My relationship with organization is love/hate. I am an extremely organized person. If my house is in disarray it stifles my creativity, and my ability to enjoy down time. The Christmas Holidays this past year were a big struggle for me. It was a month before our wedding and John was moving his entire house's worth of stuff into my already well established and organized home. There was crap everywhere. It wasn't anyone's fault, it was just a byproduct of combining two houses.
I love having people over to my house. That being said, I can't stand for people to see my clutter. The holiday season meant having loads of guests trickling through my house at a time when my surroundings were seriously below my standard. It left me feeling stressed and tightly wound. When I got down to the nitty gritty of the situation I realized, despite my love of personal connection, I am still a very private person when it comes to my personal thoughts and feelings. My “clutter” that I didn't want to share wasn't just my physical belongings but also personal feelings and emotions.
I had to ask myself, how much am I holding myself back from having deep meaningful relationships because I'm too prideful to let people see anything other than my version of perfection. Also, how much am I limited in my friendships because I'm not willing to express my emotions for the same exact reasons?
Fay Wolf's book ‘New Order' has really helped me to sort some of this out.
I recently had the opportunity to hear Fay Wolf speak at the Etsy Up conference in New York. Fay is a captivating speaker who finds a way to make even a dull subject, like organizing, enjoyable. As crazy as it may sound, I recently spent an entire night off just sitting and reading this book and it was a genuinely good night. I'm not even an avid reader y'all. It normally takes a rom-com or great series like Harry Potter to get me to read a book cover to cover and somehow this organizational book entertained me enough to do just that.
Fay walks through the step by step process of decluttering your life of physical stuff, digital overload, and mental overwhelm. ‘New Order' gives you the tools to rebuild a sustainable de-cluttered lifestyle instead of just a one-off purge that you will have to do next year as well. I love her practical advice on how to create productive to-do lists, arrange your space to spark creative juices, and how to embrace imperfection.
One of the main take aways that Fay teaches, that just spoke to my soul, is “a little better is a little better”. It is so encouraging to know that in the end, progress is still progress. Regardless of our efforts perfection is unattainable and that's ok.
Whether you are someone who struggles with over organization or you can't seem to find anything because nothing has a rightful place, ‘New Order' is a practical guide to decluttering your life and making your surroundings work for you instead of against you. I highly recommend this enjoyable handbook!
You can find ‘New Order' by Fay Wolf Here
