What Is Organizing Not?

Organizing is not...

... living with less just for the sake of it.

Organizing is not purging all that you love because it takes up room.

Organizing is not cold and lonely.

Organizing IS

storing your things in a way that

1) honors their memory value to you and

2) makes it easy to find what you need, when you need it, and easily put back that thing when you are done using it.

Perhaps there is an implied fear that if I organize (or purge) then I won't be able to keep things I love.

The point of organizing is exactly this: to separate the things that you love (i.e. keep) from those that you don't (i.e. let go of).

There is meaning in our belongings. Some of it utilitarian (toilet paper) and some of it is memory (my planner from senior year in high school - the year I met Raymond).

There is value in our belongings. Some of it is market (those Lladro figurines) and some of it is memory (my grandpaw's mantle clock - the grandpaw I never met).

The important thing to point out is there is a difference between

the things we love,

the things we use/need/want, and

those things that sit around collecting dust on shelves, in drawers, in closets that have zero meaning and zero value.

Can you tell the difference?

Organizing is removing the excess and the unwanted to make the treasures shine.

To make them special once again. Because they've been lost for so long among the muck of everything else.

What is it that keeps you from drawing the line and taking back the reins in your home?