By Holly Uverity CPO®, Office Organizers
As I’m writing this, I’m about to enter my 23rd year of business; I started Office Organizers in June of 1993 with the intent to help new businesses set up their offices. As I’ve traveled down this path, I’ve seen great strides in the organizing industry itself. Where now organizing is mainstream, it wasn’t always so. In the early 1990s when I introduced myself, people thought I was a union organizer as they had no other frame of reference for the term “professional organizer”. I spent the first five years of my business explaining what I did. While the how of organizing has changed over the years, what has never changed for me is the why. There are so many more resources, both in people and tools, available now than there were ever before but even so, getting organized is and always will be a personal decision.
As I’ve said countless times, organization exists on a spectrum. On one end live the people who keep everything and on the other end live the people who keep nothing. As an aside, I’m not including hoarders in this spectrum as true hoarders suffer from a disorder. My question to you is: If organization exists on a spectrum, where do you live? Are you one extreme, the other extreme, or in the middle? And does it ever change? My hope for you is that you are on neither end and that yes, it does change. As your job, priorities, and your life changes, I hope that your organizational strategies change as well. If you’ve always worked for someone else and now you’ve started your own business, wouldn’t it make sense that you’d have to re-evaluate everything you do? From what you do to where you do it, wouldn’t it make sense that you move along that spectrum?
Remember though, that ultimately where you move to or move from on that organizational spectrum is a personal decision and not a moral or ethical one. While it’s true that you may be legally or financially obligated to keep or destroy certain items, beyond that, it’s entirely up to you what your office looks like. It’s all about your quality of life and your quality of work. Choose the level of clutter that supports you, the level that you’re comfortable with. But understand that it must add to your life and not subtract from it. You want to be able to enjoy your awards, pictures, and knickknacks but not have them interfere. They should be a joy in your life and not a curse.
It’s healthy to move up and down that spectrum. What’s true for you now may not be true for you in 23 years. ________________________________________________________________
Office Organizers is The Entrepreneur’s Organizer. Founded in 1993, they work with business people to create solutions for their organizational challenges. Contact them at 281.655.5022, www.OfficeOrganizers.com, or www.fb.com/OfficeOrganizers.
