I told my friends I was writing this article on organization tips and they laughed. It is true, I am NOT the organization guru, but I know what works for busy moms. Sadly, what works is not the beautifully organized spaces you see in magazines. I have fought myself time and time again attempting to recreate a Pottery Barn scene in Casa Grant. I fail every time. Partly because of my ADD, though mostly because those beautiful spaces are nothing more than beautiful spaces that HIDE – they don’t organize because they require extra steps to putting stuff away. Let me explain.

SO nice and aesthetically pleasing…I know. But for busy people, this system is just not feasible – Here is why.

Imagine a paperweight, a hole punch, a toddler toy, and a spoon on your table. Each item has a place in a box in either the white canvas cubes, or one of the many pretty identical baskets above.

So you start to pull boxes. Slide out, look inside, push back in. Slide out, look inside, push back in. Slide out….get frustrated…throw the paperweight, hole punch, toddler toy, and spoon into a box…push back in. If this sounds like you, read on…

Implementing the One Touch Rule

How many times in the example above did you touch a basket, pull it out, and push it back inside before you found the right one? More than once right? Actually, you never found the right baskets! If you have to touch something more than once to get it to where it needs to go, it won’t go there often. Likewise if a storage spot has more than one step to it. For example:

Is it easier to do:

A) Open a cabinet, pull out a box, open the box top, place object inside, place box top back on, place box back inside the cabinet, close cabinet.

B) Open a clear box, place object inside, close box.

C) Place object on a shelf.

All three of the above are easy. There is nothing mind bending about doing “A.” But the steps involved, though mundane, are extra unnecessary steps to accomplishing a simple goal. Those few extra steps are realistically enough to deter someone from putting away an object, like a pair of craft scissors, or a stack of washcloths, or a new pack of batteries.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind – If Out of Mind, then probably lost.

Baskets and boxes are pretty, but they are not functional. They HIDE, they don’t organize.