Thoughts on the Organize Now Challenge

Even though it's only day three for me, it's time to start week three of Jennifer Ford Berry's Organize Now 12 Week Challenge. So far in the challenge we have organized our schedule and our kitchen cupboards. I've found myself wondering how Jennifer chose the particular weeks from her book that she did. (If you don't know, the challenge is based on the book Organize Now, a Week-by-Week Guide to Simplify Your Space and Your Life, has a full year worth of organization tips broken down by areas of your home and life.) 

Whenever I set out on that mission to clean the house, I start with the most used rooms and... Ooooh, never get to certain areas of the house... And don't think about some things until I need them... See, this is why she is the professional! The thought also entered my mind that when she uses the word 'organize', she probably is talking about starting out with the early stages of an episode of hoarders - although the principles do still work under the worst of conditions and one week may not be enough for a given area. 

So, here's the logic I have come up with for following along with the challenge:

• Week 1:   Organize Your Schedule
• This one is pretty obvious. How can we be organized in any other area of our life if we are running around late for appointments and forgetting things we need. Consciously thinking about when we need to be somewhere ahead of time gives us the chance to think ahead about what we need to take with us, what we may need to purchase (gifts, cards, etc.), needing to leave early enough to have time to get gas, and so on. 
• Once you have this tackled, it opens the door for things to fall into place in other areas of your life and your home.

Similarly, I think the other weeks help us to set things up to get other areas of our living running more smoothly:

• Week 2:   Organize Your Kitchen Cupboards
• When the cupboards are organized - everything has a home and everything in its place - cooking becomes less of a challenge (you can find everything you need) and putting away the dishes is quicker and easier (you know just where to put things and can get it there easily).
• Week 3:   Organize Your Bedroom Closet
• Like the cupboards, and organized closet helps us dress faster and put away laundry with ease. 

I think the next two weeks of the challenge are among the most important when it comes to keeping ourselves organized after the challenge:

• Week 4:   Organize Your Routines (weeks 53 & 54 in book)
• I'm using the first edition of the book, in which this week comes much earlier. Like FlyLady, I think this is probably the most important thing you can do. When you have well-structured routines, you can move through your day without having to really think about what comes next. I work in a preschool classroom, and following our routine everyday helps the children thrive. They always know what part of the day will come next and exactly what they need to do at that time. Grown-ups benefit greatly from this kind of structure as well - especially those who buck against the idea.
• Week 5:   Organize Your Papers/Files
• I think even the most organized people in the world have to work to keep up with the constant influx of paper into our homes. If you have children in school, it's 10x worse. (I seriously think they're training them all to be secretaries pushing paper!) Getting what we already have under control and then having a plan to keep it that way will help save our coffee tables, dining tables, desks, etc. from the piles of paper that tend to happen.
• Week 6:   Organize Your Pantry
• Menu planning, grocery shopping, and putting groceries away all become simplified  when the pantry is tidy. 
• I don't have an actual pantry, but I have some shelves in the 'back room' that house all of my stockpiled items. This room is also home to the laundry, tool boxes, and everything people with a 'real' house would keep in the garage. The plan for me is to tackle the whole room during this week. (shudder!)
• Week 7:   Organize Your Entryway
• This area tends to become a dumping ground for whatever we happen to be carrying when we enter the house. It's also the first thing people see when they enter our homes. With so much organizing done behind the scenes, this seems like a perfect time to do something in a room that will greet us every time we come home. I can't wait for this one! (I have four weeks to find a new home for the dog's crate!)
• Week 8:   Organize Your Memorabilia
• I had to go to the book for some clarification on this what. Memorabilia is such a broad category and, if you're like me, it infects many areas of your home. If we are going to simplify our homes and our lives, we will definitely need to get this under control.
• I am going to keep an eye out over the next few weeks for those hidden bits of memorabilia throughout the house and make note of them. That way when this week arrives, I will know what I need to tackle and will have had time to think about what I may need to part with ahead of time. We get very emotionally attached to our memorabilia, so this can be a very challenging task.
• Week 9:   Organize Your Medicine Cabinet
• At the beginning of this chapter Jennifer says, "Medicine cabinets are usually small, so this won't take long." If I stick with just the medicine cabinet, she's right! Ours is so small, we hardly have anything in there. All of our actual medicine is kept in the kitchen because the cabinet won't hold them and our bathroom is so tiny that the heat and moisture would be a problem. Our first aid supplies are in a different cabinet in the bathroom - which I will definitely address during this week along with the other storage spaces in the bathroom.
• As far as why this task makes the top 12 list for the challenge, having your medicine in order helps those daily routines run smoothly. Medicines for crisis situations (fever, upset stomach, etc.) as well as first aid supplies well organized and easily accessible will make those difficult moments in life so much easier to handle.
• Week 10: Organize Your Refrigerator
• Here's a task that will make meal prep so much easier. Planning your grocery shopping will whole lot easier as well. It seems like this should be a quick and simple task, but if you head over to Pintrest and search "organized fridge" it gives you a whole new perspective of what your refrigerator could look like. I think I may need to take some measurements in advance and start looking for baskets!
• Week 11: Organize Your Books, CDs and DVDs
• For some folks, this will be an easy week. For others, this is a huge undertaking. A quick tally of where we have books and this will mean diving into five rooms for me! Obviously, finishing a mission like this can have a huge overall effect on my house. Gathering up all the DVDs in one place will also impact several rooms.I don't want to talk about CDs... Let it suffice to say that this is another project that will have a wide impact.

And the final challenge week...

• Week 12: Organize Your Home Office
• After already taking on the paper & files challenge, as well as the books challenge, I bet for most folks this gets a lot easier. Though it all depends on what qualifies as your office and just what kind of business you are doing there. 
• I think putting this project at the end of the challenge paves the way for the other main traffic areas of our hour. At this point, you should have most of the 'behind the scenes' stuff under control, so taking on the big rooms should be a whole lot easier. I also think that by now the progress made during the other challenge weeks will be starting to have a positive impact throughout our houses. (I'm already noticing family members being more conscious of where they put things.) We will also have a new way of looking at our belongings that will make it easier to let go of what we don't need and streamline what we do.

I hope I've inspired at least a few folks to jump in on this challenge. Please leave me a comment and let me know you were here!