ORDER Week

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ORDER - Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

It really worked out great to have this end up the week I am moving. I would love to admit some great planning on my part but I put my list together and the sequence just sort of stuck. As I mentioned in my post about the distinctions of Bliss  I was certain this belonged on my virtues list because I could palpably recall feeling blissful when I succeeded in bringing something that previously was in disarray to its proper, orderly state. I've never been very good at keeping things in that state, ask anyone who has ever had to live with me! It is something I'd like to be better at maintaining, but just reaching ORDER from time to time is wholly blissful.

Ben Franklin had this to say in his Autobiography about order after a lifetime of study: "In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order; and now I am grown old, and my memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the whole, tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it..." So like Ben, I hope to be a better and happier person for attempting it!

One of the exciting parts about moving into a new house is you have a very clean slate.  We won't have any bad habits, yet, about dropping coats on the back of this or that chair so it is possible to start a habit of putting things in the coat closet. We also get to decide where everything actually belongs. I have always ended up with a "junk drawer" but in this last house I actually have two! Check out photo:

 I really hope I can avoid this this time around!

This week's  "Bliss Initiatives" are color coded in purple for quick identification. They are concrete things that you too can try,  if you want to play along with me.  However, because as Earl Nightingale says, "you become what you think about,"  even if you only follow along,  and never take on any of the bliss initiatives,  I expect some positive results. I will be exploring and encouraging ORDER this way:

• Study - I will be poking around the internet,  I will be reading "The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized * Manage Your Time * Eliminate Clutter and Experince Order * Keep Your Family First"  by Karen Ehman, and I will be re-reading the parts of Ben Franklin's Autobiography that apply.  Both books include a time management aspect of ORDER so I will be considering the "let each part of your business have its time" part of my ORDER definition.
 

• Field work -  In my case, this will be simple. I will be packing and unpacking in a way that leaves me with a organized new home by the end of the week! LOL "Simple" -- well, simple in that I will be doing it. How it actually goes will be an entirely different matter. I will, no matter what, be keeping you posted!  For those of you who won't be moving, I recommend picking one thing (a junk drawer, closet, or desk) or one place (the garage, office, kitchen) that would bring you the most pleasure to have organized and bring that thing to order. If you succeed in getting one thing the way you like it start on the next!   

• Bliss work - This one is good for everyone no matter how organized you already are or aspire to be. Each day I will be giving  at least one thing away. Less is more and we have way too much stuff.  It is a great feeling when one frees themselves from the burden of their stuff and then to know that someone else could benefit makes the whole process highly addictive! If you like how this feels you may even want to consider the 29 day Giving Challenge.

Cami Walker, founder of the wonderful  29 day Giving Challenge said this about giving things away "I want to notice what happens in my life if I focus my energy on giving ... What space will it create in my life for new and unexpected things to occur? What shifts will I see in my thinking and behavior as a result? What impact will my gifts have on others? These are just a few of the questions I'm curious about. Who knows what will unfold?

Nothing is planned. I don't know what I'll give away each day. I just begin the day and when I feel moved to give something, I do. This really goes against my control freak nature, but taking contrary action is sometimes needed to create change. Part of me initially wanted to plot out the... days and line up the things I'm giving in my hallway so I have the illusion of knowing what to expect. But collapsing into that old, manipulative way of being would defeat the purpose of the experiment."
 

• Get in the mood for order - This is a really fun one.  To figure out just what is important to me I am going to leaf through magazines like REAL SIMPLE,  PARENTING, OPRAH and figure out what organizational tools I want to use and activities I want on our family calendar. I will be creating a new vision board (see photo of the one currently hanging in our house - which helped us with finding the house we would later buy!) to foster the new organized way into existence.

Next Post: Everyday Bliss Give Away!

My 13 bliss virtues: joy, order, creativity, passion, whimsy, serenity, inquiry, community, romance, gratitude, moxie, humility, surprise