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My wood floors are being re-done this week, so my family is staying at my mom’s house while we wait for the fumes to fade and the floor to cure. This is happening in the middle of other stressful things. To try to put it lightly: I’m feeling a lot of stress this week. Even though I want these things done to my house and I’m excited about the updates, I’m feeling the stress. I’m not sleeping well and I feel like I’m out of my element and in constant catch-up mode.
Today I was at my house filling some planner orders upstairs in my studio. I had to walk past the terrible closet in there several times. I kept thinking about the Closets Week during the Summer Organizing Challenge. The title of that week in the Supplemental Pack was “It’s Time To Open Your Monica Closet: Organize Your Most Frustrating Closet“.
Every time I walked past the closet in my studio I called it my Monica Closet in my head and the mess weighed on me. Then it occurred to me. Instead of spending all of this time and using head-space trying to ignore the closet while I did more important things, I decided to spend five minutes to organize the closet a little. Crazy thought, right?!
I’m certain that taking a minute to restore order in this closet helped me be more productive with my office hours today. I got some good work done AND the closet is improved. The rest of the studio is better too, as I returned bins back to their homes.
It doesn’t take very long to make a big difference.
Isn’t this the truth with so many of the quick little things we’re ignoring?! I want this 5 Minute Organizing Series to be a revolution to remember the value of Accomplishing Small Tasks.
Done Enough
And to feel the small victories, we have to remember to know the difference between done and done enough.
I worked on this closet until it was done enough, because I had more pressing things to do.
BEFORE
AFTER
Do I feel like my closet meets every standard of organization? Absolutely not, but it will get there over time. With this particular closet, progress will be slow and steady. I’ll tweak a little here and a little there and over time, it will get better and better.
Next Steps for this closet:
- I ordered a set of my favorite labels and some new chalk markers so that I can come back and label all of these bins. That will be another 5 minute project that will make a big difference in this closet.
- I am going to put hooks up for our paint shirts (the kids and I all paint together up in here).
These 5 Minutes were well spent! It’s amazing how much better I feel with that done. I could focus in there so much better after I finished.
What project can you do that would be a relief? Do you have a Monica closet that could use a little TLC?
What could you get done in 5 Minutes? Get to it!
From my home to yours,
Mary
Your “before” picture is representative of the very best “after” picture I could probably ever accomplish! LOL! It is amazing what 5 minutes can do.
I doubt that – you can probably do better than you think you can! But yes, it is amazing what 5 minutes can do!
Mine must have been a lazy Susan closet because it took me more than 5 minutes. However once I removed what didn’t belong, added what needed to be there, gained a shelf that remains unused and removed a shelf that sat on the floor that I never really knew its purpose, I felt quite accomplished. Thanks for keeping the task of organizing real.
lol! I’m so glad you got through it – good job!
Just what I needed to see when it comes to getting organized and decluttering. 5 to 10 minutes on a small area can work wonders! Thanks.
Mark
minimalistlifestyle.wordpress.com
You’re so welcome, Mark! 🙂
I do this ALL THE TIME….lol. I constantly pass something I know needs to be re-organized and feel guilty about it day after day. Once I just get tired of listening to myself, I take care of it and move on. It’s never as a big of a deal as I thought it would be. I too have had to do good enough sometimes, but that progress is still encouraging and reduces some of my mental clutter from thinking about it all of the time.
2017 is going to be my year of “DO It Now!”
Love it! I think do it now is a great plan! Of course, you may want to figure out how you’ll handle exceptions so you don’t feel defeated when it happens … you know, when there are multiple things needing your attention to do it now. 🙂
Have I missed something? What is a Monica Closet?
I’m not sure what happened to the link for the Monica Closet, but it was supposed to link to where I talked about it for the first time. It is a reference to the Friends sitcom, because the character Monica, who was normally very clean and organized, had a closet of doom!