Author Julie Morgenstern Asks: Is It Time to Get Organized … or to Shed?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Julie Morgenstern is the New York Times bestselling author of Organizing from the Inside Out and Never Check E-mail in the Morning.

As an organizing and time management consultant for nearly 20 years, I’ve been helping individuals and companies to improve their spaces, systems, schedules, working relationships and lives so that they can achieve their goals.

No matter where I go in the world, or who I’m working with, everyone feels overwhelmed: We live in a too much to do, not enough time, blackberry saddled, can’t turn off, can’t quite squeeze it all in world. That applies equally to the philanthropist in New York trying to change the world, to the Midwest professor balancing work and kids, to the author (Fannie Flagg) preparing for a move, to the entrepreneur in Stockholm trying to take control over her business.

One of the problems I run into all the time is that while people have a deep desire to make their lives better – they just don’t always know exactly what they need. When you feel overwhelmed, you want quick relief, and reach out for solutions — but it’s often the WRONG thing. One client came to me expecting me to tell her to eliminate half the things in her chaotic schedule, but all she really needed was a good planner to tame the chaos. Another constantly lost information in her files, and assumed she needed a whole new organizing system, but colored file folders were all she needed to make retrieval easier.

My biggest pet peeve is how the popular culture — and even many organizing professionals — constantly confuse organizing with getting rid of things. There are “organizing” makeovers on television aplenty these days, all of which promise to help you tame the chaos once and for all. Usually these programs offer stunning before and after shots and loads of cheery advice to accompany stern warnings about the dangers of living a disorganized life. They all have the same basic message: Toss this, trash that, downsize, simplify. Voila! Life is perfect.

I don’t think it’s quite that easy.

There are two big problems with this interpretation of organizing. First, the process is dumbed-down in pursuit of the 24-minute television miracle. Rooms, once buried beneath mountains of junk, are magically transformed into beautiful, clean, yoga-inspired spaces. Good television to be sure, but that’s not how it works. Second, and even more important, the premise that organizing and “throwing things away” are somehow one in the same, is wrong. This falsehood is doing a tremendous disservice to the professional organizing industry and its millions of clients.

Allow me to explain. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t actually need to throw anything away to get organized, because organizing is not about getting rid of things. Organizing is the process of identifying what’s important to you and giving yourself access to it. True organizing is about designing systems of storage and retrieval. People who need to get organized usually know where they want to go (e.g. start a business, win a promotion, save a marriage, be a better parent), they just need help overcoming the obstacles on the path to their destination.

But when you need or want to make a change in your life, and are unsure of your destination, (what is my next career? Do I stay in this house or move? Do I switch jobs or just go part-time, do I try to save this relationship or move on), you don’t need to get organized, you need to SHED. That is get rid of the obsolete in your space and schedule, so that you create the energy, insight and space to figure out what’s next. Think of it this way — organizing is dropping anchor once you know what you want, and de-cluttering is lifting anchor so you can find someplace new. De-cluttering is not organizing — it does not create a system. But, it can be a powerful catalyst to change.

So, what do you need right now … to get organized? Or to SHED?