Hasta La Ideas

I was in sixth grade the first time I saw the movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. My friends latched onto the “I know you are but what am I” line from the film, and I quipped “Everyone I know has a big ‘But …’” no fewer than a thousand times.

Sure, the line I often quoted from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was juvenile, but it was strangely accurate. Everyone I know actually has a big “But …” in their lives:

• I would get my office organized but [insert excuse].
• I would ask the kids to help with chores around the house but [insert excuse].
• I would start exercising but [insert excuse].
• I would finish this project but [insert excuse].

There are times when excuses are warranted, such as with health issues (I would eat a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup but I won’t since I’m allergic to peanuts). However, most “But …” excuses are purely a resistance to change.

We keep bad habits and clutter in our lives because they’re known quantities. We know what life is like when things are disorderly. Life after a change is different and unfamiliar. It might be better, but we don’t know that from where we are now.

As someone who went from a clutterbug to an unclutterer, I can vouch that life is really greener on the organized side. I have more time and less stress in my life than before. The change was worth it, but making the change was difficult and I know I said my fair share of “But …” excuses as I was going through the process.

So what is your big “But …”? What is keeping you from letting go of your clutter? The next time you catch yourself making an excuse, think about what you’re saying. Is your excuse warranted, or are you just voicing a fear of change?

Everyone begins life as a messy, disorganized, lump of a baby. No one is born in a starched shirt and polished shoes with a day planner in one hand and a vacuum cleaner in the other. (Our mothers, they are particularly happy about the vacuum cleaner part.) We scream. We drool. We poop. We cry some more. Everything about a baby is chaotic.

During the early years of life, some children are formally taught by their caregivers how to be organized. Others garner bits and pieces through observation, example, and trial and error. Finally, there are those who picked up very little during childhood and didn’t start learning about organizing until adulthood (I fall into this category).

The speed at which we acquire organizing skills is also varied. Some people learn a specific organizing skill the first time they encounter it. Others, it takes considerable practice.

How you learn or how quickly you learn is completely irrelevant; the point is that everyone can learn to be organized.

From this point forward, I want you to stop thinking about your disorganization as a state of being. Instead, think about the specific way that you’re not yet organized.

“My closet is a mess because I haven’t mastered the skills necessary to keep it free of clutter. I need to learn how to organize my closet and acquire the skills that it requires to maintain it well.”

“My big project at work is a mess because I don’t know what programs and systems are available to help me get it under control. I need to research and learn about what I can do to better manage my time and work of this project.”

When you stop identifying as someone who is disorganized, and start thinking about it as just a specific skill that you can learn, getting organized becomes an easier task.

When I decided to get clutter out of my life — physical, mental, time, and productivity clutter — I did it because I wanted to have more time and room in my life for the things that matter most to me. There are only 24 hours in the day, and I want to spend the majority of my waking hours doing what I value and find important.

Sure, there are chores (about 30 minutes a day) I don’t love, but doing them keeps stress and other negative effects out of my life. My overall life is better because I have routines in place to take care of the not-so-great parts.

One thing I don’t like doing is gardening or anything to do with the yard. I know that some people love gardening and are horrified that I don’t like it, but I enjoy things that I’m sure they have no interest in doing (cheese making, doing stand up comedy, reading mystery novels, playing the pedal steel guitar). We’re all different, which is what makes unclutterers so great.

Since I’m not fond of gardening, I have fake plants in all of the flower boxes on the front of my house. These are high-end fake plants. Even when you’re standing inches away from them, you have no idea that they’re not real. But, unlike real plants, I don’t have to do anything to maintain their beauty.

• No watering.
• No weeding.
• No dying plants.
• No plant diseases or pests.
• No maintenance.

If you’re interested in sprucing up a flower box with fake plants, follow these tips to make it so that no one on your block has any idea:

• Use high-end fake plants. If it looks bad in the store, it’s going to look bad in your flower box. The French make the world’s best fake plants, and if you can afford them, buy them. My favorite is Trousselier at 73 blvd Haussmann in Paris. If heading to France isn’t in your future (Trousselier doesn’t have an online shop), check out your local craft store and be very picky about what makes it into your cart.
• Buy plants, not flowers. You don’t have to worry about things blooming in the wrong season if nothing blooms. And, even when they are very well made, fake flowers can still look fake.
• Only display the plants during appropriate seasons. If a fern wouldn’t be growing outdoors in January, don’t have a fake fern outdoors in January. Store it into a garbage bag in your garage, and put it back out in the spring.
• Only buy fake plants that could grow in your region.
• Take the time to plan out and landscape your flower box before you go shopping for fake plants. You want the plants to look as natural as possible.
• Buy fake plants with realistic looking imperfections. Not every leaf on a plant is the exact same shade of green, and sometimes a leaf or two is brown. Nature isn’t perfect, and neither should your fake plants be.
• “Plant” your fake plants in gravel with fake moss or fake grass as ground cover. Weeds won’t grow in rocks, but they will grow in dirt. If you “plant” in dirt, you’re still going to have to pick out weeds.

Okay, now you know my time-saving secret. Where do you cut corners to free up time in your schedule to pursue the things that matter most to you?

(My apologies about the picture being small. It was hard to line up an image that didn’t flash my neighbors’ license plates to the internet.)

When you imagine a CEO’s office, you probably think of a wood desk, an ornately framed print of a stale landscape, a couple diplomas on the wall, a bookshelf of leather bound classics, a large window with a decent view, and everything well organized with no clutter anywhere. I could probably create a coffee table book filled with thousands of examples of this exact office.

For better or worse, most CEO’s offices send the message: “I am in charge, and I get work done.”

Forbes recently profiled the offices of 10 CEOs in the article “What CEOs Love To Keep In Their Offices.” The article discusses the not-so-obvious things that some big-wigs keep in their spaces. But, I have to be honest, none of the items they mention are really that far off the regular path — a dry erase board, a dart board, an executive bathroom.

CEO offices are consistent because they are, in many ways, the face of the company. Consumers and employees alike judge CEOs based on the image they present. If a CEOs office is full of clutter and chaotic, then it sends the message that the company is cluttered and chaotic. So, the CEO of a company will always have an office that looks like the one I described in the first paragraph.

Can you take a few cues from the CEOs? I’m not advocating that you retrofit your cubicle with wood laminate and bad artwork, but can you keep your office clutter free? Can you project to your co-workers and clients that you are efficient and productive and able to handle all the work that comes your way? Does your office say that you’re organized and ready to lead?

At Unclutterer, we abide by the motto “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” In addition to this motto, we also have a number of uncluttered sayings that work their way into many of our posts:

• The less you own, the less you have to clean. This applies to quantity of objects as well as square footage in your home.
• One in, one out. If you buy something new, you need to get rid of whatever it’s replacing.
• If you get it out, put it back. An especially great rule to implement to keep your home and office orderly.
• Guilt is not a reason to keep something. This one is self explanatory.

What mottoes or principles inspire you to keep clutter out of your home? Share your motivating sayings with us in the comments!