Home-styles for Lifestyles

By Cyndi Seidler

Reprinted from Organized Living Newsletter, 
Sept/Oct. 2001 issue

 

Your home should be a place you come to that gives you comfort and joy. It should smile at you when you walk in the door, and give you a sense of peace when you leave.

A well-organized home provides a harmonic environment. We put the harmony in our space by making it look and function the way that best suits us. When we walk into a room, it should be a “happy place,” a place we feel good in. If we walk into a room that frowns on us, how does that make us feel?

It’s difficult to focus in any area that makes us feel cramped or kludged (cluttered). Clutter does more than make a room look messy — it clutters our mind, making it harder to perform simple tasks. Everything seems like a hassle to get done.

Hassle-free lifestyles don’t just happen, they are made to happen. We have to create certain procedures and methods in which to generate the kind of atmosphere and conditions we want. We need to determine what we want, how we want it, and when we’d like to make it happen.

There are various elements at play in streamlining our activities and getting organized. A system can be implemented on anything, as everything has a sort of “flow chart” to it. Doing household chores would have a method to doing them. Arranging time with family has certain disiplines at work. It’s all about how we manage our activities that makes the difference.

If we learn better time management, for instance, the result is more time to do those things we want to do. Budgeting our time is like budgeting our finances. We need to allocate a certain amount of time to certain things. I think we all know what happens when one doesn’t budget their money — they end up without any (eventually), or have to scrape up money from somewhere else to make ends meet. That’s what occurs when an individual doesn’t manage their time. They end up without any time to do the things they want, they run out of time to accomplish the things they need to do, and/or they have to scrape up time from someplace else.

But, time isn’t the only problem people face. The worse enemy of any lifestyle is clutter. If there’s clutter, there’s trouble. The excuse that there’s no time to organize the clutter gives apparent, reasonable justification for not taking care of it. However, it’s one of the causes of not having time in the first place. There is no “catch 22” situation — one just has to make time to do it.

Visualizing what you want your area to look like is a good start. Learn about yourself, what your requirements are. Every item in your home should be there because you consciously want it there, not because there’s no place else to put it. Determine it’s value and how it helps you by being there. Do you like looking at it? Is it beautiful? Does it have a function? How does it make you feel?

Too many belongings situated in too many places everywhere will not provide a sense of harmony. It creates an overwhelming environment that can feel stressful. By lessening the amount of stuff in your space, you’ll achieve harmony — a pleasing combination of elements in a whole.

Creating an organized life at home is the same for at work. We need to be in an area that helps us focus and we need to operate with systems that help us improve efficiency and productivity. When these things are in place, it keeps stress levels low for everyone in your family.

By determining the kind of environment you want to live in, you’ve achieved the first step to having it that way. Organizing a harmonic lifestyle at home requires putting things in order that are meaningful to the person, and structuring their time so that they have time. Remember, keep it simple.

Copyright © 2001 Cyndi Seidler.  All Rights Reserved.

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