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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.”
My Monica reference might be outdated, but it comes from the show Friends, where the neat-freak Monica had a doom closet that she hid from everyone. This closet was a mess to say the least, and stuffed full to the brim. Since I never led an exciting single life in New York City, that closet was probably the most relatable thing about the entire show to me! The term “Monica closet” was created in my brain and stuck.
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 wasting all this 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?! As it turns out, 5 minutes was enough to make a HUGE impact!
I’m certain that taking a minute to restore order in this closet helped me be more productive in every way today. I got some good work done AND the closet is improved. The domino effect of organizing storage is so real because my planner studio seemed to get a little more organized too as I returned bins back to their homes. The minutes were very well spent!
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?! Remember the value of accomplishing small tasks.Â
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
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!