Mom's Best Tip for Staying Organized

My Mom was a naturally organized person. Everything had its place in the house. When she finished using something, she put it back in its place. She called me a packrat because many things were special to me. My room was always full, which meant cluttered, to Mom. 

As the oldest daughter, I spent my life shadowing Mom, helping her, and learning everything she did. While I didn't meet her standards for keeping my room orderly, just living with Mom, I learned the principles of how she kept the whole house orderly. 

As a Professional Organizer, I often work for clients who do not have my Mom's knack for staying organized. They are happy to pay me to clear the clutter, and restore a pleasant environment. Delighted with the new-found order, they often express concern about keeping the order after I am gone. 

I offer them the best tip I learned from Mom. It was like a mantra I heard her say over and over, my entire life. "Don't Make Mess on Top of Mess." Working with clients, I aim to locate things in places that make sense to them, in light of how they live and work. The goal is to store each item in the place the client would naturally go to look for it. That makes finding and putting away, a no-brainer.

The trick comes in when someone has found and used something, or many things, for cooking, or doing a project of some sort. The result is lots of items on a counter, or a table while they are in use. Often happy with the satisfaction of completing the task, or hurried by time to move on to something else, the clean-up gets neglected. Clutter is born out of those items not put away. 

So Mom's best tip for staying organized is "Don't Make Mess on Top of Mess." Take the few minutes to clean up and put away one project before beginning the next. This works for things as simple as the dishes. Take a minute to rinse the breakfast cereal bowl and spoon and put them in the dishwasher, and the lunch plate and glass, too. Then by dinner time, the counter and sink are available. The room looks organized and inviting giving you much more incentive to begin the next task.