What Children Can Teach You About Organizing

By Carmen Coker

Children live big. They laugh from the heart … play like there’s no tomorrow … dream without boundaries … derive joy from the smallest of things.

As adults, the opposite often happens. We laugh less … play less … dream less.

The responsibilities of adulthood – work, bills, commitments, family – tend to create such a serious and task-driven environment that it’s difficult to enjoy YOU. So you find yourself thinking:

• I’ve always wanted to …
• I really miss doing …
• It’s been a long time since …

And when you think like this, you normally experience one or more of the following:

• Emotional Clutter: Regretting and maybe even resenting not doing more of what you love or not trying something new.
• Mental Clutter: Rationalizing and making excuses about why you haven’t done or tried something.
• Behavioral Clutter: Turning the above regret, resentment, rationalization, and excuses into damaging actions like negative self-talk or lashing out at those around you.

Your organizing challenge is to either do something that you have always wanted to do, or if this “something” is a larger undertaking, then start making it happen by doing research, making reservations or inquiries, or setting money aside.

“Experience all things with the enthusiasm of a child,
as if you were seeing it for the first time. This is the Zen mind.
Always new, always aware, always that of a beginner.”
~ Daniel Levin

It’s time to put on the armor of childhood and … Teach a class. Run a marathon. Travel to Tibet. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Join the Peace Corps. Climb Mount Everest. Learn a second language. Take a poetry class. Meet the US President. Surf in Hawaii. Sing in a choir. Learn to ride a horse. Adopt a dog. Dive in the Caribbean. Act in a play. Learn to juggle. Become a drag racer.

REMEMBER: Even if your space is organized, it doesn’t mean you will feel like you are balanced and fulfilled. Organizing is an inside-out adventure, and you have to declutter all areas of your life to get the results you really want.

Thank you, Carmen! Great advice as always. 

Carmen Coker is a former US Air Force officer turned professional organizer. If you want to get organized and calm the chaos in your life, go to CarmenCoker.com for her free video how-to called the Secrets of the Super Organized^TM.