You’ve had it, you’re ready to declutter your home. You want it done now! But, your home didn’t become overwhelming and out of control overnight. If cleaning and organizing hasn’t made it onto your radar for a year, or five, you can’t expect to live in an organized home in a week. That’s unrealistic. So what do you do?

First off some of us have never been taught how to get organized. Most of us are raised only knowing one way to go about things, which turns into hard habits to break. Trying to change a habit instilled in us from childhood takes time. Remember you are learning something new. Change is never easy, quick, or accomplished without effort.

If you’ve always struggled with staying organized, a wave from the Organizational Fairy Godmother, would be nice. Unfortunately, magic wands are only in fairy tales. So, it would be silly to expect in just one day everything would magically “become organized.” It’s going to take time, effort, and a willingness to learn how to organize your life. New good habits need to be practiced every day. Otherwise, it’s very easy to fall back into old bad habits.

We are so used to beating ourselves up for everything we haven’t accomplished that we forget to applaud ourselves for all the things we have done. If you get off track don’t just give up and crash. Refocus and remember where you are going.

Little daily efforts add up to big transformations. Put one foot in front of the other, nothing great has been achieved overnight. Rome was not built in a day. Personal transformations happen over time. Pat yourself on the back when you’ve been doing something right.

It may be daunting at first to declutter your home but if you start with small steps and goals a happy, healthy home is within your reach. Give yourself time to learn how to be organized. Living a simple life is a challenging thing. Just like losing weight or learning a new language, it takes focus and energy. Don’t give up because if you continue to fight the battle it’s only a matter of time before you conquer the clutter.