{"id":2843,"date":"2021-11-09T09:05:39","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T17:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/?p=2843"},"modified":"2024-02-20T22:53:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T06:53:44","slug":"find-your-organizing-sweet-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/find-your-organizing-sweet-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Find Your Organizing &#8220;Sweet Spot&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s get something out of the way: you are not a failure because you have clutter.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone has clutter to some degree. If keeping clutter under control is a challenge, grab a bag of candy (and not just because chocolate can make you feel better.) Candy can actually help you find your sweet spot for organizing and it\u2019s one of the ways I connect with audiences at speaking engagements.<\/p>\n<h4>The Candy Organizing Exercise<\/h4>\n<p>Here\u2019s how it works. I give each person in the room a bag containing eight pieces of assorted candy. There\u2019s usually chocolate, hard candies, soft candies, colored candies, and gummies. After the bags are distributed I instruct the audience to organize the contents of their candy bag.<\/p>\n<p>The looks I get are priceless. Everyone wants to know how they should be organizing the candy, but the only instruction I give is simply, \u201cOrganize it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3138\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images.jpg\" alt=\"Find Your Organizing \u201cSweet Spot\u201d | Unclutterednw.com\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images-370x370.jpg 370w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images-270x270.jpg 270w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images-570x570.jpg 570w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Blog-images-740x740.jpg 740w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/>It\u2019s fascinating to watch what happens. Some people organize by color, others group like shapes together, some people organize based on texture and group hard candies together and soft candies in another pile. Everyone organizes differently and everyone in the room can see that just by looking around. There is no right or wrong.<\/p>\n<p>The activity helps to illustrate that organizing comes down to personal preference. If you don\u2019t organize like your mom, your aunt, or your best friend, it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re doing it wrong. We all have different personalities. That\u2019s really important to understand because a lot of times we\u2019ll stop ourselves before we even get started.<\/p>\n<h4>Overcoming Self-Doubt<\/h4>\n<p>An organizing project can get derailed by thinking, \u201cOh, I can\u2019t do it like my mom, I\u2019m a failure.\u201d Or \u201cI can\u2019t do it like my friend, so why even start?\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If you don\u2019t organize like your mom, or your aunt, or your best friend, it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re doing it wrong. We all have different personalities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You don\u2019t have to organize like your mom. The way your friend does it might not work for you. Organizing is as personal as your taste in home d\u00e9cor or music.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2847 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet.png 1080w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet-370x370.png 370w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet-270x270.png 270w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet-570x570.png 570w, https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Neat-Cabinet-740x740.png 740w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/>When I make this point using a bag of candy there\u2019s visual proof that people approach organizing in different ways. I can almost see lightbulbs going on throughout the room and the realization that it\u2019s not wrong to organize differently than your mom does.<\/p>\n<p>You are not a failure. You do have a unique personality and organizing style that suits you perfectly. Don\u2019t be so hard on yourself. Take some time to find your organizing sweet spot.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re stumped (or keep eating the candy instead of organizing it) I would be happy to work with you on your next project. Send me an email at <a href=\"mailto:linda@unclutterednw.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">linda@unclutterednw.com<\/a> so we can get started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s get something out of the way: you are not a failure because you have clutter. Everyone has clutter to some degree. If keeping clutter under control is a challenge, grab a bag of candy (and not just because chocolate can make you feel better.) Candy can actually help you find your sweet spot for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[133,135,92,134,136,114,115,54,91,112],"class_list":["post-2843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-organizing","tag-cabinets","tag-closets","tag-declutter","tag-drawers","tag-function","tag-neat","tag-order","tag-organizing","tag-space","tag-style"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2843"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3139,"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions\/3139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unclutterednw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}