It took me years to even have the desire to get organized. There were so many other things to focus on and I didn’t want to do what I felt would dedicate my entire life to doing nothing but cleaning over and over again until I left this earth. One day not long ago, I just decided to start learning how to be a more organized person. Still, it wasn’t instantaneous. After hours of removing clutter and giving everything a place, scrubbing until I was blue in the face, things would turn upside-down in an instant. It felt futile. What could I be doing wrong that contributes to these messy habits? As I draped another pair of leggings over the unused towel rack in the bathroom because I’d only worn them for a few hours and they weren’t “actually dirty”, I realized my biggest problem was actually commitment.

I don’t know why, but I struggle to commit to finite decisions. An obvious form of this that I recently gave up was the struggle to commit to getting rid of things. I knew that I wasn’t using or wearing it, but what if I might later? We had at least four laptops stashed in my closet because they died for whatever reason and I was convinced that someday, I might lift the hard drive from them to collect old pictures. They seemed to be my biggest attachment and when I finally forced myself to get rid of them, it became much easier to let things go. (A way that I avoid this now is by putting all of my pictures on SD cards or flash drives. It takes up much less space but allows me to keep the memories somewhere.)

Even for the little things, I can’t commit to being finished. The clothes on that towel rack, the ones that can’t go back in the drawer but aren’t ready for the wash, that’s just the beginning. Every night, I leave out my dinner plate because I’m not sure if I’m finished eating. My husband, who does the dishes, finds it endearing and/or incredibly annoying depending on his mood that day. I’m a slow eater and I get full easily so I like to give myself the opportunity to just have more dinner rather than snack all day but the truth I need to get through my head is that I’ll probably not eat more dinner because it will be cold, no longer as yummy, or I just plain don’t feel like eating more. Those half-dirty clothes need to go into the dirty clothes. It’s not like they’ll never make it back to me ever again! I need to teach myself to commit to being finished. It’s not about cleaning, it’s about committing.

Throughout this year, I will be working on this and other organization troubles of my own and sharing them with you the readers because I’m sure that someone out there is struggling with the same issues. If not, hey, maybe my organization issues can make you feel better about the state of your own home! Last year, I started to clean up and come up with new ways to organize my life but this is the official kickoff off The Quirky Mom Next Door’s Pick Up and Go series! The goal is to decrease the daily chaos in my household of seven by giving everything a place and a process, so that I can just pick up and go each day! Come with me and commit to cleaning up your life!

Do you have trouble committing to keep yourself organized? What kinds of things do you do that you’d like to work on?