It is time to consult an expert!
On Monday I confessed my fledgling status with regard to Order, even though I have dreams of pristine surfaces and closets in my home… ahh, I digress. Anyway, last order week, when I was doing my best to find every Order tip known to man I stumbled delightfully over to Rachel Papworth’s Green and Tidy site.
I was mesmerized. The beautiful tidy spaces in the header (go on, take a peek, I’ll wait for you…)
Amazing, huh?
Her mission: “Helping people with WAY too much stuff, declutter and create homes they love.”
Yes, PLEASE! is all I have to say to that! And now she has generously offered to share some of her wisdom with us so without further ado here is Rachel.
“Caraway seed, cardamom, cayenne, celery seed, dried chillies …
Have you ever noticed how many herbs and spices begin with the letter ‘c’? If you answered ‘yes’, I’m guessing you’re someone to whom the Bliss Habit of Order comes naturally. Like me, you probably keep your jars of herbs and spices in alphabetical order.
As I see it, ordering my herbs and spices alphabetically isn’t just a sensible thing to do – making it quick and easy to find the ingredient I’m looking for when I’m cooking – it’s an obvious thing to do. Why wouldn’t you keep your herbs and spices that way? It took me no more than a couple of minutes, many years ago, to put them in order, and the extra effort it takes to return each jar to the appropriate place in the rack after using it is miniscule. In return I save a few seconds every time I cook, and (more importantly) stay calm and unflustered, as I can put my hand on what I’m looking for straight away.
To some of my friends though, it’s (further) evidence that I’m slightly crazy. In fact I’d go so far as to say that there are those that find my level of organisation intimidating, even threatening.
Earlier this year, I took time to reflect on what makes me tick. What really lights me up. What I’m passionate about. And I identified bringing order to chaos as a theme that runs through my life. It’s the thing I can’t help doing. If there’s a messy cupboard somewhere I’m working, it won’t be long before I’m pulling everything out of it to sort it out. When I’m scanning a library shelf, I put back any books that are out of place as I come across them. For the last 14 years, through Papworth Research & Consultancy Ltd I’ve been helping organisations bring order to their thinking.
The next thing I noticed was that I didn’t want order to be my theme. It felt boring, mundane, petty, dull, embarrassing…
Then I realised that, without me noticing it, in recent years I’d been gradually sharing less and less with others about my passion for order and organisation. I’d stopped telling my friends about my cool systems in case they laughed at me or thought I was nuts.
That got me musing about how we judge the level of order that other people choose for their homes, their workspaces, their lives. We label someone who is less ordered than us as messy, a slob, lazy, slovenly, hopeless… Meanwhile we label those who are more ordered as ‘a bit OCD’, scary, crazy, uptight…
People sometimes ask whether I think they are officially a ‘hoarder’, suffering from Compulsive Hoarding Syndrome. My view is that there is no right answer to this question. One person might say ‘Yes’, another ‘No’. And the person’s home would look exactly the same.
Further, getting a ‘definitive’ answer to that question might be less than constructive. Being labelled a hoarder might leave someone feeling overwhelmed, dispirited and unable to tackle the issue, while being told they’re not a hoarder might be the justification another person latches onto to avoid confronting an issue which is undermining their happiness and well-being.
It’s more important that each of us figures out what works for us. That we create a level of order that supports us to live the life we want to live. That we set up our homes and workspaces so that, without us even noticing the contribution they make, they free us up to focus on the things that we love to do.
This train of thought led me to launch Green and Tidy, through which I help people, who feel like their stuff is out of control, to declutter and create homes they love, homes which support them to live the lives they want to live. It unites my love of decluttering and organising with my experience of bringing order to the thoughts and ideas of major charities such as Macmillan Cancer Support, and public sector bodies such as local Councils and Government departments. It builds on my Psychology degree and four years of personal development work and training as a coach. And, most importantly, it has me embrace, love and shout about how much I love to bring order to chaos.
I coach people to consider letting go of the labels they’ve (figuratively) attached to themselves. I ask them to consider that there is nothing ‘wrong’ with having clutter. Having clutter and being clutter- free are simply the results of the choices they make. And there’s no right choice and wrong choice.
Nothing in this world ever got sorted as a result of somebody labelling it wrong or bad. That just creates negativity and feelings of hopelessness. And when you’re feeling negative and hopeless, you’re in no state to achieve anything.
I even ask clients to consider that they’re not cluttered. That ‘cluttered’ is an opinion rather than the truth. They’re only cluttered if they say they are. The reality is just that their home has a certain amount of space which is currently occupied by certain things in certain places.
‘Clutter’ is just a label people sometimes use to describe something. And people’s definition of ‘clutter’ and ‘cluttered’ varies. In this context, no- one has to declutter, no-one needs to declutter. It’s not that anyone should or must declutter.
We have a choice. And there’s no right or wrong about the choice each person makes.
And counter-intuitively, once we give up those labels we’ve attached to ourselves, we are free to work out what works for us in terms of sorting, categorising and, yes, labelling our possessions. Once people stop worrying about whether or not they’re a hoarder, once they stop metaphorically beating themselves up for having so much stuff, they’re free to work out what they want for their lives and take actions that are consistent with that vision.
Having noticed how unhelpful it can be to put people into categories, I was free to share my pride in how ordering my stuff makes my life work. Now, where was I? Chilli powder, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, curry leaf…
What level of order works for you? Share your cool systems below.
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For over 20 years, Rachel has been helping public sector and charitable organisations declutter, clarify and organize their thinking. She founded Papworth Research & Consultancy Ltd in 1997. She has carried out more than 100 projects for organizations including City, District and County Councils, FE Colleges, the Government Equalities Office, Macmillan Cancer Support and KPMG.
She is a passionate advocate for low impact living, and has (so far!) reduced her personal carbon footprint to two thirds of the UK average. She is the external evaluator for Climate Connections, a Department for International Development funded project, which raises awareness of the links between climate change and poverty.
Through Green and Tidy, these skills and experience are available to you in your home. She’ll train, coach and support you to declutter and organize your home so it works for you.
Click here to join the Green and Tidy community, and receive hints, tips and inspirational stories. As a bonus you’ll get a recording of a decluttering masterclass absolutely free.
You can find Rachel on her blog, facebook and on twitter @greenandtidy .
I would love that kind of order…it just doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s weird because I desire it, but then I don’t desire creating or maintaining it.
Hi Jingle. Thanks for your comment.
I suspect what’s missing for you is a sense of the benefits you’d get from having more order in your life. You’ve got a general feeling that it’d be good, but you don’t know exactly what difference it’d make.
No-one wants to declutter/organise for it’s own sake. We’re motivated to do so because we’re in touch with how it enables us to live the life we want.
I take my clients through a visioning exercise to help them create a vision for the life they want and see what action they can take to set their home up to make that vision a reality.
Rachel, I think we are twins, separated at birth! I have always alphabetized my spices and yet find myself embarrassed when friends and family come over for a meal and tease me about it. I label myself and fear the labels associated with being organized. After all, who associates organization with fun? No, if you’re organized, you’re a freak! Alas, I have come to see with the decades that people teasing me are often masking their own discomfort about their lack of organization. You are so right – we all use labels! Great post!
Thanks Amy. I hope it helps you ‘come out’ about your organisational skills. Since I started showing off about mine instead of hiding them under a bushel, people keep telling me they wish they could be more like me! Go on, give it a go. 🙂
This was a fabulous post! I would love to keep my spices in order…I know I would start this project with good intent, as it makes PERFECT sense. Then chaos would ensue! LOL Thank you for sharing your insight!
Thanks Amy. I hope it helps you ‘come out’ about your organisational skills. Since I started showing off about mine instead of hiding them under a bushel, people keep telling me they wish they could be more like me! Go on, give it a go. 🙂
Thanks Theresa. It’s about building up your organisational muscles. In the same way as it takes discipline at first to get into a diet and exercise routine, it takes something to get started with decluttering and organising. If you’re in touch with your vision though (see my reply to Jingle above), and you have the right support to keep you on track, eventually it becomes second nature.