Episode 73 - Kerry Thomas: Organizing Ourselves

This week, Samantha talks with the owner of Conquer The Chaos Organizing, Kerry Thomas. Kerry understands that organization is so much more than what people realize, which is why she is so passionate about helping entrepreneurs with organization. She believes that "the more organized you are, the less time you waste."

So many entrepreneurs have undiagnosed ADHD. Our world is almost set up to bring out those traits from people. There’s no time for resting in the entrepreneurial world. This is why she is passionate about helping entrepreneurs, because she understands the pitfalls of entrepreneurship and how the world can work against entrepreneurs.

Kerry says that your level of organization is going to ebb and flow throughout your life. You have to be able to give yourself grace to allow yourself to function sometimes. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Pinterest, for example, is great because of the inspiration you can find from it, but your house doesn’t have to look like Pinterest. Sometimes “perfect” is stressful and sometimes it is peaceful. It depends on the person. Kerry doesn’t care if your hangers match. She has been drawn to people who feel overwhelmed and helps them to get their head above water. She wants people to be comfortable in a way that works for them, not what appears to work for other people.

The feeling of being a failure feeds into your emotional clutter. Kerry wants to simply reverse this flow. Then, once you start to declutter, you actually start wanting to organize. Anybody that has done self-work knows that once you start to work on yourself, you make space for more things to come in and you find that you have more energy. Part of the good energy is simply re-taking your space. On another level, though, everything is made up of energy, including our clutter, and this can de-energize us.

Kerry offers three areas to look at, in general, for organization: home organization, office organization, and internal organization

Home - Have routines, designated spots ("everything needs a home"), and talk with the people you live with to figure out what works for everybody in the home. For Kerry, the kitchen counter was designated as a “no clutter zone” in her house. Start by speaking up and not holding resentment inside.

Office - Look at the information flow. The information that comes in; where does it come in, where does it go, and how does it get to the next place it needs to go? Figure out where the blockages are.

Internal - Kerry helps people develop a toolkit (journaling, meditation, movement, vision boards, etc) for internal organization. In general, though, her tip is to “make the decision.” Change is the result of action, and action is the result of decision. She understands that sometimes it may take people years to make decisions.

What happens when you don’t make your decisions? You get overwhelmed. You get stuck. You don’t have to stay there long, though.

One of Kerry's favorite sayings is "what get’s scheduled gets done." Another one is also, "do what works for you."

You can find Kerry Thomas at:

ctcorganizing.com

(Her TED Talk is on the front page)

The best way to connect with Kerry is through her Facebook Group - "Less Clutter More Peace"