4 Things I Learned About Organizing in 2012

1.     Leaving a client with a renewed sense of hope is sometimes progress enough.  Huh?  But it’s my job to organize, right?  I spent much of the year working with a delightful client with a BIG job. I'm pictured here in her dining room. This wasn’t an office job.  She had accumulated years and years of things in every room of her apartment.   In fact, it was one of the most crowded homes I’d ever been in.  This was a “two steps forward one step back” project.  Each time I felt discouraged with our progress she would voice how much hope she has, how much she is learning, and how much better she feels about her home – even with the floors (and organizer) completely buried.2.     Never shy away from sharing even the smallest of organizing ideas.  One of my most popular videos this year was on creating a simple folder called “Add to Mailing List” for return address labels from holiday card envelopes.  When sharing this with my readers I felt a little silly, thinking that it was borderline futile and silly.  When introducing it though it hit me and I wrote a mini manifesto declaring that the tiniest of improvements matter.  To let even one small part of your office go is a slippery slope towards full-on office chaos.

3.     I organize because I want to give people a sense of freedom in their lives.  This aha moment came to me in a fossil shop in West Virginia of all places.  The owner asked me what my passion is.  Having just completed a 6 mile solo hike in the mountains, I explained that I love the freedom of being outdoors, exerting energy, with no agenda, basking in nature’s beauty.  He was also intrigued by what I do for a living and observed that that I deliver to people the same sense of freedom that I get while wandering in the mountains.

4.     People want to be told what to do.  Recently I asked a client “should we go through your wife’s Visa folder next?” and I just loved his response: “Kacy, are you asking me or telling me?” Point taken!