Mary Frances Ballard - Orderly Places: Getting Organized to Enjoy More Time, Space and Freedom in Your Home

getting organized to enjoy more time, space and freedom in your home

Mary Frances Ballard

MORGAN JAMES PUBLISHING NEW YORK

by Mary Frances Ballard
2009 Mary Frances Ballard. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-60037-684-9 (Paperback)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009932871

Published by:

DEDICATION

To my Mother,
a brilliant and Godly woman
who in her shortened life
taught me not only organizing principles
but by her example how to walk humbly before the Lord.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THE STORIES SHARED HERE are from my experiences as a professional organizer with clients from many backgrounds, occupations, ages and income levels. Their names and some specifics have been changed to protect their privacy. In many instances they have become my friends and I enjoy maintaining contact with them. Without their input, this manuscript could have been simply a dry reference book with no life. I thank each of them.

I am blessed to have many who encouraged me to write this book and helped in the final product. They are: colleagues and friends from my former career as an educator, my church congregation, the Colonial Piecemakers Quilting Guild, my organizing peers and my encouraging family. I am grateful to all of them including these who helped with editing: Sally Burri, Karen DiMarino, Debra Dunn, Mary Gill, Evelyn Stone and Mary Tatem.

The Container Store, with locations all over the country and online, provided photographs of great organizing products, and Karen Woodward created the graphics of the filing solutions. These have made the book much more interesting and informative.

Margo Toulouse and the staff at Morgan James Publishing were very supportive, instructive and accommodating in this process. Their professionalism and assistance was essential and is much appreciated.

Special thanks go to Don Aslett and his wonderful books on organizing and other things that have kept me inspired, motivated and entertained for more than 25 years.

And last but not least, as they say, my most heartfelt thanks go to my one and only husband, Eddie, who has always given me whatever I have wanted including his support with this book.

INTRODUCTION

THEY SAY NOTHING TASTES as good as being thin feels. I haven't been able to verify that theory lately, but I can tell you that being disorganized does not feel as good as being organized with more time in your day and freedom in the space in your home or office.

There is a deep seated desire in our spirits, souls and bodies to be free. We are encouraged to live a healthy lifestyle so our bodies can be free from disease. Patrick Henry declared the necessity of political freedom with his, Give me liberty or give me death outcry. Beth Moore encourages us to exercise our spiritual freedom in her book, Breaking Free. We want to be free from debt, free to walk our city streets without harm, free to vote and free to come and go as we please.

But very few on Wall Street or Main Street are encouraging us to be free from things. Our schedules and homes are so full that we are overwhelmed with decisions on how to spend our time and what to do with our things. We are yearning to be free.

Most of us need a plan to get organized. Whether you are attempting organizing for the first time, you need only specific areas to organize or you need a plan to keep what you have maintained, the strategies here will help you. The process for organizing is given in a logical sequence and specific areas are covered in separate chapters.

Of course I think reading the book from cover to cover is the best method, but some of you may first choose to read the areas that are most appropriate to you. Just like there are many styles to organizing, there are many ways to read this book.

While organizing is not a humorous subject, I have tried to lighten it up with whatever warped sense of humor I have left after a teaching career in the middle schools. My surgeon once told me I should have a psychiatric exam after every teaching term. Most of this humor is at my expense.

As you read through these pages, it is my hope that you will see the situations in your space and schedules with a new perspective, that you will be able to use the information to be better organized, and as a result you will be freefree to use and be happy with the things and spaces in your homes and free to have more time to enjoy your relationships with others even more.