Devotion: Taking the Land a.k.a. Little-by-Little

You may say to yourselves, "These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?" But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the miraculous signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed.
Deuteronomy 7:17-23 (NIV)

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to push a huge stone to the top of a hill. With great physical exertion he pushed all day until he got the stone all the way to the top. But no sooner had he reached the top than the stone rolled all the way back down to the bottom. Thus, his struggle is recognized as an “uphill battle."

Organizing may seem that way for many. You spend an entire day or maybe several exhausting days organizing what may have taken weeks or years to create. At the end of your marathon, you are spent and weak from your efforts. But what happens next? You “release” the stone and the next thing you know things are once again in disarray. It can be very discouraging to realize how long it takes to deal with clutter and how long it takes for clutter to collect again.

This tendency is very reminiscent of Sisyphus. You work and work with intensity, and once you release the bolder, your tendency is to relax and let things go back to the familiar, with no plan in place for maintenance. Habits take time to reform in our brain, and when we do too much too quickly, not only do we get exhausted and burn out for the next several days, but in those next several days we undo all that we have accomplished. Even though you've had great results in a short time, you have to remember that keeping things looking that good is a matter of building daily habits--habits of keeping things organized.

God promises that He will “drive out” with His mighty hands that which is keeping disorder in your life. But this works only little-by-little, in the taking of the land or the taking of the room! Building habits one at a time, little-by-little, will insure you of a great success and will allow you to rule over your possessions instead of being ruled by them.

The magic “key” to continuing with your organizing efforts is to build into your system a maintenance schedule. Finding someone to help keep you accountable until the maintenance is routine, and remembering to schedule the end of the day de-cluttering session will insure you that you will not find yourself in the same original circumstance as before.

Organizing Principles:
1. Never buy more than what you need.

2. When starting the de-cluttering process...every time you buy something new, decide what you have that is like it and train yourself to dispose of 3 articles that are like the new one coming in.

3. Begin de-cluttering with the Mt. Vernon Method. Choose one spot in the room and keep your focus on that area until everything is completed. Then move to either the left or the right and continue to sweep the entire room in a systematic process. Distractions occur when we zigzag in our de-cluttering because we feel it necessary to put things away, and in doing so, we forget where we were. Have a basket that accumulates everything that is to go someplace else and at the end of the session, take those items and put them away.

4. Build one habit at a time. Trying to take on 12 new habits at a time is a sure fire way to become overwhelmed. Don’t let your perfectionism (the desire to do it all at once) ruin such fantastic efforts.

Yes, you may backslide once in a while. That’s normal. However, if you have taken measures to “keep the wild beasts away” getting organized again will only take half the time and effort as your original endeavor.

A quote from a dear one:
“Please remember that your home didn't get into this shape at the rate of one room per day, and it's not going to get out of this shape at the rate of one room per day either. Sure, you can continue to purge at that rate, but when you're done, you won't even remember what you got rid of, where you put the things you kept, or even what you kept. Trust me, I know of what I speak. I purged my sewing room very quickly within the past few months, and now there are things that I either can't find, or wish I had never gotten rid of. Sure I had good reason to get rid of a lot of stuff, but there are still items that I now wish I'd kept, because I've gone looking for them and have come to the conclusion that they were among the purged items.”

Prayer,
Lord, thank you for opening my eyes to Your promise that You will drive out the clutter beasts from my life. What I was missing was that You want me to build new habits, little-by-little. Your son Jesus said, “…my yoke is easy.” I never understood why I spent countless hours taking the land of my room, only to be discouraged because the wild beasts came back in and devoured all I had done. I now know to take it easy, bit-by-bit, and to create and maintain a schedule to keep it that way.

~Eileen Koff, CPO

Less is More: Conscious Consumption

A professional organizer’s role has been what I call the backdoor approach to lifestyle choices. We are called into an environment when the clutter and chaos have reached a tipping point in the lives of our clients. More often than not, the consumption patterns of our clients lie buried in their unconscious.

Prior to September 2008, little thought was given to the quantity of material possessions and less to the quality of those items. Our Gross National Product determined the health of our nation and while our consumption patterns ran amok, in reality, we were no longer healthy, but getting economically sicker by the day. September 2008 landed us in the hospital on life support. Now the commercial buzz is beginning to stress new lifestyle changes. But what those advertisers are not doing is telling you just how to do that. They are appealing to your better nature, but at the same time hoping you just keep on keeping the same old buying habits.

Living simply has become the new catch phase, but no where are there truly practical explanations on how to do so. We are left once again on our own to develop new changes and every one seems to have a question mark on their foreheads as to how to do so. In my previous blogs, I have stated that living simply is first and foremost changing the way we think. So here is one great tip to get you started.

It’s cold in NY where I live and every store at the mall has 70% off signs in the stores. There are retail bargins galore! But a bargain is not a bargain if the item just sits in the bag, or you already own 5 other white sweaters and the likely hood of you wearing that new sweater more than 3 times is next to nil.

So before you decide to spend the gas money and venture into the mall, make a list of what you truly need. Become conscious of what your needs are versus your wants. This is huge. Buying quality is also very important. Buying only what you love will begin to reduce the overload in your life. Make a pact with yourself and decide that if you are going to buy that fabulous white cashmere sweater, when you get home, you must donate 3 of the others. Buying with intent and purpose and not just what is available will drastically change your consumption patterns and make not only shopping mindful, but your thoughts about your material possessions will change.

Also understand that when you purchase an item, you are not only spending your money outright, but that there are hidden costs to that sweater. There are upkeep costs (like the cleaning) electricity cost in running the washing machine, detergent or dry-cleaning costs. There are also storage costs, like the canvas storage bag to contain the sweater during the summer months.

As the professional organizing industry matures, we are no longer going to be the backdoor consumption savior. Our professional focus needs to be on front door lifestyles. Who better to educate one-on-one to truly make transformative changes in the way we look at our life, our economy our nation, and even our world.

~Eileen Koff, CPO

GET GREEN: Change the World...One Roll at a Time

(Excerpts taken from the magazine Body and Soul)

Buy Recycled TP
Believe it or not, recycled toilet paper can change the world. “If every household in the US bought just one, four-pack of 260-sheet recycled bath tissue, it would eliminate 60,600 pounds of chlorine pollution, preserve 356 million gallons of fresh water, and save 988,000 trees,” says Jeffery Hollender, whose company, Seventh Generation, offers a range of environmentally conscious consumer goods. Using recycled paper products saves manufacturers a trip into the forest and doesn’t require the energy needed to extract pulp from trees. Plus, a four-pack of the recycled kind cost about the same as conventional. You can effect change, Hollender insists, “one roll of toilet paper at a time.”

Pass on the Paper Towels
No matter how you look at it, paper towels create waste--even if you stick to recycled brands. Danny Seo, green-living guru and author of the Simply Green series notes, “You use them once and throw them away. Most end up in landfills.” In his house, you’ll find only reusable micro-fiber towels, which grip dirt and dust like a magnet and don’t let go, even when wet. When you're finished, toss the towels in the wash and reuse. He says, “Paper towels just push dirt and bacteria around. Next time you wipe your counter or clean a mirror with a reusable micro-fiber towel you can think of the trees you’re saving.”

~Eileen Koff, CPO