I created my Organizational Personality Types© (The Filer, The Piler, The Nester, and The Spreader ) system to help you determine what your organizing style and issues are, and from that place determine the kind of solutions that will work on decluttering your home and be easily maintained. Understanding your organizational challenges first, allows you to choose solutions that stick. Because my partner and I are preparing to get a new dog, I felt it would be a good idea to re-examine specifically what challenges might arise for each Organizational Personality Type©. But before I get into the specifics, I wanted to explain what they are and why they are so important.
What Your Clutter Says About You:
What Is Your Organizational Personality Type©?
There is a reason why some of us spread our clutter and others pile it. There is a reason why your kitchen is easier to maintain than your closet. And that reason is connected to how you process and organize information in your brain and the emotional relationships you have with what is in your clutter.
Over the years as a professional organizer, I have seen time and time again how individuals struggle with keeping their office or home in order. How they make heroic attempts in gaining control of their clutter, only to fail when it comes to maintaining the beautiful “solution”. And for most of these people, it was not because they were not prepared to put the time or energy into the maintenance process; they were; they did so. The solutions did not last because they were not compatible with how the individuals’ minds instinctively work. It was out of observing these struggles my clients had faced in decluttering their homes that my Organizational Personality Type© System was created.
My approach is founded on the premise that it is the whole person who creates disorder, and therefore it is the whole person who must be part of the organized solution. Before you get organized, you have first to look at your habits, assumptions, and lifestyle: examine what works for you naturally, examine what works given the environment you are working with, and finally examine what works best given your lifestyle and budget.
What’s Your Organizational Why?
There are so many organizing tools to choose from now in decluttering and getting organized. They address the how and the what—”this is a great closet organizing system; it will store all your clothes”—but they don’t address the why, and without the why you won’t know what option to choose, or even how to make it work optimally.
It’s not the equipment that counts when it comes to being organized. Before we can get organized, before we buy anything, we must first understand why our specific clutter happens. What patterns, what habits, and what beliefs keep us disorganized?
If you don’t know your Organizational Personality Type©, click on the following link: 4 Organizational Personality Types© and see which one matches your primary organizing struggle. We all have a bit of most of them, but there will be one type that specifically relates to you and your clutter.
I came across a blog entry by Cheryl Andrews,
http://cherylandrews.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/borderline-piler-mostly-a-spreader
In this article, Cheryl Andrews discovers her OPT©. It is so great to see how knowing your type helps – both for you and the people you share your home and office with.
If you have written an article on your experience with my four types, I would love to hear about it! You never know it might end up in my book!
For more help on decluttering, you can read the following posts:
And don’t forget to check out my Pinterest pages for more tips and resources!
Free Professional Organizing Advice for you!
Are you are stuck at home and need some help getting on top of organizing and decluttering but can’t afford it right now? Then my Ask An Expert posts might be the perfect solution for you! I am offering free help with organizing during these difficult times.
We could all use something to look forward to right now. I want to do something that will add value to your life to help you during these confusing and challenging times. When you are organized, there is less chaos, less overwhelm. An organized home can bring you a sense of calm, ground you, and help you feel more in control. It is one of the things that we can influence and control despite what’s happening in other areas of our lives or communities.
I am offering a “mini organizing consult” for free, share it with your co-workers, family, and friends on Linkedin, post it on Facebook, or Instagram, or Twitter. Let everyone know because I want to give back and help you. Now is when people really need it.
All you need to do is complete this FORM, attach a photo of 1 area in your home or office that you need organizing help with. Every week I am going to choose at least one person to work with. Here are a couple of readers I have helped already: