There is a habit among chronically disorganized people that prevents progress on organizing projects. This habit is known in the organizing profession as churning.
Churning is picking up an item, putting it back on a pile, then pulling a different item out of the center of the pile, looking at it, putting it down, and on and on. No decision is ever made on what to actually do with any of the items, and so the piles become more and more stagnant and the procrastination becomes more and more problematic. Things get added to the piles or shoved into the cupboards but never properly handled and therefore, the person remains chronically disorganized.
There is hope, however. I have found that if a person is really ready to get organized that once they are taught how to break the churning cycle they can take that information and run with it. Here’s the basic method:
When you pick up something, never put it back down without making a decision about it. First, is it trash, donate or keep? If it’s trash or donate, deal with getting it into the proper receptacle immediately. If it is keep, move on to the next decision.
If you need or want to keep an item, ask yourself, “What is it?” Articulating what something is will help you make the decision on what to do with it. Is it a bill that needs to be paid? Do you have a place for unpaid bills? If you do, put it there. If you don’t, put a sticky note that says “Bills to Be Paid” on it and start a pile of that specific category. If you stop to create folders and containers before you are through the piles you will probably get too bogged down. Also, you don’t know how much space you are going to need or what size container until you identify every item in that category (for example, pet supplies or souvenir t-shirts or office supplies).
Is it an article of clothing? Is it clean or dirty? Does it need to be folded or hung?
Is it a bottle of aspirin? Do you have a place in the bathroom or a cabinet for medicines? If yes, put it away immediately. If not, put that silly pin in it (I hate that expression but it suffices) and create a category of meds that you can add to as you work through your piles and cupboards.
If you never put something down without identifying it and making a decision as to the very next action that needs to be done with it, you will break your churning habit and gradually become organized. There is a lot of work to do at this stage, because chances are you do not yet have places for all of these things to go. You may need to buy containers. You may need to buy file folders. You may have to create labels for containers or folders. Once you have the bones of the organizing system in place based on the categories of items in your life, organizing the incoming stuff will take much less effort and you’ll go from churning to smooth like butter organized.