9 Things Organized People Do That Disorganized People Don't
If you've struggled with organizing, you might think there's some secret organizing gene that your friends and family have that you are lacking. While it's true that some people are naturally more inclined towards organization and have better spatial awareness, the truth is that organization is mostly made up of learnable skills and practiced actions.
That's great news because it means that if you learn some strategies and are diligent about practicing them, you can be organized!
Here's a list of 9 things that organized people do, that disorganized people don't.
1. Do it right away!
Can the thing that needs doing take 2 minutes or less? If so, the organized person will do it immediately so they don't have it hanging over their head. It takes less than 2 minutes to put the clean dishes away from the dishwasher, to answer an email, to schedule a doctor appointment, to fold the couch blankets, to make the bed, to start a load of laundry or switch it to the dryer, to tidy and wipe down the kitchen counter, and to put the groceries away.
2. Don't put it down, put it away.
Organized people don't find themselves saying "I'll put this here, for now". Instead, when they have something in their hands, they take a moment to put it away properly so that it's where it should be the next time they need it, and it doesn't turn into clutter to be frustrated about and dealt with later.
3. Keep similarly used items together in a "home."
All items belonging to an organized person have a "home" (a place where they are supposed to be stored). This location is chosen based on the location and frequency of each item’s use. If at any time they encounter an item that hasn't already been assigned a home, they take a moment to decide where it will be stored and then put it there.
4. Have a clear plan before buying or accepting items.
Before accepting a free item or purchasing anything new, the organized person knows exactly how they will use the item, where the item will be stored, and has a real plan for dealing with any possible effects of taking on the new item (e.g., disposing of something else to make room for the new item or maintaining and cleaning the item).
5. Create and maintain boundaries for stuff.
Organized people create and enforce boundaries around stuff. They say "no, thank you" when others offer or insist on giving them items that the organized person has no need for. They don't let kids' toys take over every inch of the house and require that they be put away after use. They don't make decisions about stuff that is in conflict with having an organized space.
6. Detach emotions from stuff.
Physical items don't have feelings, and the organized person knows this. They recognize that the thought is in the choosing/giving of a gift, not the gift itself. Memories are in a person's mind, not the object itself, so the organized person looks for ways to remember that don't involve keeping items that no longer serve any other purpose than to trigger a memory. They hold their own need for organization above what they perceive to be the likely feelings of others. They accept that whether they keep or discard a gift they've received, they cannot control the emotions and reactions of other people, so they don't factor that in when making the best decision for themselves.
7. Estimate time accurately.
Time estimation can be tricky, but the organized person pays attention to how long tasks actually take and uses that to inform how they manage their time. They make educated guesses instead of having overly optimistic or unrealistic expectations about how quickly things will happen. They don't start tasks that they can't reasonably be expected to finish in their available time, but they also don't overestimate so severely that they can never be reasonably expected to have enough time.
8. Make decisions quickly.
Not everything has to be analyzed to death, so the organized person is content with having just enough information to make a decision. They don't need to think it out for a long time before deciding if they are going to use an item again. They don't put off their decisions for later, and they decide the disposition of their items in one go, instead of setting things aside to decide on later. Not having to think about the decision more than once saves them a ton of time.
9. Have a high tolerance for error.
The organized person knows that it isn't possible to always make the "right" decision. They recognize that people will often remember only the few times they made a wrong decision about discarding items and forget the thousands of times they got it right, so they don't stress about making a mistake. The organized person also knows that there are almost no decisions that are critical or not reversible. They are aware that most items can be easily replaced if it turns out they are needed again in the future. They are satisfied knowing that they made the best decision they could at the time and with the information they had.
