Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and jump into your home organizing project. But what do you do when that decision comes back to bite you? You’ve planned your tasks and started optimistically, but now you are overwhelmed and stuck-what do you do? Watch this video for strategies to help you get past your obstacles and finish your project. When you’re done… That’s right “another one bites the dust.” 😉
(Click here to watch on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded player. Or watch the video at http://bit.ly/tcdproject.)
Transcript:
Hi. I’m Lorie Marrero, creator of the Clutter Diet book and on-line program, and today we’re going to talk about what to do when you’ve bitten off more than you could chew. What do you do when that project you’re doing takes way longer than you thought? This has happened to me so many times. Even though you expect the best and prepare for the worst, sometimes there are unforeseen things that delay your project. You just could never have known. So, this just happened to me when I was moving my website over to a whole new platform and server. It took way longer than we thought. This has happened to me many times in organizing projects. Even though I’m the professional, I have had delays on closet installs and large garage projects and move-ins. So this can happen to anybody, and it most likely will happen to you. So here are some strategies to help you get through this dilemma.
Alright. So first, you want to adopt a “good enough” philosophy. There’s a great saying that “done is better than perfect,” so just focus on the finish line, which is getting something functional, and then you can tweak, make adjustments, and get it all perfect and pretty later, but just get it working first.
Also, you know that when you’re spending a lot of extra time on a project like this that you didn’t anticipate, something has to give. So remember what can wait, will wait. So, I’ve had to put aside answering e-mails, for example, I’ve had to put aside sometimes working out for a few days in the mornings to give me extra time to get something done. That’s fine, because what you have to realize is it’s temporary. So just do what you have to do to get to that finish line.
Sometimes, when you’ve torn everything apart and it’s all sorted and spread out, you have to just find a livable stopping point to the project. So we have a great example of that on a project we did – probably last year, I guess, we did this – we had two different closets that were across the hallway from each other. They were identical, kind of mirror image closets, and we wanted to rip them out and install the exact same closet hardware in each one. So our strategy, first, was to install, you know, this on this side and then go do the same thing on this side and kind of do them simultaneously. And when we realized we weren’t going to get finished, what we did instead was focus on finishing one entirely so that we could leave the homeowner with a functional space that was practical for her and then come back another day and finish the other one in its entirety.
So think about what you can do to make a livable stopping point for yourself. So sometimes, what that means is another solution that we have, which is finding temporary solutions that make that stopping point happen. So, if you’ve spread everything out in the driveway on a big garage project and you have to leave it out overnight, sometimes what you can do is spread a plastic tarp over that entire amount of your belongings in the driveway, that’s a nice temporary solution. Also you can use garment racks to hang up clothing from a closet if you’re still doing an installation. That way it gets the clothing off the bed, which is probably where you put it, and you can sleep on the bed while the project’s being finished. So look for those little temporary fixes and solutions so that you can get to that livable stopping point.
Another thing you want to do is delegate. If there were ever a time to ask for help it’s now. Call in the troops. Get your family involved. You know, ask for help with assembly of the closet pieces or get help with meals or just call in a pizza if you have to. But just know, again, it’s temporary and ask for all the help you can get to finish the project.
Another thing you have to do is remember what we always say about being decisive. The more decisive you are, the more organized you’re going to be. And it especially is true when you’re trying to finish a project. You’re going to have a lot of things flying at you, and the more decisive you can be, the faster you’re going to plow through that project. And if you slow down and question your decisions, that’s going to slow the whole project down. So do the very best you can and move forward.
And finally, I want to share with you a strategy that helps me relax when I am feeling anxious about a project. I ask myself, “Have I done all that I can do?” And if the answer is “yes,” then I give myself permission to relax. In my website project recently, there were many times where I had done everything that I could do, and then I was just waiting on our programmers. And they were in another state, and we would send stuff off to them, and I’d say, “Okay, well, I guess I’m going to go eat some dinner and enjoy my family this evening because all I can do is wait for the programmers.” So it really helped to reduce the anxiety and if you can, just focus on what you can possibly do, and when you’re finished with that, then relax and shift gears.
So I hope that’s helpful to you. If you have some experiences to share, we’d love to hear about those in the comments. And you can see our new website at clutterdiet.com. We’re really proud of the makeover. So go see one of the best “before and after” we’ve ever done. Which is our new home page and our new membership levels. So we now have a “light” membership that you do, which has no credit card required, it is free for you to come in and just check us out. You can experience our 7-day quick start and you can learn what we’re all about without having any risk or obligations. So go to clutterdiet.com/learnmore.
See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.
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