If you tend to put off rather than plunge in, or dawdle instead of do, a bad habit or belief may be undermining your ability to achieve your goals and get organized. The good news is that once you understand the root cause of your procrastination, you can choose to change your behavior — and improve your life!

Adjust your attitude. When you think about the process of getting organized, do you get excited, or do you feel overwhelmed, frustrated, confused or afraid? It’s a lot easier to get organized when you’re in a good mood. And you are guaranteed to get better results.

But how do you get excited about something you don’t necessarily like doing? Fake it. Think about the outcome or rewards rather than the process. Imagine walking into your uncluttered kitchen or office. What do you see? How do you feel? How would family members and friends react to your newly organized space?

Make a decision. Organizing is a decision-making process. We need to decide what to toss, what to keep and where to put it all. Many people who struggle with clutter do so because they have developed a habit of postponing decisions. To simplify the process, follow these guidelines:
  • If you haven’t used it in over a year, let it go.
  • If you love it or think it’s beautiful, keep it.
  • Could you get another one fairly easily or inexpensively? If yes, it’s out of there.


More Organizing and Cleaning Tips:

Give up on perfection. Believe it or not, perfectionists are some of the biggest procrastinators. You could be one of them if you put things off because (1) you don’t feel you have enough time to do the job right, (2) you don’t have the “perfect” tools for the job, (3) you haven’t yet figured out how to do the job perfectly or (4) all of the above. When you set perfection as your goal, you rarely achieve it, because perfection is elusive. Instead, make completing the task your goal. You can always perfect your work later. You may just discover that getting the job done is good enough.