The Truth about Organized People

PERSPECTIVE
How this word resonates within me these days. For about 6 months now God has been refining my perspective on so many things. I could write post and post about this but today I want to write about perspectives on being organized and having systems implemented into my life.
Lately, I have received comments that go like this "I could never be as together as you are," "your house is always so clean," "how do you do it?"
Well here is my perspective on all this. First of all look at these pictures of MY house:

This is not as uncommon as you would think around here. You see the right perspective about being organized is not that you always have it together, and that life just runs perfect. Yes, there are some people who want you to think this is the case and at times in my life I have been one of those people. I still struggle with it from time to time. So from first hand knowledge I can tell you that these people who always have it together have 1 of 2 things true about them:

1. They are faking it because they, like me at time, feel that their self worth is wrapped up in how well they perform for others. I also struggle with feeling unworthy of being loved if I don't do what is required of me in my roles in life.

2. They really do have it that together and their house is spic and span always, their kids are always on their best behavior and they are never ever late for anything and oh, they have little tolerance for people who don't operate like they do. Because I struggle with wanting to have it all together and because I know I am great at organizing my life I know that if this is happening the people they love and that love them are suffering tremendously. I am sure that there are those very select few that manage this well and that is just how God made them but you better believe they have some other great struggles in their life. But perfection is not meant to be attained this side of heaven.

What I want those of you who question how I do it to know is that this is not about having a perfectly clean house all day and a perfectly implemented schedule every day. Not at all!!! What it is about is setting up systems in your life that make life run smoothly and that you can go from what you see in the photos above to picked up, orderly and welcoming in about 1 hour flat. (Not shoved in the closet to deal with later either)

I am learning more and more these days that a life lived on purpose is messy in every way every day. You have to make choices to drop what needs to be done for what really needs to be done in that moment. Discernment is necessary to learn how to do that part successfully and only God can give you that. But in those times when you choose to drop what needs to be done it helps to have things in place so that quickly you can jump back in where you were and get those things done. Almost without thinking!!!

I have a friend who because her husband is just crazy :) moved a family of 5 into an 1100 or so square foot house. Back in the day people did that all the time but today it is unheard of :) Before they actually moved their bodies into the house but after most of their stuff was in the house I went and set up systems and organized the entire house. So when I got it all done I showed both the adults where everything goes - all was labeled very well and what needed to happen to keep the house functionally with so little space. During their stay in this house - thankfully he came to his senses :) and is moving on to bigger spaces, she told me countless times that the house could be a complete disaster - which is to be expected with small kids - and they could have it cleaned up in about 15-20 minutes. She taught the kids the systems - little kids. They knew where Thomas the Train stuff went and were the crayons and coloring books went. They could be told to pick up their toys and they knew were to put them. Hubby knew what to do with his keys, wallet, phone and mail when he came in the door. These are the things that make running the home successful. The "I know what to do, where to put it when I get to it." So my hope with this post is to encourage you to give up the idea that organized people live clean and orderly lives everyday. It is a lie. I hope that realizing this will inspire you to tackle a room in your house and see how much easier it is to keep it clean. I want to continue my posts on organizing tips. I am thinking about taking it room by room. We shall see.