Oliver: Want to get organized? Professionals say now might be the best time to start

So how did you do during Get Organized Month? What? You didn’t know this was a thing.

Well, according to the National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, January is a great time to tackle the clutter and disorganization that many of us struggle with in our daily lives.

This just might be the ideal time. Many of us look at the start of the new year as a time to set our priorities for the next 365 days. For many, it’s also the lull after the frantic holiday season, where more things find their way into homes. It’s also typically a month when we don’t get to leave the house much.

Here at the Oliver homestead, the effort to pare down has been going on for a while now. For me, decluttering is more of a journey rather than a destination.

When my mother came to live with us from Georgia in 2014, we had to fit another household into our small house. That was no small feat, since my mother’s home was larger than ours and her house was packed to the gills with stuff.

My mother was a child during the Great Depression. That produced in her the need to save everything just in case she’d ever need it. That meant she still had clothes I remembered her wearing when I was a child. She also accumulated a lot more over the years.

To humor her (and honor her), we went through every piece of her clothing to whittle it down to a reasonable amount that she could take to Illinois. We wound up donating more than 25 large garbage bags of clothing. Even more household items and the like were sold or donated.

After going through that, I vowed I never wanted anyone to have to face that in my own case. (I believe this is consistent with a method of organizing called Swedish death cleaning. Look it up.) Having to make room for Mom helped get the ball rolling.

Then there was the strange behavior I discovered that my mother, who had dementia, and my husband, who has early onset Alzheimer’s disease, exhibited as their diseases progressed. Both started to hide items that were in view.

My mother went from having a cluttered room to one that was stark and undecorated. Instead of loving her clutter, it became her enemy. To help her, I became adept at finding new “homes” for her stuff.

Something similar happened with my dear Tony. Although in his case, most of the decluttering happened because I got tired of playing “Where’s Waldo” with pens, socks, candles, towels and anything else he could see and get his hands on.

After my mother died in 2018, I had her entire room to reclaim. It would return to being an office and now also would be a guest bedroom. However, it took me a while to get around to even starting to tackle the stuff. I suppose grief had something to do with that.

When the pandemic hit, my decluttering drive dried up. Ironically, that’s when the rest of the planet seemed to jump on the bandwagon. After all, we were all cooped up in our homes and what else did we have to do, right?

Lately, though, I’ve gotten back into the groove. It helped that I started small. I began by tackling a junk drawer here, a closet shelf there. Eventually the momentum carried me to finally get the rest of my mother’s things sorted. Now I just have one box that I need to get to my older sister.

I also found that I do better when I have a set deadline. A donation location is on the way to my hairstylist’s house. I time my donations to when I’m getting my hair cut. It’s convenient and it keeps me accountable.

Of course, I do have a few bigger pieces of furniture that I’m trying to figure out what to do with. I also have some items that require specialty recycling or document shredding. However, real progress has been made.

Will I ever be finished? Well, I doubt it. I know myself well enough to know that areas I’ve already covered no doubt will need some attention again eventually.

However, because I live with circumstances that are beyond my control, it’s comforting to know that I do have the ability to get my stuff in order.

At least for a little while.

• Joan Oliver is the former Northwest Herald assistant news editor. She has been associated with the Northwest Herald since 1990. She can be reached at jolivercolumn@gmail.com.