Don't Wait for Disaster to Start a Change

I loved my organizer so much that I tried to introduce her to two of my very good friends who needed help with organizing. Their houses were messy and chaotic, and they were unhappy with them, but they resisted doing anything at all, even with professional help, and even when that professional help was a gift to them. However, in one case, my friend was forced to downsize both her apartment and her office simultaneously, and the crisis ended up with her hiring my organizer; and in the other case, my friend had an employment crisis and had to rent out a room in her house, which meant stuffing everything from that room into the rest of her house, and that finally forced her to hire my friend (previously her sister had given her organization service, but she didn't use it for months, and when she finally did, she undid everything the organizer had done afterwards). When she did use my organizer, she called me and told me that her services were a real blessing.

What I cannot believe is that it took a major crisis for each of them to make a change to improve their lives. It should not take a crisis for you to make a change, either.

This article is not only about organization. This is about having the courage to make a change in your life for the better, without waiting to be forced into it.

Another reason people don't make changes is that they think any change will have to be big. This isn't true; something as simple as a change that requires a total investment of thirty seconds might be enough to make a noticeable difference. 

In addition, the time to make changes is when you are calm and collected, and have the ablity to think things through, not when you are distracted and distressed! Otherwise, in your hurry to do something, you may be grasping at straws to improve your situation rather than making wise decisions about your options.

Change is hard for everyone; we all understand that. But it's all to easy to think, "Oh, I'll do it later." I have a friend who is an interior designer, who often stages houses for people who wish to sell. Once their house is staged, they often decide to stay and not sell their house, or they are so happy with the results they say, "Why didn't we do this for ourselves?" But when they move into their new home, they put things back the way they were before the staging!

Familiar is comfortable, but what is even more comfortable is improvement. Once you get over your fear of change, you can free yourself, not just from clutter, but from worry, tension, irritation, and wasting time. So start with a little change you can make today.

Here was one thing that had been bugging me: I kept all my personal grooming supplies in one bathroom drawer. That meant that very occasionally, a hair from my hairbrush would get stuck in my toothbrush. A very minor and rare annoyance, to be sure, but simply moving my hairbrush to a different drawer eliminated that annoyance. It didn't cost me any money, and it took me less than one minute, but those few seconds that I took to make that change saved me thirty seconds or so every few weeks, and kept me from being annoyed about that irritation, permanently.

It's actually quite easy to start changes if you start small. Identify one thing that is bugging you, today. Maybe it's having to look for something in your fridge, or something you want to wear, but has a ripped hem or a missing button. Or perhaps it's not having a place to set your drink down near your computer. Or perhaps you have to keep looking at the clock, when you can set an alarm or a timer. It doesn't actually matter what it is, but if you can make a tiny change to improve that one aspect of your life, you will find that change comes easier once you make a habit of it.

Once you've identified a minor annoyance, brainstorm a few ways that it might be possible to improve it. You don't necessarily have to fix the whole problem; figure out a minor adjustment for the better. Then make that adjustment. You can always change it back!

I can't begin to tell you how much better my life is since I started with this process of tidying up my environment and being able to immediately put my hands on anything I own (and knowing what I own to start with)! These small changes have spilled over into almost everything, and I've accomplished more in 2013 and 2014 than the eight years before that.