Shopping for Organizing Products

JoEllen @ the Container Store

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to The Container Store near Columbus, Ohio.  Aisles and aisles of almost every organizing tool available!  Beautiful products, lovely displays and many things that I didn’t even know that I needed.  This store is so appealing and seductive; I could do a lot of damage.  Unfortunately, this trip was not planned; my husband and I were returning home after a weekend away, and we stopped at Easton Town Center as a stall tactic before returning to the reality of home.  So I had no wish list for me or any of my customers.  Nor did I have time to inspect every little thing or to load up a shopping cart with supplies.

With envy, I noticed many other shoppers who were adding lots of items to their carts, and wondered what projects they were working on.  A couple of young men were buying office supplies, two women were buying drawer dividers and other gear for the kitchen, and another woman was trying to decide how best to hang her skirts and pants.  But then I wondered if they too had just happened to stop at the store, or did they have their lists in hand with all the important measurements.

When working with customers I often find that part of the clutter is actually a collection of organizing supplies that has never been used.  The pieces were purchased  on a whim because they were such a pretty color, had such a nice shape, a unique closure, or ______________ (you fill in the blank).  But the most important reason they were purchased was “Because they were going to help me get organized!”   And as they found out, it doesn’t really work like that at all.

Thanks for reading,

JoEllen

Getting Started

Whenever I am asked to give my favorite organizing tip, I always respond “Start Small!”.  This tip can be interpreted a couple of ways.  For example, picking a small space like a junk drawer or a shelf in a linen closet, and embarking on a “small” organizing project.  Another interpretation is to set the timer for 15 minutes, and work on just one area for that long.  This works well when going through years of photographs, or tackling a large stack of papers.  Since a lot of people do not like to organize, the short period of time seems doable.  And while that pile of photos or papers will still be there, the task will be 15 minutes closer to completion.

But the strangest thing happens.  Once a project is started, progress is made, and excitement grows, and pretty soon the 15 minutes becomes 30 or 60 minutes, and a lot was accomplished.  This is because the most difficult to do is actually getting started. 

And so it is with this first post of my blog.  I found all kinds of other things to do instead of sitting down and creating something to say….until I heard my own advice:  “Start Small”.

Total elapsed time: 13 minutes!  Plus a few more topics have now popped into my head.

Thanks for reading,

 JoEllen