Yesterday, a client messaged me a picture of a newly cleared corner of her bedroom. She was super excited and proud of her progress, but she told me, “It was tremendously painful.”
To an uncluttered person, it might sound strange that the process of clearing clutter can be painful. And yet, that pain and discomfort stop most people from getting organized.
There are many challenging parts to getting organized…
- Getting started
- Coming across items from loved ones who have passed away
- Projects we started but never finished
- The 47th pair of scissors we keep buying because we can’t find the other pairs
- Finding a past-due bill
These things are challenging, but they don’t necessarily make us quit organizing.
More often than not, finding these items sends us down a shame spiral and causes us to look for something easier to tackle.
But the thing that truly makes us stop in our tracks when it comes to getting organized is…
The last 1%.
We don’t quit because of the first 99% of our clutter…we quit because of the last 1%.
The bits and bobs that we don’t know what to do with. The random stuff that doesn’t quite have a home. Things that are too small to matter, but too important to throw away.
So, we organize 99% of the items in a room. And when we’re faced with that last 1%, we either walk away, leaving it to get re-cluttered again. Or we shove it in a bag and tell ourselves we’ll get to it “later.”
But later never comes.
And the truth is, you’re not simply shoving random things into a bag. You’re confronting shame, fear, grief, panic, anxiety, and overwhelm.
And it may seem pretty benign to save some last bits of clutter for later.
But clutter is magnetic. And like attracts like.
So that random hodgepodge of clutter is always going to attract more clutter and chaos to it. And the cycle begins again.
True freedom comes from finishing that last 1%.
But there’s a reason why most people never finish it…because it completely, totally sucks.
I don’t have a tip to make it better. I can’t wave a magic wand and make it fun or easy. (I’m really selling this, aren’t I?)
Look, the journey of organizing is a transformational process. It’s messy (pun intended), chaotic, and challenging…and yet, it will leave you a totally different person in the best possible way.
It allows you to confront your patterns and processes. It invites the person you’re becoming to be more present in your life today. It helps you release versions of yourself that you’ve outgrown. And it sets you free from what’s holding you back.
At its core, organizing isn’t about a tidy house. It’s about you stepping into your power.
And once you do that, clutter doesn’t have the same hold on you anymore.
You will have changed. You will have learned about yourself in a way that makes you impenetrable to chaos…from the inside out.
It’s life-changing.
And the last 1% is the key to that transformation.
It seems simple, and yet it’s one of the most profound things you can do.
The last 1% looks different for everyone, so I can’t give you a simple 10-step protocol to handle it. But what I can do instead is show you what it looks like to walk someone through their last 1%, and let the transformation speak for itself.
This week’s podcast is an organizing session I recorded a few years ago with Sarah, a dear friend and member of the Chaos to Calm Community. She bravely lets us into her home to confront the last 1%.
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But as a special treat, I’m also sharing an hour-long video of our session (for those of you who want to see the clutter with your own eyes).
It’s an inspiring and powerful session. I’m so grateful for her generosity and bravery in doing this work with me.
Because organizing isn’t made in giant cleanouts, beautiful “after” pics, or cleared countertops.
It’s made by facing the tiny, minuscule items that feel like they’re too small to matter, but actually contain a universe of healing.
True progress is made in the last 1%.
If you’ve been staring at your own last 1%, I hope this organizing session helps you feel a little less alone.
