30-Day Organizing Challenge: Day 2 Part 2

Let's add another goal as we start this challenge: Make a deal with yourself

When I think of organizing, I think of drill sergeants. It might be the result of regular cleaning binges after long, frustrating standoffs between my dad's (and, okay, my) obsessive collecting and piling of things on any horizontal surface in my family home and my mother's desire to have a place clean enough for friends to pop in. Finally at her wit's end after months of polite requests that my dad, my sister and I put stuff away, my mother would stand in the middle of the chaos, fists on her hips as she barked orders for where to put this pile and how to sort that pile.

So, yeah. Organizing. Good times.

My point is that starting this kind of organizing venture can be done gently and lovingly, towards ourselves and everyone else involved. We can cultivate forgiveness for our resistance and applaud ourselves for the small steps we take in the direction of a cleaner, more organized space.

So let's all agree to a few things right now:

We will not do this perfectly.
We will not cover every organizing problem you have in the next 30 days.
We will not emerge from this challenge wholely calm and thrilled with our space.

What we will do is learn a little something about why we don't organize and a few tricks to make organizing a little simpler and a little less painful.

Deal?