Why We Put off Organizing and How to Make It Fun

Let’s face it, folks. Unless you’re a certain personality type (Classics/ESTP, ISTP, ESTJ, ISTJ), organizing things is not something that anyone looks forward to with enthusiasm. Rather, organizing all of your…stuff…can be quite daunting if you don’t have a system in place. In our book, Organize Your Way: Simple Strategies for Every Personality, we outline each personality type and go through every room in your house, explaining how each said type should organize it. Should make things simple, right? Well, theoretically, yes. It does — once you start. But how does one summon the motivation to begin a hefty and laborious project like reorganizing their entire house? For the Funs/ESFP, ISFP, ESFJ, ISFJ personality type, this is especially important, as they are loathe to do anything unless inspired in the moment to do it. Smarts/ENTP, INTP, ENTJ, INTJ have bigger things to do than deal with organizational minutiae, and Organics/ENFP, INFP, ENFJ, INFJ would rather be off having tea with a friend in need or volunteering than organizing in an empty house.

What we need to do is to figure out ways to motivate each and every one of you to take the first step (the journey of a thousand miles…). That’s it. That is all you have to do. Because chances are, once you begin, you’ll want to keep going. (Unless you’re a Smart Freedom, in which case you’ll need a budd/coach to keep you focused.) So: Prepare by getting all of your tools at the ready, purge, and begin the process of making your home into a haven.

Organizational Issues by Type

Classics:

-Cramming things into a space just to keep clutter out of sight — even if they don’t fit

-Not delegating tasks that others could easily handle and instead doing them yourself

-Your designing and organizing decisions can be — not exactly aesthetically pleasing, but more functional than anything. This can create a sterile appearance (particularly when it comes to male Classic living spaces).

Funs:

-Are selectively organized — meaning that they are completely detail-oriented and immaculate when it comes to spaces that they are passionate about. The kitchen (if they love to cook), or the bedroom (if they love to sleep), or the walk-in closet (if they are a clotheshorse).

-Work has to be done when in the mood

-Boring tasks are the worst things one could possibly spend time doing

-Holding onto clutter because you hate boring routinized tasks (like decluttering)

-Ignoring or forgetting about scheduled activities because you’d rather keep things straight in your head

Organics:

-Making random piles

-Being stubborn when it comes to letting go of clutter (by ‘clutter’, we mean clutter, by ‘clutter’, you mean sentimental keepsakes you wouldn’t dare throw away!)

-Paying attention only to the things that are out in the open, and ignoring the things that are stored away/invisible

-Analysis = Paralysis! You get so caught up in thinking about how to solve your organizational dilemmas that you never make a dent in the process.

Smarts:

-Rigidity with scheduling

-Stubbornness

-Ignoring details you see as frivolous or immaterial

-Forgetting about things that are not laid out to see

-Having trouble finishing things

-Not letting go of clutter that you think is important (similar to Organics in this way)

How to Make Organizing Fun: Tips and Tricks

For Classics, organizing probably is fun. But everyone else might need a bit of extra help. An oomph, shall we say, to motivate and energize them. Here are some general tips to make organizing an actual FUN process:

2.   Whichever room you feel most ‘inspired by’, begin there.

3.   Take things one step at a time, one minute at a time, one task at a time. Save yourself the agony of becoming overwhelmed by the idea of ‘reorganizing the entire house’ and take it corner by corner.

4.   Put some of your favorite music on. If it’s classical, jazz, R&B, or a mixture of everything, it’ll keep the time flying by. You might even find yourself whistling while you work!
5.   Make a party out of it. Your (best) friends will come, you can depend on it. Serve some snacks, and when it starts to get late, take a (short) cocktail break (we never said you had to get everything done in one afternoon — Rome wasn’t built in a day. (And we’re pretty sure they stomped grapes and partied while they worked, too.)

6.   Make a game out of how quickly or strategically you can organize a small space. If you are the competitive type (see: Smart Structures) you can even time yourself.

There are a number of ways to get motivated. For most of us, that involves either the internal satisfaction of a job well done, or eliciting the help of friendly outsiders. If you are interested in hiring professional organizers, (who also happen to be friendly) check out our consulting page here.