Staying organized isn’t always easy! It takes diligence and hard work, plus there are all sorts of things that can trip us up along the way. However, there is one thing that really stands out to me as one of the number one reasons we have trouble staying organized.

Here is the one thing you should never do if you want to stay organized: don’t keep waiting until you have the perfect solution or perfect system before you get organized or put things away. Waiting until you have just the right containers or until you’ve developed the perfect system is the fastest way to stay stuck in chaos!

There’s a couple reasons why this will keep you from being organized. Number one, it really gives you an excuse to put off organizing and tidying. Therefore, piles of clutter keep building up while you keep waiting. Second, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever find the absolute perfect system for every space in your home! I definitely have plenty of areas of my home that really aren’t Pinterest worthy at all. (I just don’t usually share those spaces on the blog.) I have some ideas for improving some spaces, and some spaces just have me entirely stumped. However, I do my best to put things away, even if my system is not completely ideal.

Need an example? The drawer where I keep our sheets looks pretty terrible! I’ve made some attempts at folding the fitted sheets, but they end up looking like a big wad. I’ve watched several Youtube videos on how to neatly fold a fitted sheet, but I still haven’t mastered that skill (and am a little doubtful that I ever will). However, it doesn’t stop me from putting those sheets away. I still stuff them in the drawer and try to pretend like it doesn’t exist until I need it.

Here’s another example where I completely failed at taking my own advice. The bottom drawer of my baby girl’s dresser is pretty deep and holds a bunch of random stuff that doesn’t fold neatly (including the dreaded fitted crib sheets that I couldn’t fold neatly to save my life). It doesn’t look very neat and tidy, and I’ve been wanting to improve it. However, my lack of fitted sheet folding skills combined with the rather random assortment of stuff that lives in the drawer has me scratching my head to come up with a really beautiful storage solution. That definitely doesn’t stop me from dreaming of one, though.

A few weeks ago, it was getting cold, and I had lost my daughters winter hat from last year, which I thought would still fit her. I pulled everything out of that drawer searching for it. Instead of taking 60 seconds to put everything back in, I just left it all in a pile beside her dresser (since of course I was going to soon find the perfect storage solution and put everything back). Well, three weeks later, I still didn’t have any brilliant storage ideas nor had I magically learned how to fold fitted crib sheets, so the pile of junk was still there taunting me each time I walked in the room! I ended up taking 60 seconds to at least stuff it all back in the drawer. It would have been so much better for me to have done it right away rather than waiting for the perfect storage solution.

Here is a recent scope I did on this topic where I shared a little bit more detail on my own struggle.

How about you? Do you find yourself waiting for the elusive “perfect solution”?

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