083: Make It Easy To Put Things Away

The key to organization is to make it easy to put things away.

Have you tried to buy all the pretty tubs, label everything, and still find yourself creating piles around your house, just steps from where the item is supposed to go? The problem is, the resistance that’s been created.

In physics, resistance is defined as a measure of the opposition to current flow in an electrical circuit. If you take off the part about the electrical circuit, and define resistance as the measure of the opposition to current flow, it explains why we often can’t put our stuff back where it goes.

I’m chronically disorganized.

If it’s not super simple, I don’t put stuff away. I’ve wondered why I won’t just open a lid to put something away and instead I lay the item on top of the lid. Do you ever do this? Is there a pile of paper sitting right next to your files that hasn’t made its way into the filing box?

I’m not a scientist or a psychologist, so take this advice for what it’s worth, but, for me, this idea of resistance has changed the way I organize my stuff and my life.

I believe every person has the ability to overcome different levels of resistance. Meaning, that some people see a lid on a tub as resistance to putting something away, while others will open the lid without thinking and just put the item inside. My husband is one of those people. He puts things back where they go without much thought at all, no matter what. Me, on the other hand, see the lid as resistance and make a stack next to the tub.

The key to organization is to minimize the amount of resistance to a level that you no longer feel the resistance.

For example, if it isn’t easy for you to put your clothes away after washing them and you find you always leave your clean clothes in a pile on the couch, there is some kind of resistance that you are dealing with.

• It may be that your drawers and closet are so full it’s difficult to put things away.
• It may be that you are doing your laundry late at night and the resistance is that you feel too tired to fold and put it away.
• You may have some mental resistance you’re dealing with. In your head, folding and putting away the laundry feels like a huge task, when in reality it only takes about 5 minutes.

On this week’s episode of The Simple Home Podcast, I talk about this idea of resistance and how important it is to make it easy to put things away. This has been the key for me to simplify and organize and I hope it’s helpful for you as well. Figuring out what our resistance is and then learning how to remove that resistance can make all the difference!

Links From This Episode

• Jump Start Guide to Simple Living
• Meal Planning Bundle
• Keep or Toss Checklist- Toy Edition
• Paper Clutter and Kids- How to handle Kids Artwork, School work, and other paper clutter.

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