Why is transition such a common reason for becoming disorganized? Homes often accumulate clutter during transitions. Getting your home organized after a baby, a marriage or a move requires planning. Transition...
Transition is a common reason for becoming disorganized, but why? Lorie Marrero, who is the owner of "LivingOrder", a professional organization company that creates organizing solutions for homes and businesses, offers this explanation: "The reason is that people generally have systems that they are using to run their life, their home and their work. One example is how people shop for groceries. Some people have a shopping list and they keep it somewhere and they always check it off, or they have their to-do list. They may have a certain way they keep their calendar or manage their email. All of these different systems come together to manage your time, your data, your paper, and your space. In fact, that's LivingOrder's tag line - 'Data, paper, space'. So when a big change happens, these systems get upset. In turn, you have to get new systems or tweak the existing ones so that they will work for the new situation."
Any sort of "transition" in a person's life can lead them to becoming disorganized. One example would be making a career change or even just switching to a job that entails different hours. Your whole day, not just the work part, must be re-scheduled to accommodate it. When you perform household tasks, run errands and sometimes even your sleeping schedule has to be modified.
Speaking of 'sleeping schedules', another common transition that often is a reason for the most organized of people to become less then such is having a baby. Not only do you have no choice but to re-build your days and nights around them but anyone who has had children know that the "things" someone so small accumulates is overwhelming, to say the least. Finding room for just their clothes, diapers and other necessities is a daunting task in itself, let alone all the "extras" such as cards, toys and other trifles.
A more heartbreaking example of "transition" in a person's life is the death of a loved one; especially if that person was someone who resided under your own roof. Sometimes, organization just doesn't seem as important and keeping up the house is the last thing on your mind. Other times, it's simply that you have no idea how to even begin the wrenching task of "going through" the things that they left behind. Either way, you need to give yourself time to be ready to tackle these chores and ask for help when you do. If you can't bear to have a stranger, such as a professional organizer, directly involved; you can ask someone close to assist or even consult one for you.
Something as basic as moving can lead someone to become disorganized. This is as true even if you re-locate into a larger place as if you move into smaller quarters. It seems that when you finally have your household "running like a well oiled machine", a wrench is thrown into the works by you having to move. Even if it is a welcome wrench- it changes the way you must do things nonetheless.
The word "transition", according to Webster's Dictionary, literally means: "Passage from one place, state or topic to another." In order to make sure this passage doesn't lead to disorder; one needs to be prepared to lay-out a whole new map of "where to" put things as well as 'how to" organize so that they actually end up in the correct state- of things and of mind.
