Let's talk about those random piles of clutter in your house and how they can actually be a good thing because they can tell you where you're lacking organization and exactly what type of organization you need to stay organized.

Hey clutter bugs and welcome back to the clutter bug podcast. Today we're going to talk about organization and the thing is it isn't what you think it is and for the longest time I thought getting organized meant buying containers, getting more storage, stacking your stuff really neatly.

That's what the impression of organization is but the truth is what I've discovered over the last decade is that real organization is creating a functional space that you're able to keep tidy.

Organization is all about putting things back when you're done with it and actually being able to put it back so you don't have to constantly pick up after yourself and so you don't have to be stuck on this tidying cycle real organization catches your stuff and absolutely we have to retrain our brain and we're in the habit of just kind of dropping things as we go and it does take work to create new habits.

But the most important thing is that we have the right organization without that without the right organization will just be stuck constantly tidying all the time or searching for things or having to take time to put something away and if something is hard to put away, we just won't we'll put it down.

So what I really like to do especially when I'm going into a client's home is take a look at their clutter as a real indication of how they're naturally using the space and definitely clutter attracts clutter.

So when we start to have a clutter pile it's really easy for us to just continue adding to the pile it's almost like signaling to our brain this is where random stuff goes put random things here.

But it's also really great at seeing how your natural flow of your house is where is the spot that's just easiest for you to drop what are these important things that you're putting down here.

And let's look at that and let's really diagnose what your home is lacking and how we can create a system exactly where you're naturally piling things to catch that clutter so it doesn't become a mess.

There are really five different components when it comes to organization five things that you have to do and the first is declutter and the second is establish your valuable real estate right where things should go.

The third is zoning zoning is so important and this is basically putting like items together and then dedicating a space for these categories that you've gathered to go.

And then of course it's containerizing I don't know if that's a word but putting things in containers and not always we don't always have to put things into containers but it definitely is helpful and last it's that maintenance which is the habit part that we talked about in the beginning.

But something that is really happening in honestly almost everyone's home not only are they not decluttering but they're not using that valuable real estate.

They're not zoning and they've really become clutter blind.

So I got an email yesterday from a wonderful person who follows me on YouTube and I'm going to throw her under the bus for a second.

I'm definitely not going to share her name but her story is so relatable.

Every day I get hundreds of emails from people sending me pictures of this space and asking what they can buy or what kind of organizing system they need to solve the problem.

And when I look at these photos first of all please don't send me emails.

We have a Facebook page where you can ask for this type of advice.

It's called organizing advice for clutter bugs. It's on Facebook.

I'd really appreciated if you posted those type of questions there but I digress.

So I get all these photos and looking at them what I see is this isn't something you can buy your way out of.

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