get organized and stay that way!

I clean and I can organized.

But staying that why is a challenge.

Especialy with my wacky bf, who is over paranoid over important papers being seen, so he files them his own way…but taking the papers i have separated and throwing them into a black plastic bag into the back of the closet

Also when I clean things I tend to explode things and for a few days things look worse then it was.

I was going to ebay a bunch of things. but instead i am going to give alot of it away and get a tax credit back

I had two boxes of papers and misc. junk in the dining room, not to mention my piles of papers on the table. It was really starting to get to me, but I just couldn’t get myself to go through it all. At least, not until my friend and I decided to have a little party of sorts at my place. One of the people coming has never been to my house, so I decided to clean it out, and my friend helped.
So, the dining room is now rid of my stuff, but one of the boxes is in my room (where the party goers will not be, mind) until I get around to cleaning it out again.
It’s like a never ending cycle of messiness and order. I’ve got the “get organized” part down, it’s just the “stay that way” that continues to be a problem.

I’ve found that there is a direct correlation between my level of stress and the state of my room. The messier my room is, the higher my stress level is. I’ve found that cleaning my room decreases my stress, and I’m pretty sure that cleaning out the bathroom and dining room would serve to lower my level of stress even further, which means I have no excuse not to clean them. I’ve been avoiding both of those things because it’s going to be both long and stressful.
‘S’a good thing “stop procrastinating” is also on my list.

I’d been doing really, really well at keeping my room clean while I had to use the family computer downstairs. Now my computer’s fixed and I’m in my room all of the time, it’s getting messier faster.
That being said, it’s not half as bad as it usually used to be and I’m doing pretty well at keeping it cleanish.
... now I just have to clean out all of my papers from the dining room.

I did some end-of-the-year cleaning over the past few days, and my room is now (mostly) clean and (fairly) organized. I still haven’t sorted out my drawers or even looked under my bed, but my room looks really nice, and I’ve got my books all neatly organized, as opposed to in stacks all over the place (plus I got the dirty laundry off the floor, and that made a big difference). I even got my doll things organized and out of the way.
Now the real challenge is keeping it that way. (I’m already slacking; I didn’t bother to made my bed today and I haven’t finished putting away my clean clothes.)
I think my messiness has less to do with being disorganized than it has to do with being lazy. When I’m organized, I’m hyper organized, and that gets time consuming and difficult. I need to find a healthy medium between chaos and micromanagement.

It’s been a week since I started this project. The project is to get my apartment in some order to enable myself to be better organized. This is taking place in the form of many different projects around the apartment which, when all is said and done, will yield a neater, aesthetic, and more retrievable environment which will make it much easier to function.

Current Projects:

Project #!: Put all shoes in stackable shoe drawers; photographed each one; printed the image of each shoe onto stickers which I adhered to the respective shoe drawer.

I will never wonder where my navy blue heals are ever again!
Of course I have some orphan shoes, which I’m not so sure where I’m going to put. But I’m working on adding one more shelf in the closet that may solve the problem.

Project #2: Reduce paper collection from 2 filing cabinets and 3 plastic files to one cabinet. It took hours, but I separated all papers into what can be shredded, and what I still need to retain. I dumped about 8 large bags of shredded paper. I’m now working on filing what has been deemed necessary.

Project #3: Kitchen projet: Replaced all unmatching glasses, plates and utensils with dishes and flatware that match and look good. Replaced junk above sink (old vitamins, etc.) with spices. Who knows, this might just all inspire me to have a dinner party!

Project #4: Still going through clothes to determine what is closet ready and what goes away.

I’m exhausted. But I know these hours that I put in now will pay off 10 fold in the long run.

Cheers!

Today I took the first steps to being more organized. I’ve been living in the same apartment for the last 5 years, thus I have layers of clothes, shoes, jewelry and general ‘junk’ that have accumulated within that time period. I’ve succeeded so far in removing 3/4 of the contents of a walk-in closet to sort through. This task took many more hours than expected, therefore I’m going to alter the timeframe of my goal to be more realistic. Otherwise it is way too easy to put this whole task off for who knows how long. Next step is to sort the emptied contents into the following categories:
(1) Trash;
(2) Ebay;
(3) Clothes and accessories that fit and I intend to wear again.

1st major revelation to being organized: Must dispose of one item for each new item that enters my apartment. No more clutter!!