4 Powerful Strategies for Getting Organized As A Couple: Couple Struggles Part 5
You may see yourself in one or more of my previous articles on struggles that couples face when trying to get organized:
Part 1: Every Couple Struggles
Part 2: Who’s Really “The Organized One”?
Part 3: How to Get Your Reluctant Partner On Board With Organizing
Part 4: What to Do when Your Partner Wants to “Just Get Rid of It!”
If so, know that you are very much not alone! You’re also probably wondering how to tackle your organizing struggle with your loved one. Here are some strategies that I both use and recommend to keep the organizing process smooth and as low on conflict as possible.
Photo by Kelly Vorves
1) Acknowledge that it takes two to tango.
Both of you got your home the way it is today, and both of you are going to have to work together if you want it to change. This doesn’t necessarily mean that each of you contributed 50% of the mess or have to do exactly 50% of the work during the organizing project! It does mean that it isn’t productive to spend time and energy blaming one half the couple (whether it’s yourself or your partner!). Instead, team up as co-conspirators in the organizing process.
2) Avoid placing a value judgement on organizing skills.
Some people are good at organizing. And some people aren’t. That’s ok! Organizing is not a personality trait, it's a skill that can be learned. So, if you’re already good at organizing, that doesn’t mean that you’re better or smarter than someone who isn’t - and the reverse is of course also true. If you can separate your feelings about your partner’s organizing skills from your feelings about them as your love and partner in life, it will be at lot easier to work together!
3) Give each person their own space.
I find that a lot of organizing struggles stem from objects being commingled at random. Of course, many items in a home are shared among everyone that lives there - kitchen tools being one of the most obvious examples! But by mixing up things that clearly belong to individual people, you muddy the waters about who is responsible for organizing those items and the spaces they live in. And in a vacuum of responsibility, nothing gets done. The more you can separate belongings and give them dedicated, designated locations, the easier it is to assign responsibility and the more control each person will feel over their own belongings.
Photo by Kelly Vorves
4) Think about how tradition has affected your approach.
In pretty much all the heterosexual couples I work with, the female partner is in charge of the home - whether or not she works and/or earns more than the male partner. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it’s of course up to each couple to divide responsibilities in the way that works for them. However, this traditional division of labor can become a problem when it happens by default and/or puts a greater total burden on the female partner.
(Note: this dynamic can also exist in homosexual couples where the partners have defined their identities based on traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity.)
So, I really encourage you to talk to your partner about the goals you share for keeping your home organized and how each person can contribute to reaching them. This keeps the focus off divvying up major, well known tasks like laundry and dishes, since that traditional approach can obscure the many smaller tasks that contribute to a home but are often automatically picked up by women and unnoticed by men.
In conclusion…
All of the above are strategies, but none of them can be implemented without a shared vision. So Step 1 should always be to get on the same page about what you want your home to look and feel like, and how you want to use your space. After all, it’s impossible to properly share the load when you haven’t defined it in the first place!
If you and your partner are ready to get organized but not sure where to start, I can help! Schedule your professional organizing consultation here, and let’s make a plan to give you the organized home you crave.
LMW
