How to Become an Organized Person (Even If You've Never Been One)

This episode is for anyone who's decided they're just not an organized person. You've read the blog posts, tried the checklists, and you're still struggling to make any of it stick.

I sat down with Coach Tracy Hoth, a certified life and organizing coach and host of the top 1% Organized Coach Podcast, to talk about why that happens and what actually shifts it.

The Same Five Steps for Everything

Tracy's been helping people get organized for 18 years. When she became a certified life coach, she combined the mindset side with the practical side and landed on five steps she uses for absolutely everything, your home, your business, your calendar, even your own mind when you're overwhelmed.

You only have to get good at one skill, and it works everywhere.

That's the part I love. You're not learning a new system every time you tackle a new area of your life, you're getting better at the same five steps over and over.

Why You Can't Outperform Your Identity

Here's the line that stuck with me most. Tracy said we can't outperform our identity.

If you still think of yourself as a mess, a piler, someone who "just isn't good at this," you'll stay exactly where you are no matter how many systems you try.

One of Tracy's clients thought her house was always a disaster. But when she looked closer, she realized she was meticulously organized at work and when planning vacations.

That gave her brain evidence. If she could be organized there, maybe she really was an organized person, and she could bring that same skill into her home. If limiting beliefs are what's actually keeping you stuck, here's how to start breaking down the ones running the show.

Rewriting the Story You Tell Yourself

I talk about this constantly with decluttering specifically. Before anyone lets go of their stuff, they have to deal with the belief sitting underneath it.

Albert Bandura's self-efficacy model comes up in my own work a lot for exactly this reason. If you walk into a project believing you can't do it, that belief blocks the actions you'd need to take to actually finish it.

Tracy talked about this from the coaching side too. Sometimes we can't see our own beliefs until someone else points them out.

She used to think she just wasn't good at things she wasn't naturally talented at, so she'd quit. Once someone named that pattern, she got to choose a different one. It's kind of crazy how many of these stories about our own clutter are running in the background without us noticing.

Why "I Have a Plan" Changes Everything

Tracy has clients replace "I don't know what to do" with "I have a plan," even when the plan is as small as sorting five pieces of paper a day. That one thought took a client from stuck to having her entire house of paperwork sorted.

Adding "yet" works the same way. "I'm not good at this yet" and "I'm not good at this, and that's okay, I'm getting better" both shift the story out of a dead end and into progress.

Even my three-year-old is picking this up from watching Gabby's Dollhouse, she'll walk in and say "I don't know how to do this yet." It's wild that they're teaching this at three when most of us didn't learn it until our forties.

You Don't Need a Free Weekend

One of the biggest myths is that organizing takes huge blocks of time you don't have. Tracy talked about running a mile every day for an entire year, even though she isn't a runner, just because someone in her program committed to it too.

Fifteen minutes a day, done consistently, can get you through an entire closet. Pull out just your pants one day, just your short sleeve shirts the next, and run each category through sort, purge, assign a home, contain, and energize.

If the time excuse is the one that's got you stuck, it really is possible to find time to declutter even on a packed schedule.

What to Do With Fifty Piles of Overwhelm

Tracy told a story about standing in front of an overwhelming garage, completely frozen, while her client waited and paid her by the hour. She talked herself through it with one thought, the first step to organizing is to sort, so just walk forward and grab something.

She picked up a can of paint. "Paint supplies go here." Then a rake. "Lawn supplies go here." Nothing about the garage had changed, but she felt focused the second she started moving.

That's exactly why the first step in decluttering anything is so much smaller than people think.

Talk to Yourself Like You'd Talk to Your Kid

When the negative self-talk kicks in, the shame spiral, the "why didn't I do this sooner," Tracy has a trick. Notice it and say out loud, "this is the part where I beat myself up," then picture how you'd actually talk to your grandkid or your neighbor's kid in that same moment.

You'd never tell a kid they're lazy or a mess. Practicing that same kindness toward yourself takes reps, especially if beating yourself up is the pattern you're most fluent in.

Try On Your Future Self

Tracy's favorite tool for identity shifts is basically method acting. Picture the version of you a year from now who has the home or business you actually want, and ask what she would say or do in this moment.

Some people can't picture that version of themselves yet, so Tracy has them invent a character instead, like the client who imagined a strong, no-nonsense woman named Olga and asked what Olga would do.

It reminded me of how many performers do this exact thing. Beyoncé has Sasha Fierce, Superman has Clark Kent. The more you practice thinking like that person, the more you start actually becoming them.

The only thing standing between where you are and where you want to be is a skill gap, a mindset gap, or both.

And both of those are things you can close.