To truly transform your environment and streamline your life, it’s crucial to recognize that organizing, tidying up, and cleaning are not the same thing. In this blog post, we’ll explore why it’s a mistake to confuse these concepts, and how embracing the distinction can lead to more effective systems. Keep reading, neatness lover, and let’s clear up the confusion once and for all.

The Confused Consumer Conundrum

Way back when I was working as a residential professional organizer, I would get a phone call every so often asking me what my rates were for house cleaning. Potential clients were always frustrated when I tried to explain that that’s not what I do. And I get the confusion. After all, these three concepts – organizing, tidying up, and cleaning up – involve similar tasks; however, they’re not the same thing and you’re doing yourself a disservice if you treat them as such. I had to do a lot of explaining to potential customers, so I know that this is a stumbling block for many. It’s hard to know what you need when you are new to a topic or situation, so I hope this bit of writing will help clear it up for you.

The Pitfalls of Confusing Organizing with Cleaning and Tidying 

Before we get into the definitions of each concept, let me clearly explain the premise of this article: confusing organizing with cleaning and/or tidying up will actually undermine your efforts to create a sustainable and organized space. It doesn’t matter where that space is (if it’s digital or physical, at home or at work), or what type of clutter is involved. The underlying problem is the same – it’s your systems. You cannot maintain a system that does not exist, nor can you set up a system and expect it to maintain itself.

Constantly tidying up without ever going through the organizing process will become a never-ending cycle of frustration and exhaustion, as you find yourself repeatedly dealing with the same mess over and over again. It may provide temporary relief, but the clutter will resurface quickly. Why? Because there’s no system in place for it. Another example is cleanliness. Your home will never be clean if you keep organizing, but ignore cleaning completely. In that situation, your home might look very organized, but it’ll also be dirty and dusty. I hope you get my point: the steps all need to happen, and they need to happen in the right order.

The Difference Between Organizing, Tidying, & Cleaning

To keep your environment as neat as you’d like it to be, you have to understand what the differences are between organizing, tidying, and cleaning. You also have to understand how all these puzzle pieces fit together. This is especially important for us business owners who have a lot of balls in the air; you can’t do it all by yourself, so you have to know what to delegate to others. Planning this out is key.

The key to lasting organization lies in embracing effective systems that address the root causes of clutter and disorganization, and there are three parts to it. Step one is organizing. Step two is tidying up, and step three is cleaning. Let’s clarify what each of these term entails.

Step One for Effective Systems: Organizing 

The organizing process is the first step to an effective system. This is the project where we decide what the new system will look like, how it will function, and why it needs to be in place. It involves looking at daily habits, ideal goals, and current challenges to come up with a solid plan. This also includes several sub-steps (for example, decluttering, and consolidating) to make sure you only focus on what you need to keep. There’s no point in organizing what you don’t need to keep, so we need to take a long, hard look at everything we have and make sure that we’re not saving anything superfluous.

Organizing is a very decision-heavy, strategic phase that requires skill and experience to complete. Yes, it only needs to happen once, but it can be quite taxing and overwhelming for anyone not used to it, so if you need help, hire a professional organizer to get you through it.

Clutter = Postponed Decisions

Something I want to mention as a side-note here is that a lot of people simply rearrange items or stash them out of sight, and that’s not quite what organizing is about… because you’re not making the decisions you need to make. That’s simply avoiding the problem, meaning avoiding implementing systems altogether rather that trying to find a system that works. It’s the equivalent of saying “I’ll do it later,” which won’t get you anywhere. As my colleague Barbara Hemphill so eloquently put it “clutter is nothing but postponed decisions.” Tackle those decisions head on, and you’ll save yourself countless hours of frustration down the road.

If you need more help with this process, sign up for my mini-course The Organizing Formula. It’s a free primer that will elaborate more on this subject and give you resources and steps to follow.

Step Two for Effective Systems: Tidying Up 

Once your new system has been implemented and you are organized, it’s time to maintain it. That’s where tidying up comes in as the next piece of the puzzle. Tidying up means that you regularly put things back into place; for example, if you take a bunch of tools from the toolbox in the garage, and use them for a fix in the basement, back in the tool box they go after the job is done. You don’t just leave them lying around in the basement.

Tidying up is not a brainy task at all, but it does take quite a bit of energy, especially if you have toddlers who constantly throw toys around everywhere. If you need help with this, you can hire someone to help you with home maintenance. Some cleaning services do offer this, but not all of them; a housekeeper is what you need…. or better yet, teach your kids to put things back into place themselves. Easier said than done, but every little bit helps here since this is an ongoing task to tackle.

Step Three for Effective Systems: Cleaning

Once you are done tidying up so you’re not tripping over toys (etc.) everywhere, you are ready to clean – that’s step three. At this point, surfaces are uncluttered and open to a good scrubbing. That’s when you wipe everything down so it sparkles. No more dirt and dust anywhere. This is probably the most satisfying of the three steps, but also the most labor intensive.

To keep things clean, this step also needs to happen on a regular basis. It often won’t happen at all (or can’t happen!) without the tidying up, so your job is to implement a tidying & cleaning routine (weekly or daily) that supports your neatness goals. This is the part that most people don’t like, including me, so if you agree, hire a cleaning service to take this off your hands. Just understand that it will be hard for them to clean if the house isn’t tidy, so ask them how they approach that. Some will do both at the same time; others will not.

Maximizing Efficiency and Productivity

Effective organizing systems are not just about creating a visually pleasing environment, although that’s certainly a perk – they’re also about maximizing efficiency and productivity. When everything has a designated place and you know exactly where to find what you need, you can eliminate wasted time and energy searching for misplaced items. And people do waste a ton of time on this. Research shows that it’s upward of 150 hours per year – imagine what you could do with all that time!

So how do you best maximize efficiency and productivity in your newly organized space? By making decisions. You are absolutely clear on who is doing each task, when, and by what frequency. Those who have been assigned the tasks are crystal clear on what their job entails and how to go about doing it. It may sound robotic, but remember – you only have to make those decisions once; after that, it’ll be smoother sailing. It’s all just maintenance after that. Remember this – if there is a bottleneck in your system somewhere (any system), it’s likely that there’s a decision waiting to be made. Make it.

Cultivating a Mindset for Long-Term Organization

Long-term organizing success requires a mindset shift towards prioritizing long-term solutions over quick fixes. Remember that even though the organizing phase is a one-time thing, our needs as people evolve over time. If you keep that in mind, and are willing to reassess and adjust every so often, your life will become much easier. Think of it as an ongoing process of refinement and optimization. A great example could be a child’s closet. As the child grows, the pants get longer. Therefore, a two-rod system may have to merge into one over time. Those smaller adjustments will always be there (the only time you completely have to re-do a system is if you move), and this is why all professional organizers advocate for systems that are strong, but flexible. We need flexibility to be able to refine and readjust.

Different Tasks, Different Professionals

In conclusion, organizing, tidying up, and cleaning up are each distinct activities with different purposes and outcomes. While tidying up and cleaning focuses on maintaining cleanliness and order in the short term, organizing involves establishing effective systems that promote long-term organization and productivity. By recognizing the difference between the these concepts and prioritizing organizing as a foundational step, you can unlock more effective ways of living and create spaces that enhance your quality of life.

Understanding these differences also help you understand who to ask for help, and who to delegate to because these steps require different professionals. You can hire me to set up systems all day long, but believe me, you do not want me to clean your home! I can organizing anything, but maintaining is not my forte. Therefore, cleaning is one of those things I delegate. There’s nothing more effective than having the right person for the right job, so think about your own expertise and preferences on what to take on, and what to delegate. No, go make some decisions and watch those bottlenecks disappear. 😉

Best of luck in all your organizing endeavors!

Want to Learn More About This? Join us in The Organizing Formula.

Featured Photo Courtesy of Hautestock

• About the Author
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Caroline Guntur Organizing & Productivity Coach

Hi there! I’m Caroline, and I’m here to help you get organized and be more productive, so that you can live better and have time for what matters.

www.theswedishorganizer.com

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