The real secrets to getting organized once and for all

• It takes time.  Don't think you will conquer the whole house in an afternoon, especially if you are working on your own.  Depending on how bad things have gotten, you want to be honest and know going into it that it doesn’t happen overnight.  You can’t lose 20 pounds in a day so don’t kid yourself that you can organize and purge 20 years’ worth of stuff in that short a time as well. 

• Systems need to be flexible.  You might set up one system and find it’s hard to maintain, or maybe works for you but not the other members of your family.  Be flexible and willing to try something another way.

• You will never be finished.  I am constantly assessing and reassessing the organization systems in my house, even though, as an organizer, you’d think that I would already have the ‘perfect’ systems.  Things change.  Life is constantly evolving and the system you set up just a few months ago may not work as well as it could.  

• Maintenance is key and necessary.  Just like anything else in life that is hard but worth having, you must work at it.  Again, you don’t get fit once and then stop going to the gym.  You won’t organize the craft room just once and never have to touch it again (unless you don’t actually use your craft room—in that case, there is a very strong chance you can organize it once and be done. ;)  But then why are you wasting that space on crafts????