Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Organising your spouse and kids

Many of you write to me to tell me that it's really hard getting and staying organised because of your spouse and kids.

I get it - I really do!

And if more people were to open up, we'd probably find that most couples have different organising styles.

This is how you can live harmoniously:

Recognise that everybody's different
When you get that your husband and kids don't think like you and you accept it, you become more tolerant of them, and of the way they organise their lives.

Don't complicate things
The easier your systems, the happier everyone will be to co-operate.

Why have a 5-step system for the laundry when you can just let everyone toss their dirty clothes in the laundry basket in their rooms?

Let them have their space
Everyone deserves to have space where they can just be themselves. I'm not only talking about their rooms.

In our study, which we both use, I have 8 of the 10 shelves beautifully organised with my business, personal and our household stuff. The other 2 shelves are Dion's personal (messy) things.

I don't want to see that mess so as long as the doors to the cupboard are closed, I'm happy. And as long as Dion has his things his way, he's happy. See? Now I personally can't understand how he can find anything there but I respect his space :)

Communicate
When you're getting frustrated, communicate your needs.

Dion knows that it drives me stark raving crazy when I wake up and there's stuff lying around the house. I like waking up to an uncluttered house the way I left it. But see he wakes up before I do so there's opportunity to mess it all up. Now that he knows how I feel though, he restricts his morning wanderings to only one room and I'm still happy ;)


Occasionally, Dion indulges the crazy organiser in me because he knows I want to get at his stuff.

this is his snack basket before

and this is after
Listen to this podcast where Suzanne talks about organising in relationships.
Do you and your spouse have different organising styles? How do you deal with it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for your comment today on my blog today. I'm so glad you did because it led me to finding your blog. I need to read this more because I am not as organized as I would like to be. Take care!

Anonymous said...

Okay, so first (hi Marcia :D) I have to say that my husband and I have been together for 10 years and I have finally started seeing that if one person is organized IT DOES START TO RUB OFF ON THEM. For years I didn't think things would ever change, but it does! So knowing that you can't change someone, it might rub off a little on them in time.

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