Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

Inventors

I have my first inventor client! Exciting! He has patents! He wanted to be very clear that what I might see as clutter (very orderly boxes of bits and pieces) was part of his process. He explained, “Sometimes I think, ‘I need a little piece here’ and then I pull out a bunch of pieces, and fiddle around, and then I think, ‘Maybe I need a hinge?’ and I can pull out this little box of miscellaneous hardware.”

I told him I completely get it. I love creative people—and I understand that the creative process sometimes includes stuff: images, textures, hinges, all kinds of odds and ends. My goal isn’t to take that away, it’s to make it so when you suddenly realize that you need a triangular piece of wood, or you want to look at that image of clouds reflected in a lake, you can lay hands on it without losing the flow of inspiration.

I’ve often talked parents out of over-organizing the Legos, because to me (and I like to play with Legos), the best part of Legos is not following the directions and building the Star Wars Death Star on the box, it’s pouring out a whole bin of random Legos and thinking, “Look at all these yellow ones! Ooooh wheels! How can I use those?” And before you know it, I have an awesome yellow robot on wheels with fun, palm tree antennae from the Sponge Bob set.

There’s a sweet spot in organization, or in anything in life, where you have enough structure (all the Legos in one place) but not so much structure that you kill the possibility of inspiration. Because if you put all 2×4 red bricks in one drawer and all 1×1 white bricks in another, you’ll never happen upon those wheels and have that eureka moment.

I called my book Organized Enough because I like to be organized and know where my stuff is when I need it, but I don’t need it to be perfect. I just need to be able to find the stuff I need when I need it. I’m not inviting people into my home (when that is ever a possibility again) to show them my underwear drawer. I just want to welcome them to a tidy and comfortable space.

So don’t be afraid that getting organized is going to kill your creativity. Quite the opposite: being organized allows you to access all your inspiration with out zone-killing panic. Look for the sweet spot of being organized enough, while still leaving space for kismet. Because a little kismet might be what we all need right now.