282 - What Is "Maintenance?"

Most of us like to form our own opinions about what maintenance means to us. On the podcast, we talk a lot about the cycle of getting organized and increasing productivity. But what about the maintenance stage of your organizational journey? What does it really mean to maintain something? According to the good old dictionary, maintenance is the process of maintaining or preserving a condition or situation or the state of being preserved. While this gives us more clarity on the meaning of maintenance, it doesn't dive into the details or tell us how it equates to the maintenance of our homes. As we go through the 100 Day Home Organization Program and declutter and organize each space in our homes for the third or even fourth time, we enter a phase of maintenance which I want to unpack with you in this episode of the podcast. What Maintenance Looks Like In The Physical Areas Of Your Home If you asked me what stage of the organizational journey I'm currently in, I would say I'm living in maintenance. I don't do much. Everything in my house is decluttered and organized (I am a professional organizer, after all). But that doesn't mean I don't do the dishes or laundry. I still have non-organizational, cleaning related tasks to do just like anyone else. I still have to put things away at the end of the day. However, once you've decluttered and organized your entire house, it usually stays organized. One reason why your house might not stay organized is because of the kids. I don't mean just the toddlers either. No matter what age they are, kids are like little chaos creators. They tumble through the house like mini tornadoes and just have a way of messing things up. But if your kids tend to mess up their own rooms and the joint family rooms but stay out of your storage room and master bedroom, etc., the work you've done to get the majority of your home organized is probably well maintained. To me, living an organized life that's maintained is when you reach the end of the day and you don't have to start decluttering and organizing everything. All you have to do is pick things up and put them back to where they go. It's simple. In the podcast, I dive deeper into... Maintenance In Different Seasons Of Life Maintenance In Everyday Home Life What Does Maintenance Mean With Your Paper? One thing that you need to come to grips with when it comes to organizing is that your home will never be perfect. Perfect is not the end goal here. The end goal is to live a more organized and functional life and being able to maintain it as a result. View the full post here: https://organize365.com/what-is-maintenance/