Clearing out

It might be because both her parents were in the military. It might be because her family packed up and moved so many times during her childhood. Whatever the reason, Natalie Conrad is a master organizer. “I’m always trying to figure out the best way to do things, so it’s streamlined and efficient,” she says.

Conrad left her work in the mortgage industry six years ago to start her own company, Organized Habits—but not before her bosses asked her to teach the organizational systems she’d developed for her job to the rest of the staff. Now she works as an organizing consultant helping clients streamline their home and office spaces, and also facilitates Sacramento’s monthly Declutter Your Life Meetup Group.

To all her clients, Conrad stresses the importance of committing to simple behaviors that make changes over time. “I can go in and organize someone and three to six months later, I go back, and it’s in the same state,” she says. “The reason I named my company Organized Habits is that it’s really about habits.”

What is organization, beyond putting things away?

It’s about systems and streamlining and things that will save you time. It’s not about what kind of container is the best container. It’s more about what’s going to work best for you to help you achieve your goals.

So organization is different for everyone?

Absolutely. I might recommend one client work with colored file folders, one work with hanging file folders and another not file at all. It’s not a cookie-cutter approach. It depends on what your needs are and what your lifestyle is like.

Why are so many of us disorganized?

There’s no one reason, but many people who struggle with disorganization have information overload. There’s lots of technology and wonderful widgets that save us time. There’s a learning curve for each new gadget, and then there’s something new coming onto the market to replace it. The same thing with jobs. There’s been a lot of downsizing, so people have to take on more than one position or occupation. It’s just an overload of information.

What are your guiding organizational principles?

I always tell clients, “One life, one calendar.” A lot of people think they need different calendars for work and home, but it’s one life, one calendar. Put all that information together in one place, and you can see where things are overlapping and where you might have overcommitted yourself.

The other thing is taking small steps. People want to get organized, but they’re so paralyzed from the overwhelming big picture. Start with small steps. In the office, start with that drawer you’re pulling open all the time, your most-used drawer. Then work on the top of your desk. Then work on a file drawer, not the whole file cabinet. Do it step by step.

How much of being an organized person is mental?

A lot of it is in your mind. We clutter our brains with so much information. We don’t take the time to write things down or make to-do lists. We think we’ll remember it later, by the time we get home. So the organization in our head is cluttered because we have too much we’re trying to store up there. I always recommend that people stop and make memos on Post-it Notes, on their voice mail or by calling their home phones. Just get it out of your head so your thoughts aren’t so jumbled.

How do you encourage people to make time for organization? It seems like something that is easily put off for other commitments.

First, small steps. Just do 15 minutes a day. Don’t take the whole day to organize. The other thing is to get some help, whether it be a professional organizer or your friend holding you accountable to get it done.

People don’t think they have time to get organized, but they don’t realize how much time it takes when you’re disorganized. There’s a statistic out there that the average worker spends an hour a day looking for things. That’s almost a whole workday in your week spent looking for things. Think of what organization would save you. Could you use an extra hour a day, at work or at home?

What are the biggest organizational challenges you run into?

The two most common problems I hear are paper and time. People don’t know what to do with all the paper. It paralyzes them so they don’t touch it at all. It piles up and they get more and more anxious and they can’t find things.

And time. People are so busy. They are always asking me how they can manage their time better. They want to know what the best planner is. One is not necessarily better than another. Again, it’s about your lifestyle. Are you more digitally inclined? Do you like paper? If you like paper, do you only want to focus on this week or do you need to see the whole month so you have a sense of where you’re going? Ask yourself different questions to get to the core of what’s best for you.

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Try it now
Natalie Conrad’s simple changes to organize home and office

Prep the night before.

Put everything you’ll need for the next day by the front door (kids’ backpacks, papers for a business meeting) so it’s ready when you leave the house.

Set boundaries on Internet time.

Avoid getting sucked into your computer by limiting e-mail and Facebook check-ins to once or twice a day. Allow a predetermined amount of time and use an egg timer to remind yourself.

Make your own donation center.

Have a box to put things you no longer want or need. Give the donations to Goodwill or another charity monthly, or whenever the box is full.

Stay on top of your mail.

Put your mail in one place, and sit down with it one to three times a week. Make a decision about every piece of mail so there’s nothing left to nag you. Sign up for online bill-pay services and opt out of receiving paper copies of statements.

Pick up the phone.

Eliminate the back-and-forth of text messages and e-mails. A brief phone conversation can resolve transactions much more quickly.