mental side of organising

23 Oct 2011 by Marcia Francois 2 Comments

18 [31 days] Help! I’m emotionally attached to my things

When you sign up to my weekly newsletter, you get my free Time Management Purpose Pack and an email that asks you if you have any questions for me.

Mostly I just refer people to specific posts on the blog (as I seem to have covered most of them) but I liked this question I got recently so I thought I’d answer it here.

Kimberley said

I seem to not be able to get rid of things! I often feel emotionally attached to objects/ stuff may need them again!

I love questions that talk to the mindset about organising. I think I spent about half the workshop talking mindset because it is that important.

Remember my definition of clutter is things you don’t love or use (and I think I saw this on Laura’s blog, “that you don’t have the storage for”).

So if you know you should get rid of things and you feel emotionally attached, start asking yourself why you feel that way.

Sit with the question for a couple of days if you must because this is very important and you’re going to breeze through the rest of the organising process if you spend time upfront thinking about these things.

I also want to add that if you feel like rushing through thinking about this, that might be all the more reason for you to really think about your motives… 🙂

1. Maybe you have some hoarding tendencies because you didn’t have much money at some point in your life?

Ask yourself if you really, honestly couldn’t get x again if you needed it.

2. Maybe you’re hanging onto things because they’re from special people in your life?

Remind yourself that the thing does not define the special person. They don’t love you more because you hung onto the ugly vase 🙂

3. Maybe you’re hanging onto things because they remind you of special times?

I wrote about sentimental organising here. So… take a pic and let the item go.

Two questions for my readers:

Do you have hoarding tendencies?
How do you make it easier to let go?

Filed Under: Organising Tagged With: 31 days to answering your organising questions, mental side of organising, sentimental organising

21 Sep 2011 by Marcia Francois 5 Comments

Could you be too organised?

I’ve had some queries about the next organising workshop.

Well, last night’s one was the last for this year.

If you’d like to get access to the handbook and recordings, you can still do so here.

Thanks, as always, for your support.

****************************************

I used to think there was no such thing as too organised.

I was wrong – I have met Over-Organised and it is not a pretty sight!

Before I get ahead of myself, let me ask you, “Why do you organise?”

Generally, people organise their lives to save time, save money, for a feeling of peace and harmony in their homes, etc.

So if your organising is costing you these things, especially peace and harmony, then I say you’re over-organising.

Let me give you some examples:
1. If your stuff has to be just so and your husband and kids can’t leave a thing out of place otherwise the Mommy Monster comes out, then you’re over-organising.

2. If you spend hours categorising and making folders and sub-folders in your inbox, and it takes you 15 minutes to find anything because you have to remember exactly how you filed it, then you’re definitely over-organising!

Remember, the point of being organised is to save time.

So avoid complicated systems that you and your family can’t use easily.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Are you over-organised? Even in just one or two areas…

What are you going to do about it?

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: mental side of organising

22 Aug 2011 by Marcia Francois

Clutter Rehab giveaway & Inspiring spaces #12

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the second person who was selected to win Clutter Rehab has also not contacted me.

I think both of the winners just saw the giveaway and came over to enter but don’t actually follow my blog.

The good news is that YOU have another chance to win this fabulous book.

Let’s try again.

Here are the rules:

You must be a follower of this blog either in your Google Reader or by email so that you can see if you win!
Leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite organising question or what you want to know about how I organise things. (These will be answered in October as part of my 31 days series)
If you tweet or share this on FB, you have to come back to leave a new comment.
I can’t accept email entries so if you read through Feedburner, please click through and comment.
I will leave this open for 48 hours only and the winner MUST contact me within 48 hours.

Fair?

Inspiring (head) spaces

Now on another note, I was SO inspired the other day when I read this post by Chloe.

If you’ve ever bought any of my products or coached with me, you’ll know how much I emphasise that we are all unique individuals and our organising or time management solutions need to reflect that.

And something I posted recently resonated with Chloe so much that she wrote a truly inspiring post.

Why I loved it so much

she’s accepted who she is and who she’s not (the type of scrapper she is)
As a result, she can let go not only of physical stuff (and already she lives very minimally) but more importantly of expectations of herself.
she is very clear on her goals and going after them (you know how much I love a person who pursues things passionately)

Chloe gets a big thumbs up from me and no, I don’t have a pretty picture this week (aside from her header) but in this case, her changed expectations of herself are worth far more and are priceless.