Is there ever a good time to pause and organize?
“There’s never a good time to do this” is something I’ve heard many times while organizing with clients.
I recently finished working with a client who was buried in her aging parents’ mail and paper that she had brought home over the years from their house in Florida. She banished it to the basement until there was no more room to sit on the large sectional sofa. It had come time for this project to see the light of day.
We sorted and tossed boxes of their medical bills, bank statements, home maintenance receipts, vet bills, handwritten notes, tax info, social security statements, correspondence, you name it. We worked so smoothly together. After tossing most of it, there was still a hearty collection of papers that mattered. She ended up with both a simple filing system and a task system for her to use going forward. (Because the paper is still coming in...)
So, if the process was so relatively manageable once we started, then why wasn’t she able to do it on her own? You may be able to relate to this blunt answer: Because there is never a good time to do this!
I told her I didn’t blame her for not waking up on a Saturday morning, or not finishing a workday thinking, “You know what I really want to do? Sort through mom and dad’s unopened mail from 2008.” Sure you can make a date with yourself, or have a friend hold you accountable, but it’s easier said than done. I want to honor that. Not feeling enlivened by the thought of organizing paper (or anything else) makes you…normal.
Themes in my work are abundant. The day after I finished with this client, I worked with my 91 year old client. We finally addressed papers from his long law career. Pictured above are some of the contact lists from the ’80s that we tossed, only after some contemplation, chuckles, and storytelling about a few cases and clients. He verbalized a number of times that though this stuff was ancient history, letting go was very difficult.
Though he has been retired for about two decades, until this week, there had never been a good time in all those years to sort through his professional papers! That day, with an Organizer to sherpa him through his feelings about tossing memories in the trash, was a good day to do the work.
There are two lessons in here:
Hire a pro. My team members and I are eager to move you though the things that slow you down. When an Organizer shows up at your door, that is a good time to do the work.
Since there’s never a good time to sort the scrappy, stressful minutiae of life, now will always be a better time than tomorrow. Don’t wait for the time to feel right, because that moment might never come.
