As a Professional Organizer I receive calls and emails daily from people.
People are stating their desire to get organized, purged and de-cluttered, yet many people who make that initial call or contact are not necessarily ready to go through with the physical and or emotional process of getting organized.
Finding someone qualified, with a strong mental health background, and experience working with people who have collecting tendencies, is optimal.
The process of getting organized, especially if there are long term hoarding, cluttering and or disorganization challenges, is not an easy one.
It takes willpower, boldness, and a tenacious spirit to go through a home and or space that has become cluttered and disorganized.
It is not for the weak at heart to start and complete a truly organized home and space.
Usually friends and or family are not the people to turn to if there are any underlying mental health challenges.
Friends and family mean well but they often can be the very trigger which perpetuates the clutter challenges.
Don't get me wrong, it is not the fault of the friends and or family members that people have clutter challenges, but family and or friends may be a trigger for a person to start to feel and behave in an anxious manner.
Any intense anxiety felt by a homeowner, and an organizing project can turn into a mess, resulting in hurt feelings, depression and sometimes even illness.
Now don't think that I am discouraging you from getting organized.
Only 80% of people that contact me are ready to dive in and go through their stuff.
The other 20% have the desire and ideas to get organized, yet they do not have the stamina.
This lack of stamina can be caused by health, emotional, and or financial challenges.
Many people who call have had a recent loss and just want closure with all the stuff they acquired, but timing is everything, and sometimes it is just not a good time when there has been a great loss.
Another block for getting organized can be lack of support via family members, divorce battles, co-habitants not agreeing on the process, and or just plain old gripping fear.
The more disorganized and cluttered a home the more disorganized and cluttered the mind/emotions may be.
The mind can be our best friend or our worst enemy when creating a path for organization.
The negative aspects of our mind and emotions can block our deepest desires and dreams to live clutter free.
The negative thoughts and emotions entail worry, overthinking the process, panic, anger, defeat, and a vicious cycle of wanting to go forward, sliding back to clutter comfort, wanting to go forward and sliding back to comfort with the clutter.
You may argue it is not comfort but I will say "something must be comfortable about it or you would change the pattern".
The analogy of a hamster in a cage going round and round and round but never really going anywhere comes to mind.
In order to encourage the process for the 20%, who have deep desires and dreams for a clutter free and beautified space, there are ways to prepare.
First of all start with your thoughts, ideas and dreams of having an organized space.
Those twinkling ideas and dreams are the first step.
They say if you can visualize something it is already in motion.
So see your space in your mind's eye the way you would love to have it.
If it is difficult for you to visualize then look for pictures in magazines and cut out the pictures of rooms and homes and office spaces that match your ideas and dreams.
Ponder on those organized and beautifully designed spaces and imagine you working and living in them.
Next take a few deep breaths and just relax in that visualization of you in a clear and organized space.
Do this visualization technique several times a day for 5 days.
Next visualize your cluttered space starting to be emptied and prepared for your ideal space.
Visualize several organizers coming into your space and see them emptying the contents onto your driveway and or areas where sorting can be done.
Next see yourself purging the items you have not used in the past 2 years.
Acknowledge the feelings you feel during your visualization.
See yourself purging the items you have not used and most likely will not ever use with grace, dignity and certainty.
Visualize the support of your organizers.
Now see your space emptied in your mind's eye.
How does it feel? Write down all the feelings you feel.
Feel them deeply and then release the feelings either through journaling, discussions with supportive and loving people, a counselor and or a life coach.
Acknowledging the feelings and understanding when and why they started can be the first step towards allowing an organization process to begin.
Knowing that you are deserving of a changed space, a sacred, clean and neat space is key to allowing it to manifest.
Once you are able to do all of the above start to visualize your space the way you would love it to be.
Again use magazines and or pictures of spaces that you find and love and keep that space in your mind's eye.
The process may take days, weeks and or months until you will finally be able to go through the actual physical process of getting organized.
Be patient.
If it took you three, five or twenty years to clutter and disorganize your space it may take time and focused effort with visualization, journaling, support, counseling and or coaching to have your dreams come true.
Dream a little organized dream for you!!