While I love three-legged-stool analogies as much as the next person, here's something that's even more stable: a five-legged stool called the "five fundamentals of organization." I contend that without these five -- ability, willingness, commitment, tools, and habits -- all attempts to become more organized will be short-lived.
In the beginning, there must be ability
Shoe Rack Stand
By ability, I mean that a person must be literally capable of making positive organizational changes in his or her life. This has nothing to do with desire, knowledge, or motivation, but rather, it relates to the serious challenges that some people face. Chronic illness, physical limitations, and grieving can reduce ability, and there are correlations between chronic disorganization (CD) and depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, and ADD/ADHD (attention-deficit [hyperactive] disorder). Other challenges include shopping addictions and hoarding behaviors -- extreme scenarios that sometimes make the news.
I don't use the term "chronic disorganization" lightly. There's an entity called the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD) whose purpose is to educate and assist the general public, professional organizers, and mental-health professionals in providing solutions for chronically disorganized people. It is now affiliated with the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), and it trains and certifies organizers to work in this subset of the field -- sometimes as part of a larger assistance team.
The mental and emotional obstacles that chronically disorganized people face are very real and can be debilitating, but help is available through trained professionals. To begin to determine if someone you know suffers from CD, no matter what the cause, you can review the Clutter Hoarding Scale available on the NSGCD's web site. It allows you to assess the severity of disorganization in an individual's environment and consider how to proceed from there.
All of this is a long way of saying that some people, without help, are not capable of -- truly do not have the ability to -- create positive organizational solutions in their lives. They are not lazy, stubborn, selfish, incompetent, stupid, or insensitive (as some might brand them from taking just a surface look), but rather, they are often highly intelligent, innovative, creative, and warm-hearted people who suffer from challenges that are very serious, but not insurmountable. Getting help is the first step.
There's no substitute for willingness
Sometimes people have asked me to help a parent, spouse, friend, or in-law to get more organized. My first question is always, "Is this person interested in making these changes?" Then there's often silence at the other end because, I suspect, these well-intentioned and compassionate people realize a fundamental truth: short of pointing a gun at someone, you can't make anyone do anything. People must be willing to change.
Willingness (and ability, as I discussed above) are the two pieces that you must bring to your organizational table, and you're the only one who knows if you're ready to make positive changes. If you're not, there are many possible reasons for your hesitation, which you may even have difficulty identifying, articulating, and/or accepting: beliefs or perceptions instilled by your parents or others and carried forth from your childhood, early deprivation, embarrassment, fear, shame, guilt, grieving, a sense of loss, not believing it's worth the time and effort, anticipating a loss of control, and more.
Not unlike an addiction, sometimes a person must "hit bottom" in order to be ready -- that is, s/he must reach the point where enduring the daily stresses, frustrations, and lost opportunities that go along with disorganization has become worse than confronting whatever mental or emotional obstacles are in the way. That's when someone may be ready to make changes, but probably no amount of cajoling, bargaining, or threatening will move this person to action until then. S/he must be ready and willing.
There's also no substitute for commitment
Given the ability and willingness to move forward, I've always told clients that they're about 80% of the way to success -- the rest "just" requires carving out time to do the work. (Easier said than accomplished, right?) But the harsh truth is that ability and willingness alone will not get this work done -- it's labor that requires a repeated commitment of time and effort as, bit by bit, you work through your belongings to effect positive changes.
So what if you're able and willing, but don't feel that you have the time to become more organized? My thought is that it all comes down to priorities, which only you can determine. If you find yourself choosing other activities over organizing efforts, that's perfectly fine! It may indicate that your level of organization works well enough for you right now, or that you're choosing to cope with other pressing, high-priority matters.
But, if you do find yourself struggling with some disorganization, then evaluate how important you feel it is to deal with it, compared to the other things you choose to do. Some of them, such as going to work or caring for children or ailing parents, probably seem like such unquestionable bedrocks in your life that they don't appear to even be choices -- but perhaps there's room for some creative compromise in order to do both? And whenever you find yourself saying that you can't afford to spend time getting organized, consider the opposite: Is your disorganization robbing you of so much peace of mind that you can't afford not to?
Once you have the ability, willingness, and commitment, you need some tools
Congratulations! You've already built a three-legged stool that can, in fact, stand on its own. But you don't want to leave it at that. Instead, you want to add the two last legs that will ensure its long-term strength.
That next leg comes in the form of tools -- the physical objects that help you to create and maintain, as I like to say, "space, light, air, and order." These can be baskets, buckets, boxes, bins, tins, totes, trays, drawer inserts, hooks, shelves, racks, or myriad other containers and aids, but don't fall prey to this flawed thinking: "I own lots of storage bins, so I must be organized." Not necessarily true! Tools alone, or tools used improperly, will not create organization, and they may even hinder it by becoming clutter themselves. Be sure that what you're storing in those bins -- or anywhere else, for that matter -- are things that you need, use, and love.
Tools can also take the form of organizational procedures, systems, and processes that you create to keep objects, paper, and activities flowing smoothly. Most important to this is ensuring that they mesh well with the ways in which you work, think, and live. Adapt systems to fit you and your natural preferences, not vice versa.
Habits make it happen for the long term
The four fundamental elements that I've outlined so far will get you organized, but only the formation of good habits will keep you organized for the long term. Some people balk at this, arguing that it's too difficult for them to change their behavior. But, I'd bet that these same people seldom walk out of their homes in the morning without having brushed their teeth or put on their shoes -- both good habits that they formed so long ago and have continued to carry out so effortlessly that they probably don't even think of them as good habits.
Because organization is a daily effort -- not something that you do only once and then expect to maintain itself -- your goal is to create strong, positive organizational habits, just like brushing your teeth. We've all heard that it takes 21 days to form a new habit (or break an old one, I suppose), so for those three weeks, do whatever it takes -- family members reminding you, notes posted all over, or notes posted all over your family members -- to stick to the new organizational procedures that you've custom-designed for yourself.
Understanding, evaluating how you fare, and mastering these five fundamentals or organization will help you to bring lasting space, light, air, and order to your world.