50 Times People Encountered Perfectly Organized Things And Just Had To Document Them

We asked the organizing expert Shara Kay how one becomes a professional in the field. She shared her quite unconventional story with us. "I had been working in the entertainment industry for over a decade," Shara begins, "when in 2017, I had a film fall apart in pre-production."

"It was devastating! I turned to my lifelong passion for organizing and began helping family and friends with moves, estate clearing and other projects as a means of channeling my energy."

"It was tremendously satisfying work and I learned that there was a lot of demand for the skills I had always taken for granted. Rather than search for another producing gig, I launched my organizing company and never looked back," Shara tells Bored Panda.

Even if people who use Shara's services are seeking more organization in their lives, saying goodbye to possessions is hardly ever easy. Bored Panda asked the organizational expert how her company deals with that.

"We encourage clients to examine why they might be struggling to let go," Shara explains. "We suggest strategies and alternatives such as keeping the best example(s) instead of a whole set or category, or taking a photo rather than keeping a memento that is in poor condition."

"When it comes to practical ‘I might need it someday’ items, we recommend setting a rule like not worrying about letting go of unused items that could be replaced in under 30 minutes for under $30," the expert shares some useful advice.

We were also curious to know what role does visual satisfaction play in Shara's job. She says it's essential. "Seeing is believing!" Shara says. "A visually tidy space helps relieve stress and promote a sense of calm that improves overall well-being."

"It's incredibly satisfying for both organizers and our clients to see the results of our work. And while there are plenty of larger-scale projects that extend over the course of weeks or months, we can see change happen with each and every appointment. We truly have the best job!"

As you scroll through this wonderful list, you might feel a slight pang of guilt and jealousy. “Why can't I organize my space in such an orderly way?" There seems to never be enough time for tidying up. And there's just so much stuff! Where do you even start?

There are heaps of books, special methods and organizing techniques, making the task of organizing, well, more well-organized. There's the world-renowned KonMari method, the Swedish Death Cleaning technique, and many more. Reaching out to a professional organizer is always a good option too – these people will surely know what they're doing.

But why do people find it so hard to declutter? Why is it so hard to get rid of things we don't need and tidy up our spaces in a well-organized manner? Organizing coach and author of Organize Your Way: Simple Strategies for Every Personality Kelly McMenamin says the phenomenon at fault is the big capitalist beast – consumerism.

"When a consumer buys something because it elicited a positive feeling, improved self-esteem, and increased social belonging, then it's easy to see why it might be difficult down the line to toss those happy vibes into the trash like yesterday's news," McMenamin writes for Psychology Today.

That's one of the main reasons why saying goodbye to a thing you no longer use might be hard. There are certain memories and feelings mixed with that item. Sometimes even parts of your identity might be in the mix. "The act of decluttering an attic full of past purchases is therefore a lengthy exercise in anticipation of bad feelings," Kelly McMenamin writes.

McMenamin is also an advocate for messy organization. That might sound like an oxymoron, but she assures that it isn't. "Some people are messy, some are neat, and neither has anything to do with organization," she writes for Psychology Today. "Organization is about retrieval. You can be organized regardless of where you fall on that messy/neat continuum."

She has a funny way of dividing people into two groups when it comes to organizational styles: 'pilers' and 'filers'. We can describe the two groups in more simple terms as well: messy and neat. 'Filers' are neat. They're tidy. Piles of paper immediately look disorganized to them.

McMenamin's 10+ year experience in the organizing business has taught her that the second half of the population, the 'pilers', are not untidy. They just have differently wired brains. "I learned that there's usually a rhyme and a reason to any mess or pile," she writes. "Often, a slew of piles masks a simple organizing strategy: a rudimentary piling system."

The professional organizer describes how she helps the 'pilers’. "I build a piling system that replicates the essence of their natural piling strategy while creating more visual order and efficiency than was there beforehand. I figure out how many piles or categories tend to occur and buy clear, open bins for each and label them."

What's the reasoning behind the organizing method that 'pilers' prefer? Essentially, there's no visually pleasing element. There are no satisfying well-organized spice racks, bookcases are not color-coded. So how can they enjoy the messy order?

McMenamin writes that it's because the 'pilers' are visual thinkers. They find it hard to locate things once they're away from their sight. In some cases, people even forget that they had an item they hadn't thought about in a long time. For those who prefer piling organizational systems, cabinets are places where things go to rest and never see the light of day again.

It's true, piling systems don't look Instagrammable. They probably would never make it into a list like this. Yet they work for a huge portion of the human population. "There is no point to me creating an entire new system for a client that looks pristine with everything tucked away inside of a filing cabinet if it's not going to actually work for them," McMenamin concludes in her blog post.