EDITORIAL FEATURE
Getting Organized:
It’s a Personal Decision
By Holly Uverity CPO®, Office Organizers
A
s I’m writing this, I’m about to enter my
23rd year of business; I started Office
Organizers in June of 1993 with the intent to help new businesses set up their
offices. As I’ve traveled down this path, I’ve
seen great strides in the organizing industry
itself. Where now organizing is mainstream,
it wasn’t always so. In the early 1990s when
I introduced myself, people thought I was a
union organizer as they had no other frame
of reference for the term “professional organizer”. I spent the first five years of my business explaining what I did. While the how of
organizing has changed over the years, what
has never changed for me is the why. There
are so many more resources, both in people
and tools, available now than there were ever
before but even so, getting organized is and
always will be a personal decision.
As I’ve said countless times, organization exists on a spectrum. On one end live the people
who keep everything and on the other end live
the people who keep nothing. As an aside, I’m
not including hoarders in this spectrum as true
hoarders suffer from a disorder. My question
to you is: If organization exists on a spectrum,
where do you live? Are you one extreme, the
other extreme, or in the middle? And does it
ever change? My hope for you is that you are
on neither end and that yes, it does change. As
your job, priorities, and your life changes, I hope
that your organizational strategies change
as well. If you’ve always worked for someone
else and now you’ve started your own business, wouldn’t it make sense that you’d have to
re-evaluate everything you do? From what you
do to where you do it, wouldn’t it make sense
that you move along that spectrum?
Remember though, that ultimately where
you move to or move from on that organiza-
18 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ AUGUST 2015 ]
As I’ve said countless times, organization
exists on a spectrum. On one end live
the people who keep everything and on
the other end live the people who keep
nothing. As an aside, I’m not including
hoarders in this spectrum as true hoarders
suffer from a disorder. My question to you is:
If organization exists on a spectrum,
where do you live? Are you one extreme,
the other extreme, or in the middle?
And does it ever change? My hope for
you is that you are on neither end and
that yes, it does change.
tional spectrum is a personal decision and
not a moral or ethical one. While it’s true
that you may be legally or financially obligated to keep or destroy certain items, beyond
that, it’s entirely up to you what your office
looks like. It’s all about your quality of life
and your quality of work. Choose the level of
clutter that supports you, the level that you’re
comfortable with. But understand that it
must add to your life and not subtract from
it. You want to be able to enjoy your awards,
pictures, and knickknacks but not have them
interfere. They should be a joy in your life and
not a curse.
It’s healthy to move up and down that spectrum. What’s true for you now may not be
true for you in 23 years. SBT
Office Organizers is The Entrepreneur’s Organizer. Founded in
1993, they work with business people to create solutions for their organizational challenges. Contact them at 281.655.5022, www.OfficeOrganizers.com, or www.fb.com/OfficeOrganizers.