I started this blog at the end of August, with the first post being on the first day of school. For moms, that’s the real New Year.

But here we are at the end of December and I’m getting the itch that it seems everyone is getting. Like I said yesterday, magazines and stores are pushing organizational products and ideas really hard.

I think it’s the feeling of starting fresh, but it’s also that I’m out of the routine. Christmas is over, we have lots of new stuff to add to the old stuff, and I’m in the mood to purge clutter.

I’ve been here before. Many times. Year after year after year.

After year.

So what do I normally do? I ferociously declutter a cabinet or a drawer, maybe even two or three. I might even come up with a life-changing solution for a problem spot, like I did yesterday.

But then what?

Then we get back into the swing of things and live the rest of the year in clutter and chaos until I clean out that same cabinet when the urge hits again . . . the next New Year.

But with this blog, I’ve committed to not just keep going in my natural cycle. I’m figuring out my issues and I’m finding what works to change them.

So what is it that will be different this year? Now I finally understand that no matter how many great organizational systems I come up with, no matter how many times I do a big purge, if I don’t do my daily tasks, it won’t matter.

It is so tempting to spend all of today doing organizational projects. So tempting in fact, that I’d rather do these “big impact” things than do the mundane tasks that no one notices unless they’re not done.

But today I did my tasks. I made my bed. I emptied the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen. I swept the kitchen. I did a totally focused 5 minute pickup. I checked the bathrooms for clutter. I started a load of laundry. I hung up clothes in my bedroom. And all of that took LESS than 30 minutes.

My problem is that if I don’t do those things, the things that are totally unnatural to me, the projects don’t make the impact that I want them to. Who cares if my baking supply cabinet is organized if there’s trash on the kitchen floor? And with all of the work on my great shoe-chaos-remedy yesterday, there were several pairs laying out in the middle of the room until I did my 5 minute pickup today.

I get discouraged because my organizational solutions never seem to work. But it’s finding that balance between figuring out the solution and using it daily that’s the issue.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the organizing projects. My New Year’s Resolution, which I’ll share tomorrow, has a lot to do with finding organizational solutions. It’s just that I’m learning through this “coming clean” process that the projects are not solutions unless I’m consistently using them. Confusing enough?

Note from the future:

Almost exactly 12 years after I wrote this post, I released a book called Organizing for the Rest of Us: 100 Realistic Strategies to Keep Any House Under Control. That book has all of the best strategies I learned over the years that truly changed my home. Get it anywhere books are sold, in any format (hardcover, audio or ebook). Learn more about that book here.