t find it?\u00a0 Of course, this is part of being human.\u00a0 Let\u2019s add another piece \u2013 you can\u2019t find something that you know you \u201corganized\u201d?\u00a0 This too is quite common.\u00a0 Many times over the years I\u2019ve had clients call me after an organizing appointment wondering where we put this or that.\u00a0 Frequently I\u2019m able to tell them \u2013 within one or two possibilities.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless this can be supremely frustrating.\u00a0 \u201cOh my, I went to all this trouble to make things logical and get organized and now I feel even more lost.\u201d\u00a0 Believe it or not, I\u2019ve been there and done just that.\u00a0 It can happen to anyone \u2013 from the most organized (which isn\u2019t me by the way, I\u2019m only mostly organized) to those who struggle more chronically with stuff.\u00a0 The reason no one is exempt from dealing with this has to do with several factors \u2013 and these factors can give us insight into steps we can take to minimize this happening.<\/p>\n
First, when do you work on an organizing project?\u00a0 This is something to plan \u2013 design things with a clear intention.\u00a0 And to be completely clear, that doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t sort and purge in the meantime.\u00a0 It does mean to make intentional decisions, ones that you have thought out and considered for a while. There are times when our mindset can hinder our efforts \u2013 so if you\u2019ve suddenly decided to reorganize those shelves, you might forget where you moved that one thing to that you didn\u2019t want on the shelf after all those years.<\/p>\n
Have you heard how it takes a minimum 30 days of doing something consistently before it becomes a routine?\u00a0 Consider the impact of moving one thing somewhere else after all the years you\u2019ve lived in your home.\u00a0 You\u2019re likely to automatically go to the shelf (or wherever) and be surprised that it\u2019s not there.\u00a0 Then you run the risk of not quite remembering where its new home is.<\/p>\n
Choosing to change things is something to do only when you\u2019ve had time and energy to consider your options.\u00a0 If you\u2019re tired, this probably isn\u2019t when you are your best nor is it when you are making the best decisions for yourself.<\/p>\n
A good example of this can be when dealing with papers.\u00a0 How many names can you think of for your car?\u00a0 Car, Auto, Make, Model, His\/Her Car, Old Junker, etc.\u00a0 This can be applied to most papers, and the title needs to make sense to you or the person doing the filing.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how one title can seem logical in one moment and completely illogical the next \u2013 it becomes hard to locate the correct piece of paper.\u00a0 This can be avoided by taking time to think about what makes sense to you and let it marinate \u2013 see if something better comes to mind.<\/p>\n
Second, if you cannot wait to organize and don\u2019t have time to make a plan, make a map.\u00a0 You can create essentially a cheat sheet of where things are; it can be as simple as a list, i.e. 3 ring binders \u2013 lower right shelf in bookshelf in spare bedroom (behind doors).\u00a0 This can be helpful too when your memory isn\u2019t as good as you\u2019d like.\u00a0 I have a list of our files \u2013 the category, the file name, which drawer \u2013 and it\u2019s in order so I can always find it even when it\u2019s slipped down and looks like it walked off!\u00a0 The map can even be more literal \u2013 a sketch that lays out what your space looks like and what lives in each space.<\/p>\n
Another option is to label everything.\u00a0 My husband and I joke that it could be so easy for me to take labeling to an extreme \u2013 where the cat would walk around with a label \u2013 \u201ccat\u201d.\u00a0 Nevertheless, creating labels can be a good solution to help track where things have been moved.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a potentially disturbing truth \u2013 there\u2019s no absolute answer for escaping our forgetfulness.\u00a0 There are many factors that affect our functioning and therefore our effectiveness when we reorganize.\u00a0 Keep these points in mind when you decide to tackle your next organizing project and minimize the chances you will need to send out a search party for that moved item.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s easy to forget where and how you reorganized this piece or that, yet there are steps you can take to minimize this happening to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,8,18,5,20,22,17],"class_list":["post-1266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-goals","tag-household","tag-paperwork","tag-productivity","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-kq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1270,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions\/1270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}