I’m standing in a professional organizer’s basement. Seven kids live here. Seven.
This is the playroom. You know, the room you’re supposed to shut when guests come over.
But here I am. In the playroom. Door wide open.
The books are color-coded. The boxes are labeled — not just “toys,” but dolls, Lego, Playmobil, art supplies, dress-up clothes. One box probably said, “tiny things that hurt when you step on them.” (It didn’t. But it should have.)
Not a single toy on the floor. NOT ONE.
I ask the obvious question: Were you always like this?
She laughs. Not a polite laugh. The kind that says oh, you have no idea.
“Actually,” she says, “not at all.”
THE BEFORE
She wasn’t born organized. Not even close.
“I craved schedules, calm spaces, an uncluttered mind — but it felt elusive.”
She tried systems. They didn’t stick. She tried solutions. She couldn’t carry through. She was always catching up. Always reactive instead of proactive.
“I knew there was a better way. I just couldn’t get there.”
Sound familiar?
THE UNEXPECTED PART
Here’s where I expected her to say she found the right organizer. Or read the right book. Or finally bought enough bins. That’s always the answer, right? Nope.
The shift started with her body.
2011. She started a weight loss program. Lost a significant amount of weight. Kept it off.
And something unlocked.
“I felt empowered that I had finally conquered something that felt impossible. That motivated me to look for solutions to other areas of my life.”
She didn’t organize her way to feeling capable. She felt capable — and then she organized.
WHY THIS MATTERS
I show clients a picture of a frog jumping across three lily pads. (Yes, I use a frog metaphor with clients. Yes, they still hire me.) 🐸
The first pad is STUCK. The third pad is ACTION.
Everyone wants to leap straight from stuck to action. Just tell me what to do. Give me the system. Give me the budget. Give me the plan.
But there’s a middle pad.
It’s called POSSIBLE.
And you can’t skip it.
Here’s what I think is really going on when we stay stuck:
It’s not laziness. It’s not that we don’t know better.
It’s that trying and failing would confirm the thing we’re most afraid is true about ourselves. That we really can’t do this. That we’re not the kind of person who gets it together. That everyone else got the manual and we didn’t.
So we don’t try. We stay on the first lily pad. Because stuck is safer than wrong.
But she didn’t stay stuck.
She found one thing — not closets, not organizing, but her body — and she conquered it. And that landing, that moment of I did something impossible, became the middle pad.
Suddenly, the leap to action wasn’t so far.
THE CASCADE UP
“One success led to another.”
That’s her line. And it’s THE WHOLE THING.
She got one system working. Then another. Then another. Not all at once — slowly. But each win made the next one feel possible.
Body → Mind → Space → Life.
The opposite of falling apart is not “getting it together.” It’s building momentum. One drawer. One habit. One decision that actually sticks.
And then another.
WHAT IT FEELS LIKE NOW
I asked her what it’s like to walk into her own home.
“People ask me if I feel jealous of my clients’ beautiful homes,” she said. “I always tell them — nothing gives me more joy than walking into my clean, organized house. I wouldn’t trade it for any of the messy mansions I work in.”
Messy mansions. (btw, I’m totally stealing that phrase)
She doesn’t envy them. Not for a second. Because what she has isn’t square footage. It’s peace.
Her kids know where everything goes. Cleanup doesn’t take hours. They’re not wasting time looking for things or moving clutter from place to place.
The system works because it fits their life — not someone else’s.
WHAT SHE TEACHES NOW
She has a whole team of organizers now. She trained them.
And here’s the thing — they do the actual organizing. The bins. The labels. The systems.
Her job? She sits with the client.
“You have to understand how to deal with the person first,” she told me. “The mindset around the mess. That’s where the real work is.”
The tactics come second. The underneath comes first.
I see the same thing with money every day. People want the budget. The spreadsheet. The system. But until they land on the middle lily pad — until they believe change is actually possible for them — the tactics don’t stick.
THE PERMISSION
One more thing she said:
“Many people think they can’t change. That they’re doomed to a life of disorganization. But I’ve seen — in myself and in my clients — that change is possible. And maintainable.”
Not overnight. Not perfectly. Her house still gets messy — seven kids, remember? But the system holds. Because it’s hers.
That’s the invitation.
You don’t have to be someone else. You just have to find the system that fits your life.
And the first win — wherever it comes from — might unlock more than you expect.
Avraham
Your Financial Coach
P.S. Next week: What happens when it all falls apart at once. Space, mind, money — the cascade down. It’s heavier. But it’s part of the story.
P.P.S. If you’re waiting for the “right” place to start — maybe it’s not your budget. Maybe it’s the one thing that feels impossible. Conquer that, and see what else shifts.
Comments are closed.