The Economics of Organizing, Part 3: Hidden Gains

Here's the third and final post of our 3-part series about the many ways organizing saves you money and puts you back in control:

Part 1. The Stuff You Have
Part 2. The Stuff You Don't Want
Part 3.  Hidden Gains

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Hidden Gains

Getting organized offers obvious financial benefits as we've covered in our previous two posts, but the hidden gains may be even more valuable, hitting your pocketbook in a more subtle way.

Save time. Gaining efficiencies through the organizing process means you are getting back some of your time, and as we all know, time is money. In fact, time is more precious than money, because you can never get that wasted time back. Not spending an hour locating your bills or keys every month means you have another hour to spend on what is important to you. Here are some of the best ways to save time:

• Go online for common tasks.  You can print your own postage and arrange for a carrier pickup from the post office’s website, which means you don’t have to go to the post office.  Shopping online means you won’t have to drive to the mall, saving time both driving and parking. (See also previous post, "Save Gas & Time with 3 Simple Household Objects")
• Group your errands.  If you are going to run one errand, stop and think if there are others on your route you could do at the same time.  Make sure you have everything you need with you, and ask everyone in the family if they need anything else before you leave.
• Capture anything you may need to do again into a trusted system, such as your paper or electronic filing system, so you can let that information go from your own brain and move on to other things. We call this the Recipe Rule. Don't reinvent the wheel! Just yesterday I needed to refer back to a 3-page procedure I had written for creating a complicated report… it would have taken me half a day to figure that all out again.

Feel less stress. According to a 2003 Fast Company magazine article, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state unequivocally that 80% of our medical expenditures are now stress-related. Getting control of your belongings and your finances means you will experience less stress, which means less cost in health expenses and less unproductive time off work for illness. Think about these ways that clutter and disorganization adds to your stress:

• Are you a "slave to your possessions?” More than once, a client has joked about how a match is the only organizing tool they really need. Our possessions do require maintenance, storage, repairs, and caretaking if you leave town, and sometimes that accumulated mental and physical baggage can get very heavy.
• Does your personal environment support your goals, or hinder them? Getting organized means that you have aligned your environment to support you in achieving your life’s goals, whatever they may be. If you are waking up each day to chaos, you are limiting yourself.
• Clutter and disorganization creates conflict. Within families sharing spaces or workers sharing an office, disorganization is at the root of many conflicts and annoyances. "Where did you put my ____?" "Why didn't you pay that bill?" "You ruined/lost/used up my _____." "Did you forget again?" "Why were you late?" If this sounds familiar, consider the harmony that would exist with these conflicts being prevented.

We are certainly in challenging times. The beauty and promise of America is, of course, our freedom, and Albert Camus said that “Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better.” We all have an unprecedented opportunity to make things better from the bottom up, to start over if necessary, and to evaluate what is and isn't serving us. Getting organized in all aspects of our lives will help us get back where we want to be.
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Saying it one more time….

It may not be in your budget to hire a Professional Organizer right now, but affordable expert help and advice is right at your fingertips at ClutterDiet.com. We provide superb support to accomplish your organizing goals for about the price of a pizza. You can get access to our team online for a whole year for about the price of two hours of our time in person!

And for my Professional Organizer friends reading this, you can still help potential clients who call about your services but find they cannot afford your hourly rates in person. Join our affiliate program to refer clients on a budget to Clutter Diet, and EVERYONE WINS. You get paid for the referral, we receive new members into our online community, and the clients get the help they need.

I hope you have enjoyed this economy series, and that it has helped you get motivated to save more money and improve your life! As always, I'd love to hear your comments.

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