03 | You're More Organized Than You Think
03 | You’re More Organized Than You Think
In this episode, I share what it means to embrace an organized life. Organization, both practically and in mindset, was my method to stay sane during the pandemic. Between work, home, and family, I had a lot of things going on. There were many moving parts, and there still are.
Organization is more than tidy spaces. It starts within. What you experience internally shows up in your actions at home, work, and with friends and family. My experience has shown me that internal work leads to long-lasting change.
This brings me to my belief that you're more organized than you think. You might be shaking your head, thinking, "Not me." But even if you can't see it, I DO. You are more organized than you think. However, negative self-thoughts can get in the way of seeing what is right in front of you. Remember, being organized or disorganized is a made-up concept! Seriously, you get to decide what 'organized' means in your life.
I will guide you through the five fundamental principles behind Embracing an Organized Life. The first is giving yourself permission to want change. My mission is to help you realize what is (or isn't) working in your life and embrace successes so that you can achieve future goals with grace and self-appreciation.
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Episode 01: You Are More Than Your Stuff
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Intro: Welcome to A Pleasant Solution, Embracing an Organized Life. I'm your host, certified life coach, professional organizer, and home life expert, Amelia Pleasant Kennedy, and I help folks permanently eliminate clutter in their homes and lives. On this podcast, we'll go beyond the basics of home organization to talk about why a clutter-free mindset is essential to an aligned and sustainable lifestyle. If you're someone with a to-do list, if you're managing a household and if you're caring for others, this podcast is for you. Let's dive in.
Amelia: Welcome to episode three, you're more organized than you think. This podcast's subtitle is “Embracing an Organized Life" and in this episode, I thought I'd share a little bit more about what that means. Embracing an Organized Life started off as the name of my blog. I started writing in May of 2020 early in the pandemic. I enjoy writing and my blog was an easy way to share my ideas and give others a peek into my world. I was in my late thirties. I had two elementary age kiddos and a middle schooler. My husband and I were both working from home nice and cozy, and we'd chosen to keep our kids home for that 2020-2021 academic year. We chose virtual homeschooling. I'd also moved my mother who's living with dementia to Michigan two years prior. At that time, she was living nearby in assisted living.
However, I couldn't really visit her face-to-face because of the pandemic. Embracing an organized life seemed to be the most fitting, most loving perspective for our life. Up until that moment, there was plenty going on inside of our home and many moving parts to keep track of, and there still very much is. Organization both practical around the home skills and an organized mindset had become my chosen method to stay sane and stay connected. Throughout today's episode, I'll be sharing what I mean by an organized life. The language I use is often quite intentional, so I'll try my best to give you a window into how I see my daily living practices.
You'll then be in a great place to see perhaps where we overlap, where we align, and where we may diverge in our everyday perspectives. Next, I'll share why I believe you're more organized than you think. You'll hear me use this phrase repeatedly and I want you to know why. Based on countless interactions with clients and everyday folks, that this belief is an easy one for me to believe about you through and through. Lastly, I'll share an overview of the five fundamental principles behind embracing an organized life. I'd love for you to connect with me offline and share your feedback about what resonates with you. You're welcome to leave a review, which I may share and celebrate on future episodes or send me a DM.
So, item one. An organized life for me is one where you feel at the center of your day-to-day, not the stuff, not the schedule, not the other members of your household, not your work or the to-do list. You. This in and of itself may sound surprising. Organization is often presented as bins and baskets, orderly and tidy spaces, and where every object has a home. As a professional organizer, I absolutely believe that these are valuable strategies. Yet, as a feminist, as a coach, I always love to dig a little deeper. An organized life starts within. It starts with noticing what's going on inside of you, what you're experiencing internally, noisiness, confusion, joy or calm. What you're experiencing radiates outward. It shows up in the actions and approaches towards all that I mentioned above, your work, your relationships, your space, all those things.
When I work with clients, we begin by listening and observing our inner voice, our inner narrative. This soundtrack has a huge impact on our lives, and we'll discuss this more in depth in future episodes. When you're able to begin to see how the thoughts and feelings you are having within are showing up in your day-to-day, you've stepped into an opportunity for change. As I move throughout my day, I check in with myself to see if I'm being kind to me. Am I planning enough buffer and transition time between activities so that I'm not feeling frazzled or losing my temper? Am I eating, exercising, drinking water and taking breaks? Am I noticing when my productivity dips and then reminding myself that I'm a human, not a machine, and of course my very favorite, am I getting enough sleep?
As soon as my kids slept adequately through the night, I knew that restoring my brain and body was central to my attitude and outlook the following day. Again, these are all internal steps towards an organized life. I call it embracing an organized life because the combination of inner mindset work and practical strategies for change externally in life is an everyday practice. You know that. For a series of days, things may be rocky and feel overly hectic, and for another series of days things may seem smooth and easy. It's the essence of living an intentional journey. It's developing a level of compassion for the way things currently are, rather than fighting with reality, while simultaneously making small changes that lead to overall impact. I want to pause here for a moment and say it's perfectly okay if you're eager to jump straight into the practical hands-on strategies of overhauling your home's systems.
I understand, we'll get there, and my experience has shown me time and time again that it's the internal work that leads to long lasting change. When I began practicing seeing myself as central to my family, as central to my home, as central to my community, a radical change took place. My personal approach to getting organized and now the one I teach is a holistic one. It's about not making yourself wrong for how your house looks. As I mentioned in episode one, I firmly believe that clutter and disorganization are not moral issues. Sometimes tasks get done and sometimes they don't. If in fact they get done sometimes, then you're already on your way to embracing an organized life. Some of you listening were never taught home management or time management skills.
Some of you are still searching for home organization strategies that make sense to your brain. That's okay and that's why I'm here. For others, only the most essential care tasks may be getting completed right now. This is often the case during major life transitions like a move, an illness or injury or when a person in the home is needing additional support. This was the case for my mom over the last few years, and if that's your truth, that's where you and I will meet one another.
Embracing an organized life is also about being willing to engage your partner, ex-partner, housemates, children, anyone in the fair distribution of household responsibilities. Think teamwork.
Embracing an organized life is choosing to intentionally discover and practice what makes sense for your household and lifestyle today, which brings me to item two. You are more organized than you think. If you just thought to yourself, oh, wow, that inner journey sounds so far from where I am right now. I've got you, seriously, you are more organized than you think. You just may not be able to see it yet, but I do. There are things in your life that are working right now and your brain may be getting in the way of noticing them. Our attention goes all in wherever we put it. For example, if the tape on loop in your head is critical about how the kids always seem to be eating on the run, how the meals aren't as fresh as they could be, how the family should be having more family meals at the dining room table, that's exactly what you'll see.
Every time you get into the car, drive to practices or lessons, pick something up on the go or eat somewhere other than your dining room table, your brain will focus on what's right in front of it. It doesn't actively have the capacity to stop and see when and where, the opposite may be true. You actively have to redirect it. You have to question yourself. You have to look for the moments that prove things are working and that everything is okay. For example, dinner is only one of three meals a day. Think about breakfast and lunch. Perhaps those are eaten sitting down at a table. Perhaps breakfast is eaten at your table. Perhaps one day a week you all share a meal in the same room. Some folks are sitting, some folks are standing, yet you're together. Perhaps one or two days a week you cook or use a prepared fresh meal kit or pick up prepared foods from the takeout bar.
Direct your mind towards the moments that are working, no matter how few and far between they may be. Each of us has a set of standards and expectations that we've been raised to believe about what life at home should look like. These standards cause you way more internal pain, frustration, and negative self-talk than you deserve. You are organized. You got out of bed this morning organized, you got to work, organized. You collected food to eat for yourself, organized, you texted your bestie, organized, you hugged your kiddos, organized. I hope you're chuckling a little bit. Seriously, being organized or conversely disorganized is totally made up. There's no governing body of family and home life that will find you if things don't run smoothly. You are the governing body. You get to decide what organized means for you and your life. It's the thinking part that's tripping you up.
You are thinking that you're not as organized as you could be. It's all relative. There are probably a few professional organizers listening to this podcast too. Sure. If you compare the systems in your home to that of a pro organizer, someone who's made a business out of organization or productivity, there may be gaps and that's okay. Comparison to another family on your block or in your community will not bring the best feelings forth inside of you, so look for what's working in your life this week. Now for who you are today, not five years ago, today, you are more organized than you think. Every one of us has room to grow. We have goals, we have potential, and we're already organized because we're alive. Your brain makes order out of the chaos of the world naturally. That's one of its core functions. Even if you're living with a brain-based condition like ADHD. The order that it's seeing and creating each and every day is a win. Start there. Decide that you're organized. Decide to view the world through the lens of what's working.As a side note, we'll get to the trap of perfectionism in future episodes.
So to recap, item one in today's episode was that you can choose to embrace an organized life because you're always in the process of practicing this thing called life every day. Item two was you are more organized than you think. This podcast will be about unlearning what you've been taught about organization and disorganization as much as it will be about learning new ways of being.
Lastly, I'd love to briefly share with you the five fundamental principles of embracing an organized life. The first of the five key principles is giving yourself permission to want change. You're already in this stage because you're here. I see you. I'm grateful that you're interested in new perspectives about organizing, and I know that giving yourself permission to want change isn't as straightforward as it sounds.
If you're listening and identifying as a woman, you've been steeped in years and years of messages about how everything and everyone comes before what you want, receiving support or guidance around the systems in your home can remain a wish for years. Dedicating time and space to the change you want can seem too far out of reach. I see you and I hear you, and permission to change is available when you're ready. The second fundamental principle of embracing an organized life is identifying what's working, then building upon it. I touched on this already, so I invite you after this episode to intentionally seek out at least one way that you've been organized already today. Maybe you separated the junk mail from the important mail, organized.
Maybe you got yourself or your kids out of the door on time for the first time in a while, organized. Maybe you noticed someone in the household finally put their dishes on the dishwasher after the 27th lesson. You made that happen. You were more organized than you think. Third and this is what I investigate with clients more fully, is identifying exactly where in your current process something isn't working. I want you to notice you most likely have a process because you're organized. There're just maybe gaps or rough edges that need adjustment. When you embrace an organized life, you get curious about the micro moments where the process or system goes off track. This requires slowing down a bit.
Together, we lovingly notice where the disruption is and get clear about what's happening. You have to see the gap before you can mend it. Fourth principle, once you know where the gap is, the mending can begin. For example, if your linen closet seems stuffed to the brim and you can't find what you need, you may have too many linens. You may also have them folded in a way where they topple all over and then they get bunched up. You may also have lots of items that don't go in the linen closet but have landed there by default, or your linen closet may just have awkwardly spaced shelves that don't lend themselves to the way items are currently stored.Get curious about multiple solutions. There are probably several. It's pausing to troubleshoot that will open you up to more creative solutions.
The last principle of embracing an organized life is practice. Lifestyle changes aren't instantaneous. If they were, we'd all be switching things up on the regular. I know I would. Each skill or concept that I'll share on this podcast takes practice. That's why it's always best to aim for one small change at a time, trying to make drastic changes to your mealtime routine, your linen closet and how you're creating free time all at once may overtax your brain. Slow down and pick one thing. You'll be more successful. Embrace that one thing fully for a few weeks. Know why you want to adjust that one area and of course, look for what's working first. Remind yourself that you're already organized and that this is just a bonus.
Thanks for sticking with me today. I hope you have a sense of why I call this podcast my blog and my one-to-one coaching program. Embracing an Organized Life. It's all around you. It's available to you. You are already on your way. You're more organized than you think.
Outro: Hey, y'all, I'd be honored if you'd take three minutes to leave a review of this podcast. Your time is precious and by leaving a review, A Pleasant Solution, we'll reach more listeners and lives. I'd also love to hear your feedback and share your review on a future episode. Talk to y'all soon and remember, you are more organized than you think.
