megram - Index

megram - magazine - Index

furniture, etc. until after you have completed the first three
steps of SPACE. You can only really decide what storage
pieces you need when you can see what you actually have
left to put away.
STEP 5: EQUALIZE
Morgenstern calls this final step “equalize,” but I prefer
to refer to it as “everyday.” The key to continued organization
is maintenance. You’ve sorted, purged, assigned and
containerized — don’t waste all that hard work by slipping
back into old habits. Instead, continue to purge whenever
possible and keep putting to-keep items in their assigned
The Organized Advantage
A little while ago, a journalist who was approaching her story on
organization from the perspective that organizing takes more time than
it actually saves interviewed me. I noted that having some organization
in your life isn’t just about saving time — it’s the quality of that time that
can really make a difference in our homes. My take on organizing goes
something like this: It can take me 20 minutes to make my children’s
lunches and pack their school bags, whether I do it in the evening
before school or the next morning. If I do it in the evening, I can do it
in my own time, without rush or too many interruptions — so I say
that’s a positive 20 minutes. If I wait until the morning, I am dealing
with squabbling children, hasty breakfast preparations and a tight preschool
timeline — all in all, a pretty stressful, negative way to spend my
20 minutes. So, given the option, I choose the positive 20 minutes the
night before. How about you?
home. Finding it hard to stay organized? Make sure you
have the system that works best for you. Ask yourself: are the
containers easy to use, are they located in an accessible area
and, of course, do you really need the item? If you haven’t
set up the organizational system in a way that works for you,
you will find it difficult to sustain.
For many people, the hardest thing about getting
organized is just getting started. The key is to take one step
at a time and make SPACE in your home.
Heather Cameron is a Stittsville-based organizer and home staging
professional.
Defining
Organization
The Oxford English
Dictionary defines organized as
“arranged in a systematic way.”
What is that systematic way? As a
professional organizer I have
one answer — whatever works
for you and your household. I
can implement a system that
makes sense to me, but if it
doesn’t make sense to you, you
will not be able to maintain it.
For example, in a home office
one person might file their
house insurance policy under
“house” while for another individual
it might be “insurance”
while for yet another it might be
filed under the renewal date
(and some may not even opt for
a filing system.) The key to
organizing success is to make
sure that whatever system you
implement makes sense to the
people who will be using it.
Due West/Due East Magazine • Fall 2008 Ottawa Page 20