In the back of my property, I have a raised garden bed that I use for vegetable gardening. It’s approximately 40 square feet in size…not huge, but it produces a surprising volume of food during the summer for our family (and our pet guinea pig).
The thing is, gardens require maintenance. Watering, fertilization, and constant weeding. This is what my garden looks like after a month of neglect:
Just a mere 4 weeks ago, this small freshly planted plot of land looked pristine with not a weed in site. Time simply got away from me, and I did not make garden maintenance a priority this summer.
So what does this have to do with your organizing efforts you ask?
I offer this analogy up as an illustration of why maintenance is key to maintaining your organizational systems.
Without implementing maintenance habits, your organizational system will become riddled with weeds and will begin to break down. You’ll soon experience backsliding, ending up right where you started.
Whether you’ve just finished organizing your filing cabinet, kitchen, laundry room or garage, keeping “the weeds” at bay requires continued attention. When working with my organizing clients, I always leave them with a written maintenance plan that outlines the concrete steps that they will need to take in order to keep things in good working order.
Moral of the story: create a maintenance plan for your particular space/project and designate “maintenance appointments” in your calendar to ensure you’ll complete those maintenance tasks.
Do you struggle with the “maintenance” phase of organizing?