Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Rushing
I’m a big rusher. I’m a born and bred New Yorker, so moving fast is in my bones. When my older son was in pre-school, I generally dropped him at school on my way to work; rushing was part of our routine. In fact, one day I had to work early, so my husband was going to do the drop-off. When it was time to leave he said, “Okay, let’s get our coats, time to go.” My son replied, “Can we rush?”
Though my husband still teases me about that story, I’ve changed. Over the years I’ve learned to temper my urge to rush, because it doesn’t serve me. Rushing is skimming, it’s the opposite of living consciously, and the older I get, the more I realize that the joy in life isn’t in making every moment spectacular (I tried that), but in appreciating even the mundane moments.
A lot of clutter isn’t really because we are disorganized, it’s the result of rushing. I often see evidence of rushing in my client’s homes. In the end, that rushing leads to more work, which leads to more rushing… a vicious cycle.
Spend a minute looking at your clutter spots. Maybe you have piles of paper that accumulate on the kitchen counter because you skim through, pull out the bills and never deal with the rest. Or maybe you have a bunch of handbags, each with some Kleenex and receipts or that lipstick you thought you lost, that you never took the time to empty and put away.
It’s hard to believe in our speed-freak society that it’s actually more efficient to slow down, and sometimes that slowing down leads us to ask questions like, Why do I get these catalogs? Do I really need so many purses? And to me, answering those questions lead to the real benefits.
It may seem boring to hang up the three outfits you tried and abandoned before you left the house, but if you take the time to do it, not only will you not come home to a bedroom that looks like Loehmann’s at closing time, but you have the opportunity to have a thought like, “Gee, I always think I should wear this skirt, but when I put it on, it’s never right. I should give it away.”
I know it might seem unusual for an organizer to prescribe breathing and meditation, but sometimes I think learning to slow down would be much more effective than yet another storage box from the Container Store. Try it: Next time you find yourself rushing, just take a deep breath and see if you can’t slow down. Who knows, you might like it!