Alicia Rockmore - Pretty Neat: The Buttoned-Up Way to Get Organized and Let Go of Perfection

Table of Contents

SARAH

ALICIA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have been possible without input and participation from hundreds of women who took time out of their busy days to talk with us about their overall approach to getting organized and share their best organizational shortcuts. To each and every one of you: please accept our deepest gratitude. We learned so much from you. We hope that we have adequately captured your wisdom in this book.The research for this book was buoyed by the assistance of Anne Marie Furie, our indefatigable Chief Juggler at Buttoned Up. Her incredible interview skills and ability to help us organize the information collected made it easy to find and distill the insights, and her eagle eye helped us clean up our writing style. We owe Leah Ticker a special thanks for her dedicated hard work. The rest of the amazing Buttoned Up team cheered us on and kept us going when we were tired and cranky: Hollie, Nancy, Susan, and Ginawe would be lost without you. Jane Dystel, our agent, provided wonderful advice throughout the process. Krista Lyons, our editor, looked at our manuscript with a fresh and seasoned eye, making many valuable suggestions. We could not have completed the book without the support of our families. They gave us the time we needed to work on the manuscript, including the occasional late night and weekend, and encouraged us when we needed a boost. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts Gardiner, William, Lachlan, Adam, and Lucy. And finally, we owe a special thanks to the special women in our lives. Your friendship, support, and love mean so very much to us, and your wisdom made this book better. Thank you to Alison Lord, Liz Gruzkievicz, Amy Stanton, Kerry Lyons, Ann Taylor, Maggie Ferguson, Kate Hosford, Lindsey Welch, Libby Welch, Zeyna Ballee, Michelle Michilini, Cyndi Manzo, Liz Paley, Angela Harris, Pam Werner, Amy Lerner Hill, Marci Miller, Kim Lerner, Hope Wintner, Jodie Schroeder, Susie Stein, Carrie Neustadt, and Aimee Sesar.

INTRODUCTION: ORG PORN

Negative self-image. Fantasy-induced overspending. Marital tension. A new kind of airbrushed concoction is wreaking havoc on our homes and our psyches: a little something we like to call org porn. What is it? Well, we define org porn as that glossy, airbrushed fantasy world where everything is pristine, serene, and perfectly in order, sort of like Playboy, but with chore charts and name-plated cubbyholes. Its everywhere you look these days: in magazines, coffee table books, advertisements, and TV shows. And when consumed in excess, it can lead to feelings of inadequacy, binge spending on organizational products, and even marital discord. We have interviewed hundreds of women on the topic of organization and an astounding 80 percent of them feel they fall well short of the mark when it comes to getting organized.

Dont get us wrong, gazing at beautiful images of meticulously organized rooms, perfectly displayed collections, color-coordinated closets, flawless family schedules, pristine kitchens, tidy mud rooms, and picture-perfect work spaces can be titillating. Theres a reason we call it org porn! But when it becomes the primary standard by which you measure your own general state of organization, it is unhealthy. An airbrushed land of perfect organization cannot be sustained in this messy, unpredictable world called real life.

Chasing perfection fuels something we call organizational inertia, a type of paralysis that makes it virtually impossible to get started. All too often, the most difficult part of getting organized is knowing where to start. If perfection is the objective, that paralysis makes sense. Keeping your house, work, and schedule magazine-ready requires a superhuman effort to achieve and constant superhuman vigilance to maintain. The goal of getting organized isnt necessarily to have everything picture-perfect, but rather to eliminate inefficiency so that you have more time to do what you actually want to do.

Instead of holding yourself to an impossible org-porn standard, we advocate ditching perfection and instead focusing on why you want to get organized in the first place. Remind yourself that org porn is merely entertainment and an escape that few, if any, actually achieve. If it helps you, use those org-porn images to focus on the benefits you are trying to achieve: calm, efficiency, etc. Once you are clear on the real objective, then you are free to define your own rules for achieving that goal (and what that will look like for you).

GEORGE S. PATTON

CHAPTER 1

ESTABLISH A NEW STANDARD

ANNA QUINDLEN

Rosemary Biagioni has a cherubic face, sparkling eyes, and a zest for life. She works full time as a finance director for a start-up in New York, runs a household single-handedly, and somehow never misses a beat in the lives of her two sons, Sergio and Nicholas. Interestingly, she only considers herself moderately organized.

Shes not alone.

Cindi Leive, the glamorous-in-a-totally-approachable-way editor in chief of Glamour magazine, juggles a lot: a high-octane job, motherhood, marriage, friends, family, and charity work. When we asked her if shed be willing to be interviewed for this book, Cindi noted wryly, Im not sure I can contribute anything useful. I think I might be more of an organizational before, than an after.

We heard the same thing from women everywhere we went: I wouldnt really consider myself super organized. Are you sure you want to talk to me? Angela Harris, busy mom of two, joked, People think Im organized because I juggle things. But my car, my gym locker, and my office tell the real story.

Even those who described themselves as very organized, even anal, were quick to point out their flaws and shortcomings. None felt remotely qualified to have their organizational tricks held up as examples of what to do.

Why on earth, we asked ourselves, did these women feel their imperfect ways left them short of the mark organizationally? Perhaps its because perfection has been held up as the gold standard when it comes to organization. We think its high time for a new standard of organization: an imperfect one.

What does it mean to be imperfectly organized? Foremost, it is a mindset. It means making a conscious decision to let go of the notion that everything must pass inspection by the organizational police, and instead permit yourself to keep the gears of your life turning in your own unique way. Even if it involves shortcuts and a little messiness that might horrify your mother or mother-in-law, the goal is to have enough structure in place to avoid missing important things, yet remain limber enough to handle the inevitable curve-balls that get thrown your way. And unless you have enough time to make organization a full-time job, youll need to embrace shortcuts and imperfect approaches to getting organized. Remember, organization is not an end state, its an ongoing fact of lifea process. Color-coded family schedules, name-plated toy cubbies, and pristine closets are nice to have and even nicer to look at in books and magazines. But if you dont have them, it doesnt mean youre not truly organized. Imperfect approaches to organization work. The tips weve collected are straightforward enough to be useful to almost everybody. And even better, theyve been road tested for effectiveness.