My Constant Quest for Organization

One of my (currently) empty cabinets

If you read my blog on a regular basis, then you know that I am constantly and continuously challenged by my Pretty Pinterest Province goal. I have just decided that I will call this quest this particular phrase from now on.

You see, I crave an environment where everything has a place and it all looks neat and coordinated. My problem? Lack of follow through and less money than I would like to devote to this particular Pretty Pinterest Province of mine.

This new house of mine is an opportunity to create the type of world that I crave.

I am starting by creating zones in my new house (which I should be getting keys for in [gulp] five days!!) for various types of things that I want to do. There are four bedrooms. Bedroom #1 is mine, and it will be for dressing and sleeping. I want this bedroom to be a place without a screen (we will see how long that lasts) and for relaxing. So, bedroom #1 will be a relaxation zone. Bedroom #2 will be a guest room and storage for my off-season clothing. Bedroom #3 is not really zoned yet - it will be another guest room, but there will be another purpose as well - I am not sure if it will end up being the sewing room or the collectibles room yet. It might also turn into the instrument room. Bedroom #4 will be the library.

The best part of this house is that it has two living rooms - one upstairs and one downstairs. The upstairs room will be the more formal living room. Eventually it will have my family piano in it. The downstairs room will be the office and studio space - this is where the zone idea will be the most helpful.

When I think about organization, I have several goals in mind. First, I want to be able to get to anything that I need without having to search. So, everything needs to have a logical place. I have realized over the years that my logic is not the same as others', but it only has to make sense to me! Second, I want to have work areas that are dedicated to specific uses. There will be a computer work area, a book making work area, a music therapy visual aid work area, a filming setup, and an area for other craft pursuits as well. The big television will be down there so I'll have some sound when I am working. 

So, now it is time to think about zones! There will be a music therapy zone. I need a place for my music therapy texts and thoughts. That area will include the computer and the printer. Next to that zone, I will put my visual aid work area. This will be a place for the laminators, laminating films, cutting devices, Velcro storage, and camera so I can film what I do just in case anyone else wants to watch it. That area will move into the book making area. I have lots of storage for my various types of papers and materials that I need. It makes sense to have those things near the visual aid area because they share many of the same items. After I get the craft materials stored, I will have some space for comfort items like a squishy chair for watching television or waiting for the computer to finish up its work.

At this point, I envision a HUGE, U-shaped desk in the center of the room, facing the sliding glass door which looks towards the west. I see my white storage things (they are modular shelves with doors and open shelves) along the walls with various papers and materials and knick-knacks being displayed. I see some art on the walls - things I like to look at and that provide an interesting backdrop for my filming and webinars. I want that room to be made for working, but I will strive to put things back where they came from or so help me (points to you if you get that movie reference!!)!

This is going to take time and money. I know that, but I have a vision on what I think it means to be organized in my home. 

How do you organize your music therapy life? I do entire webinars on the tricks and techniques that I have learned over the years. I do zones in my music therapy stuff and it works out well. It is amazing that it has taken me a move before doing this in my own home! 

In my music therapy room, I use cabinets as my zone boundaries. I have a "session materials" cabinet where I keep the most used instruments, materials, and things that I need with me in every type of music therapy session. I have a "sensory materials" cabinet. This is where I keep the toys - the things that my students love to use but that are not always types of things. This cabinet has slime and squishy things and magnetic letters and calm down bottles and large pieces of material and my collection of small animals. The last cabinet that I have in my music therapy room (at the moment - waiting for one more to arrive at some point) is the "string instrument" cabinet. That is where I keep the clinic guitars, ukuleles, and violins. The autoharp lives there, and so do the Boomwhackers. The drums live on top of the cabinets - where they can be seen and accessed at any time, but where they are not used as tools for avoiding the work of therapy. I am striving to come up with the same sorts of zones in my office area - I have started, but I cannot finish this process until I have my last clinic cabinet ready.

When I have been an itinerant therapist in the past, I have adapted this system a bit to make it work when I am on the go! To create my zone boundaries when I am moving from place to place and session to session, I use my favorite organization system of all - COLOR! First, I assign a color to specific sessions. For example, if I am leading a group for young children, another group for older adults, and an individual session with an adult, I have three colors of my organization tools. The sessions for young children will always be one color - it doesn't matter what color it is - what matters is that seeing that color is automatically associated with that particular session type. Sessions for older adults will be a different color - you get the idea. I use bags, scrapbooking boxes, pencil pouches, plastic paper envelopes, and anything that I can find in that particular color to corral my materials for each session. When it is time to lead the individual session, I know that everything that I need for that session will be in the yellow things - I grab everything in that color, and off I go! When that session is finished, I can put all the yellow storage back into the car and then grab the blue things for the sessions with older adults.

This is the first part of the organization process. The second part of my organization when I am doing sessions outside of the music therapy space is a check-out system. Even when it is just me using materials, I keep track of what I put into each session's storage. It is usually just a clipboard list, but it helps me know that I put seven shaker eggs to use with my little kids. If I get back to the storage space and only have five shaker eggs, I know where to find my two missing eggs. This helps me so much to keep myself organized and responsible for my stuff.

Now, there is a piece that is missing here. The last major thing that I do when I am an itinerant therapist rather than a clinic-based therapist is my "always" bag. This functions much like my "session materials" cabinet in my clinic - it is the place where I keep the things that I use most often in sessions and across client and session types. This is the one bag that goes with me to every session. It usually stores my iPod, documentation, my planner, marketing materials (because you never know when you will meet a potential client), and any instrument or visual aid that I plan on using across session types. I use the check-out system for materials, but the rest of the stuff just stays there always. That's why it is my "always" bag.

So, my quest in my personal life is to become more organized (the way I am in my professional life). I will be unpacking and finding places for things to reside in the new house very shortly. As a result, I will be thinking about what works in my professional life and how I can transfer those successes into success at home.

Wish me luck?