The Breaking Point: What Will It Take for You to Get Organized?
What type of loss will be the catalyst for you to finally get organized?
Cheryl Vargas, CPO
Will it be misplacing a $500 gift certificate with a known expiration date? Paying a $150 surcharge to replace a lost airline ticket? Or perhaps not being able to find theater tickets you’ve paid scalper prices for online.
Yes, there are treasures lost in piles of clutter; things of value hiding in your space that you’ve long since forgotten. But first, let me tell you about my catalyst for change, my breaking point.
When my three sons were toddlers their grandmother sent savings bonds for their birthdays and holidays. I’d tuck the bonds away in a drawer, (yes, at one time in my life, I had junk drawers) because I knew I would never cash or use the bonds until they reached the ripe old age of 18 or 21 and went off to college.
Well, guess what….the day finally rolled around to where I needed to find those savings bonds. My youngest was going off to New York for college and needed the bonds to help pay for tuition, books and other expenses. Though I dreaded looking through every box and container I’d hauled with me through several moves, the task was inevitable. And the outcome; to sum it up, I never found all of the savings bonds in time for him to use them for school. THAT was my breaking point.
From that point on and to this day I can retrieve any family birth certificate, medical record, insurance policy, tax return or product warranty in a mere 5 seconds, ten seconds tops. When I learned to assign a HOME to something that I clearly value, the purpose of being organized made sense to me.
For the record, my essential family documents are kept in a tab separated binder called, “Family and Identity”. I store gift certificates in the pocket of my wall calendar and mark the coupon’s expiration date on my calendar. Being organized acknowledges not only the value of your possessions; it also enhances positive interaction within your family and bolsters self-confidence.
I’m curious, ”What can’t you find of value that you know is lurking somewhere in the piles?” Anonymous submissions welcomed.
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