My friend, Michele, stopped by the other day. She caught me shooting my belongings with my digital camera in order to make my photo inventory of belongings- in event of the hurricane that I hope doesn’t happen!

“You’re so organized,” she said. “I don’t know how you do it.”

This morning, as I started to settle into my office chair for a day of office work, her words came to me. There I was looking at the dog’s bed, covered in a layer of hair. I swear there is more dog hair in the house than on the dog. For the third day in a row, I thought “Man, that thing needs to be washed.”

Today, I grabbed it and marched to the washer, presumably leaving an even bigger trail of dog hair in my wake.

The response, Michele, to the statement of “I don’t know how you do it.” is just that. You do it.

Admittedly, I should have done “it” three days ago when I saw it the first time. But, at least it is swishing in the Maytag now. Admittedly, I should have made the photo of inventory of my house last hurricane season, my first on the Gulf Coast in many, many years. But at least now it is safely done.

In that lies the difference between organized and obsessed. The organized folks do “it”  and try to keep up with “it.” The obsessed get panicked and freak out that everything must be perfect. Who can live like that?

Sometimes people, who don’t know me, ask if my house is organized. “Does it look like those magazine photos,” they’ll ask. The answer is yes, my house is organized and no, it doesn’t look like a magazine photo. Real people live here. We keep up with “it” and do “it” but we are not obsessed by “it.”

I’m a professional organizer not an obsessed organizer. I can help you figure out how to do “it” in your home too.