Hey there friends, how are you this lovely Friday? I am doing great today because yesterday after spending about 4 hours (divided over two different calls) on the phone with Apple trying to fix my Photostream problem, we eventually got the problem fixed. It hasn’t worked in over a year and after it was fixed I still had to spend an additional two hours downloading 900 pictures one by one from my iCloud. Ugg. Anyways the nice fellows I worked with at Apple got it worked out for me. But I couldn’t help wondering about all the time I could have saved myself if I had just dealt with the problem when I first noticed it last year. I kept putting it off and putting it off until eventually it became too overwhelming to deal with and was so much bigger of a problem. How many of us are guilty of something like this? Maybe with the clutter in your house? What was once a few toys here and there or a few piles on the counter has balloon so much that now you can’t see your counter at all for all the stacks or the floor for all the toys and other stuff with no place to call home.
I think we all experience something like this in one way or another. For me it’s with technology, it scares the heck out of me and I let the fear hold me off from getting stuff done. I’m afraid of not getting it right and messing it up even more. I know many of you feel this way about organizing. You are paralyzed with setting up a system that might not work for you or purging something you might regret later.
This past week as I was organizing my linen closet (more on that next week!) I was pondering these thoughts above and wondering why certain things, like technology, scare me so much yet organizing doesn’t even phase me. I’m excited to do it, I look forward to it, it relaxes and encourages me and the process doesn’t overwhelm me. And that’s when it hit me, the only reason organizing doesn’t scare or overwhelm me is not because I was born with any special magical organizing gene that makes me better than you (not at all!) it’s simply because I have experience doing it and learned the necessary skills needed to get it done. Take my linen closet for example. In my 44 years of life I have probably organized linen closets (mine and others) over a hundred times. I have tried a variety of different systems based on different needs, I have paid attention to details that work and don’t work and tweaked systems accordingly over and over again. I have a PROCESS I follow precisely with every organizing project that keeps me on track to completion so I don’t get overwhelmed.
I don’t have this kind of confidence with technology because I haven’t taken the time to learn the required skills and I don’t know the process to follow with technical difficulties. So I’m thankful for people at the other end of the Apple support line that I can call to guide me through what I needed to do to correct my problem. Reaching out for help isn’t a sign of weakness, nor should we be embarrassed by it but simply a method to getting to a resolution for our problem. Here are our choices:
- leave the situation as is, like I did with my cell phone, and potentially have a bigger mess to clean up later
- try and figure it out on our own, practicing and utilizing the skills we learn as we go
- recognize our limits and interests and call in some help
Now let me be honest here, I really have no desire to learn more than I need to about technology. It doesn’t interest me at all even though it is necessary for many different areas of my life. I am aware of my limits including the time I have available and the capacity of my brain (let’s be real!). Thankfully I didn’t have to pay Apple to help me with this particular situation but I was so desperate that I probably would have just to have the problem go away. As for all the complicated blog stuff that goes on behind the scenes I do pay a lovely girl a monthly retainer fee to take care of things for me because I know that the tasks she does are important to my blog running smoothly. I just don’t want to have to learn these things myself, nor can I afford to not do them, so outsourcing is what works for me in this situation.
Maybe you have absolutely no interest in organizing (gasp! – just kidding) and as a result have put off doing anything about the clutter and chaos in your home only now to be at a point where it is completely out of control. You could learn to do it yourself (my PROCESS steps work, I promise!) but it’s also okay to admit you just don’t want to do it. Maybe that means calling in a Professional Organizer to help you out. They have the experience needed to get your project done and relieve all sorts of stress from your life. You can either have them come in and give you a plan for doing it yourself or come in and work right along beside you guiding you every step of the way, it all depends on the budget you have available. To find a PO in your area use these national resources:
NAPO (US) – National Association of Professional Organizers
POC (Canada) – Professional Organizers in Canada
The other option is to call in a friend to help you. Either way it’s not admitting defeat, it’s simply being smart about where your strengths, interests and priorities lie and making provisions elsewhere so that all areas of your life run as smoothly as possible.
Admitting you are having trouble getting organized is not admitting defeat, it just means you are smart and ready to take action.
Trust me when I say that choice #1 of doing nothing in hopes of the problem just correcting itself is not the most brilliant of choices. It eventually catches up with you adding more stress and frustration to your life. My phone problems didn’t just go away on their own, nor will your clutter just magically vanish in the middle of the night (wouldn’t that be awesome?), but because I reached out for help (from a lovely gentlemen by the name of Logan at Apple) I have had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I just wish I hadn’t waited so long to do it.
So that’s what I want to say to you today – don’t wait for your clutter to strangle the life out of you and your family or wait until you are so overwhelmed you can’t think straight but instead make a choice to take some action today!
You’ve got this!!
Have a great weekend y’all 🙂
Interested in learning more about organizing? Check out my START HERE page for many more resources!!
Heather Mills says
Breaking things down into small projects and making lists always helps me. I love how you said “doing nothing in hopes the problem will correct itself is not the most brilliant of choices!”
Laura Wittmann says
Oh yes I love breaking things down into smaller bites as I have a very short attention span. It really helps me too!!
Andi Willis says
Thank you for pointing out that just because you are good at and comfortable with one thing, you don’t have to be good at everything. It’s such a good lesson for all of us!
Lori says
I feel the same way about my desire to make photo books – my perfectionist tendencies has caused me to procrastinate and now the process is hugely overwhelming with 10 years of photos to go through now! Mercy!
Laura Wittmann says
Oh Lori, I can so relate. I’d love to make photobooks but keep putting it off for the amount of work involved. I also really like to use Shutterfly but they are a US company and the dollar is crazy right now 🙁
Morgan says
Great tips Laura! Thanks so much for sharing what we all need to be reminded of, I love the saying – “we can do anything but not everything.”
Crystal Barton says
Have you ever seen those goats that freeze and sometimes fall over anytime it gets scared? THAT is how I feel when it comes to technology. Sounds like you are the same. I wonder if that is how some people feel about organizing. I am right there with you, the task at hand is so much easier to do when it is a small one, but to let it get to be a bigger task and it begins to look a little scary.
Laura Wittmann says
Yes that is exactly how some people feel about organizing, so afraid of doing something wrong. The nice thing about organization though, unlike technology for the most part, is there is no right or wrong way. If the system works for you and you are able to maintain it, it’s a winner! However I do know that sometimes it can take a couple tries to find the sweet spot and it’s the time involved that scares people off too.
Cathy Tibbles says
Thank you so much for the shout out Laura!! I don’t know why I’m just seeing this now!! lol