Do you ever clean your space and feel so much better? It feels like you’ve got everything all nice and organized. Or so you think it’s organized. This week, we chat about the often misunderstood difference between cleaning and organizing. We highlight how confusing these two actions can lead to frustration in one's organizing journey.
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In this episode we talk about:
- Defining organizing and cleaning
- Why it’s important to distinguish both actions
- Practical solutions to separate cleaning and organizing to prevent burnout
- Strategies for maintaining a clear distinction between cleaning and organizing
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The Organized & Productive podcast is brought to you by The Organized Flamingo and hosted by Stephanie Y. Deininger! For those of you who love the thought of organizing & being more productive, but don’t know where to start or constantly up against hurdles that don’t let you advance the way you want to, this podcast is for you!
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Review the Transcript
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:00:00]:
Hi, friends and listeners of the podcast. Welcome to our next episode here at Organized and Productive, the podcast. This week, we are leaning into the world of cleaning versus organizing. We're going to talk about why they get confused, how they get confused, and why this confusion may be the reason why you're so frustrated over your organizing journey, why you feel like you're not advancing or you're not the quote unquote organized person that you truly want to be. So before we do go though, everybody, you know, we start with, like, a table of contents. If you're new, we I just kinda give you a heads up over what's coming in the episode, and then we go on our merry way. So today, so we'll start off with the definition of both of cleaning and Organized. So we can all start with the same definition.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:00:54]:
And then I will then go into each of those, give you a little detail about what one of them how, you know, how we define it, how we and today's society react or activate our organizing selves or our cleaning selves. And then I will go ahead and talk about why mixing the mixing them both or combining both of those actions into and may be the reason that you're getting frustrated. And then we're we'll talk about solutions over what to do when you how to separate them first, and then what to do when if you are mixing them together. Like, if you're going on these cleaning frenzies. But what to do so that you can start separating the 2, and you can find The you know, find what it is that you're actually needing. Do you need an organizing service or to be more organized or learn more of The? Or do you need to lean into the cleaning piece of it? So we'll go in that order, and let's get to our conversation. Welcome to the Organized and productive podcast with The Organized Flamingo. I'm your host, Stephanie, a professional organizer and productivity expert.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:02:03]:
Ready to explore the right organizing and productivity solutions for you? Yeah? Well, then let's go. Let's start with the definition of cleaning. And we are using the Merriam Webster's dictionary for the definitions here today. And I'm only really saying the definition so that we both are starting from the same definition. Right? But I think most of you know and understand that cleaning is the removal of dirt. The primary goal of cleaning is to remove the the dirt, the dust, the stains, the unwanted substances. Maybe the part of cleaning can also be disinfecting. So that's the the action of Flamingo, and then the actions to get to that place.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:02:47]:
Right? So then it's the scrubbing. Whether you use scrubbing or how you go about it is an entirely different conversation and tips, but we are just defining so that that is The action of cleaning. Then we have the action of organizing. And organizing is about finding an orderly way to find your items, to arrange the items systematically for efficiency, accessibility, and visual appeal as well. And as you can already tell just from the definition, like, if you just do a quick search, open your dictionary up, those 2 are 2 different types of actions. Quite frankly, we can stop the podcast there, and you can probably already tell where I'm going with The, That those two actions are so different The if you are to mix them up and use them interchangeably, you will then start to get frustrated because and is just all about cleaning and scrubbing and making it shiny and clean. And the other is about finding a way to efficiently look for your things, arrange your things so that it can serve your life's purpose. And when we start to mix them together and you start to say, oh my gosh.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:04:07]:
My space needs to get more organized. I'm so disorganized. But what it really could be happening is that your space is really more dirty and you need to clean it, you might be blaming yourself for something that you're not. This really comes into play with clients who start to throw away things and declutter, and they're they're on a mission. Like, they really want to get Organized, and they start just throwing everything away. And they just get everything brand new. And they spend money on these unnecessary things over and over because all they're doing is trying to liberate themselves from the dirt. And instead of really doing the cleaning piece, they're just removing items from their visual perception, like, in front of them.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:04:54]:
So it it looks like it's clean and organized, but they're really just clearing the space. They're not really organizing the space. And that could lead to frustration. Now to be fair, those these two actions are very The one of the reasons that they're very they're they're mixed up a little bit is because the actions to do both of these are very similar. So you're not mixing up reading with cleaning. I mean, those two actions and what you use from your senses are very different. With cleaning and organizing, they're the the way that you go about it is probably very similar. You are probably going to the area where you keep your cleaning supplies and your organizing supplies.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:05:38]:
You are probably doing a little bit of dusting as you're organizing. And so we start to kind of interchangeably use both of those at the same time because you're the areas where they're kept, the actions of your senses of yourself to go about and do this action are very similar. So then to be fair, that is probably why we are mixing them together. But it is important to think of them as 2 different actions, or else you will always be in this perpetual frustration of feeling like you're never clean enough or you're never organized enough. Okay. So now that we've established that they're both 2 different actions definitions and ways of making your space more joy you know, a little bit more clean and and joyful and the way that you want it to be, but that they are 2 different actions. Let's talk about what happens if you are mixing them as the same thing. If you are thinking that they're both the same thing, okay, and now what do I do to what do you do to separate both of them? So one of the things that I would suggest immediately, you you as more like an immediate action, not for you to do immediately, but for you to think about more in the immediate is for you to put the items in separate areas of some sort and then labeling them.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:06:57]:
So putting your cleaning supplies in one area, and then you're organizing supplies in another. Now this is where I understand it can get a little frustrating because when you're organizing, sometimes you do like to dust. But when you separate your duster and put it over on your cleaning side, that side of the cabinet or the or the closet, you will start to define both actions as very separate actions, and treat them as such. So that when you're organizing, you're truly sorting. You're, you know, you're truly going through. Like we have our and steps of organizing almost anything. So let's say you are following that. You are truly decluttering and sorting and finding a home for any everything.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:07:42]:
And you are not in in the middle of it all trying to also vacuum and dust and clean and make it look pretty and shiny. And then overspending your time cleaning when you should be making decisions about what to declutter, what to keep, what to donate, what and and making those types of decisions instead. And not getting so tired of the whole process because instead of organizing, you were really just cleaning, and now you now you're just tired, of course. So that is one of and of my first tips, to separate your supplies that you use for both things very separately. Like your tape measure is going to be on your organizing side. Right? Because most likely you're measuring, how big a, drawer should be or the organizing tool you're going to be using in the drawer, and all of that. So your tape measure, your and your bins, all of those things are going to go into your organizing side, and then the other in your cleaning side. And if you can separate them as far away from each other as possible, just until you get used to the the the idea that those are 2 different actions, that would be very helpful.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:08:57]:
And then the second quick tip that I have for you that you can implement immediately is that when you're organizing so for like I I mentioned earlier, we have our and steps of organizing almost anything. So you're more than welcome to use those steps. But whatever steps you end up using to organize when you lay out your plan, you know, okay. 1st, I need to do this 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th. Nowhere in there should you be putting dusting the shelves. And if you do, make sure you are highlighting or understanding that that is a different task, that that is not part of your organizing journey. I get it The especially when we're working with in kitchens, pantries, bathrooms, garages, and things like The, and we're opening a dresser or a and drawer to organize it, and we take everything out. Naturally, all The junk and gunk and dust and things in there will come out of it, right, when you're dumping the The, let's say.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:09:48]:
And so you naturally want to clean the drawer. You want to vacuum it. You want to get some cleaning spray or water and Dawn soap, and you're just scrubbing away because you don't want to be putting stuff back in that's dirty. I get that. I really do. And that is The perfect time for you to do it. Because as long as The stuff is out, let's clean this up. But that is where you start to run into overwhelm and burnout.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:10:15]:
Because now you've stepped into a different action. You've stepped into cleaning mode. And if you're the type of person that gravitates towards doing a good old clean The makes you feel good about, you know, life in general, like, it's almost like therapeutic. Right? Like, you're scrubbing away all that dirt and it's like a symbolism of life. And so for some of you, you take great gratification over The. And there is less decision making when it comes to cleaning. You can be listening to an audio book or a podcast, hopefully, us, while you're cleaning, and you don't you can pay attention. And when you're organizing, you have to pay a little bit more attention to the actions because you're making more executive decisions, like what to keep, what to not keep, what to you know, you put it on.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:10:58]:
You make sure that it fits and stuff like that. So I understand why in the hardship of the organizing steps, you insert cleaning in there, and then you kind of get lost in the cleaning. So that is why it's really important to make a plan for your organizing projects because somewhere in there, you will either just note that you're not cleaning. This is all about decluttering. This is all about Organized. And save the cleaning for another day. So make a plan. And when you are doing your organizing and or decluttering, that you don't insert the cleaning action anywhere in The, that you treat it some somewhere separate.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:11:40]:
Part of this tip is, some clients, what we'll do is we'll do, like, a whole organizing Productive. And we'll, of course, you know, do some light light cleaning. We we would not be putting something dirty back in its place. But then we will immediately have a cleaning service come and, follow our services immediately after. And sometimes even before depending on what we're doing and we're working. Like, if we're moving you to a new place, we will have the new place cleaned first. So that way, we are putting the stuff into a clean environment. So that is if you have the resources and ability, hiring a cleaning service to, clean right after you're done Organized, so that they can come in and, you know, finish and of the other side that you may not want to do.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:12:25]:
Now if you gravitate towards cleaning and for you, you are actually the opposite. You kind of just delay on the organizing side. That is when you do the other side. Right? You hire someone to come in and organize. You do the cleaning instead. And so whichever one you gravitate towards more or maybe you end up spending more time on, you know, do the opposite and then maybe they're higher or ask a friend to help you. Maybe you both have complimentary skill sets. Maybe they love to clean and you love to organize.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:12:54]:
So you both will switch maybe a space, maybe a closet, and you do you will each do each other's other parts of the cleaning Organized duo skills. In that way, you know, you can concentrate on and action at a time. Okay. So that's the end of our actionable episode. We have a couple of these ever so often where they're just short and sweet and straight to the point so that you can take action on the tips or whatever it is that we discussed. In today's case, we talked about separating both the cleaning task and skill set to the organizing skill set. Okay? And then in the next couple of weeks, we will have an expert that talks about cleaning tips. And so, hang on tight for that one.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:13:37]:
And if you have any questions or if you have questions that you want us to address in the cleaning episode, please let us know by messaging us over on social media or sending us a message at hello at The Organized flamingo.com. Until next time. Thank you for listening to the Organized and productive podcast with The Organized flamingo. If you enjoyed today's episode, I would love it if you'd leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast player. It helps with letting people know that we're here. For full show notes and resources, head on over to the Organized flamingo.com/podcast. Happy organizing.