No Rules Organizing Personality Style: Clutter Crazy

I’m not disorganized because I know where everything is…

If your office or home has more piles, papers, and miscellaneous items strewn carelessly, you may be a No Rules organizing style preference.

Perhaps your rooms are stacked haphazardly. Maybe your stuff is blocking entries and exits.  And maybe things are just everywhere with no rhyme and reason have taken a long vacation; no order exists. “It’s not messy; I know where everything is,” claims the inhabitant of such a space.

We all have natural behaviors regarding the use of time and how we organize time and space.  Sometimes our styles work well for us, but when we do not understand how to work with our natural styles, we can get in our own way and impede our best intentions. Understanding what can work for us and what does not impacts the overall quality of our life.

“How it looks doesn’t bother me. I still get a lot of work done!”

For a No Rules style personality, finding necessary organizing tools can be a mission rather than a simple task. The No Rules style typically prefers to live in the moment. And since it typically requires maintenance routines, it’s often dreaded and avoided. nd routines can be so boring! Often No Rules style types dislike neatening, organizing, and throwing items away. If you’re repelled by routines, this can stand in the way of becoming and staying organized.

This No Rules™ Style Preference™ can show up in people experiencing situational overwhelm due to life stressors and transitions, or it may be the case of those who struggle with chronic disorganization. Others may be dealing with chronic issues such as ADD, ADHD, or PTSD*.

Your No Rules style may be in the way.

If you express a dominant No Rules style and personality preference, you may truly struggle with organizing. Sometimes a dominant style preference for No Rules, means you’re living through an extraordinary time of transition, change, or loss. You could be too overwhelmed by life situations to worry about straightening up. It is very possible that you may want to be more organized, but just don’t have the skills or knowledge you need to create a system that works.

Could You Lack Organizing Skills?

Another reason you express as a No Rules style is due to basic skills gaps. You may not understand how others manage to function without creating a “mess.” In fact, you may tend to leave a trail of undone items and incomplete things behind you, while at the same time you’re unaware that you do this. So, organizing habits are likely inconsistent or not apparent at all. Therefore, no matter where you go, you may contribute to the problem while being totally unaware you’re doing so.

Additionally, you may not have had the best role models for categorizing, ordering, putting things away, or may have missed the life lessons of critical maintenance tasks.  And because of lifelong clutter and disorganization, you may just not understand that getting organized once and for all could truly improve your quality of life.

Often, It’s More Than Just Clutter

Clutter makes it difficult to navigate within your spaces. Additionally, clutter clogs everything. It doesn’t just affect your space but impacts your emotions, your relationships, and your sense of self.

Your home is much harder to maintain without significantly repressing your feelings. To complicate matters more, clutter causes more stress. Additionally, when added stressors show up, it is harder.

Since it takes energy to live in a cluttered space, any additional stressors that can cause a lapse in energy. Factors that call for increased energy and engagement may be difficult to manage. Not keeping up with maintenance is a root cause of feeling out of control. These feelings can leave a No Rules person unaware of the discomfort others may be feeling in a No Rules space.

Stress makes clutter worse

So, any stressful life situations can cause more anxiety. If you score strongly as a No Rules style, your organizing preference may enhance your negative feelings and make you unable to act or respond to the needs of others.

But what can you do to reduce physical chaos and the emotional overwhelm it causes?

How can a No Rules organizing personality preference create more beautiful spaces, usable systems, and more useful workflows?

Flow is the “natural, effortless unfolding of life in a way that moves us toward wholeness and harmony” (from The Power of Flow, Belitz, and Lundstrom). Establishing flow begins with awareness, presence, and managing your inner experience. The style Flow Steps for each organizing personality preference offer solutions. Flow steps are simple ways you can resolve tension and restore freedom over time and space. Some suggestions for the No Rules Style follow:

6 Simple Actions for No Rules Styles To Get Organized

Here are 6 simple actions to help a No Rules Style organizing personalities to enhance your work and home

1. Accept responsibility for yourself and your environment. Your environment, habits, and behaviors have one source… you. It’s important to take responsibility to learn about and understand your unique organizing preferences, you’ll more quickly develop remedies. Your disorganized, chaotic environment will be replaced systematically with on-style solutions.
2. Adopt easy-to-manage storage and retrieval systems. In order to be successful, you should always strive to create convenient, simple, and suit your personality.
3. Another successful strategy is to enlist help from others. Often, No Rules style types feel isolated and alone. Making statements from others – consider partnerships for a common goal. Then follow these simple strategies.
4. When you do get started, make sure you begin with a small, contained area like a closet, shelf, or drawer.
5. When you work to get organized, try to only work in short spurts. Another way to help yourself stay on task is to use a kitchen timer to set a small time increment.  It can be tempting to try to do too much. Instead, it’s more successful to set reasonable time goals and better to work in small increments of 5 minutes. Building on your successes is much better than setting yourself up for failure.
6. Another strategy to stay motivated and focused on your organizing projects is to set up mini rewards for yourself. Also, incentives can work well for you.

Could I Be A Hoarder?

Have you struggled with clutter your whole life?

If so, you may be struggling with brain-based chronic disorganization. Additionally, some people struggle with life-long hoarding behaviors. If you are concerned that you struggle with brain-related issues that underly the clutter, you may require the assistance and support of a professional team.

There are thousands of experts, professionals, and specialists who help uncouple chronic disorganization and hoarding from your normal life. If clutter is more than just a nuisance, and you’d like to learn more about hoarding behaviors, find the Clutter/Hoarding Scale at ICD – The Institute for Challenging Disorganization, seek out professionals in NAPO who directly work with chronically disorganized, or connect with Children of Hoarders, Inc.

So in conclusion, the six suggestions above are just a few ways to support yourself with a No Rules organizing personality preference. For more valuable information to help you out of your clutter chaos, check out the TSSI. It can help you recognize the aspects over which you have some control. Knowing your style preference helps you take action on the things you can control.

Learning more about your organizing style and personality preferences can create a more pleasing living and working environment and enhance your overall productivity and daily experiences.

The Six Organizing Style Preferences

Different organizing styles require different solutions. These are just a few ways to use your natural style to create a more pleasing workflow experience. Once you identify your dominant preferences you can begin to take steps to integrate more Flow Steps into your experience.

Read about each Organizing Style Preference:

• Everything Out Organizing Style Preference
• Nothing Out Organizing  Style Preference
• Saver Organizing  Style Preference
• Minimalist Organizing  Style Preference
• Straightener Organizing Style Preference
• No Rules Organizing Style Preference

Once you identify your Organizing Style preferences you can integrate Flow Steps into your experience, Click to read more about the 3 flow steps and 6 Organizing Style differentiators.

The Six Time Management Style Preferences

There are 6 Time Management Style preferences too.

• Hopper Time Management Style Preference
• Hyper Focus Time Management Style Preference
• Big Picture Time Management Style Preference
• Perfectionist Plus Time Management Style Preference
• Impulsive Time Management Style Preference
• Cliff Hanger Time Management Style Preference

Click to read more about the 3 flow steps and 6 Time Management Style differentiators.

How The TSSI Can Help

The Time & Space Style Inventory (TSSI™) helps you determine which organizing personality preference best defines your spatial orientation.  You express your organizing style through actions. These actions include how you arrange space, tolerate disorder, and assign value to items you have. So the TSSI can help you learn more about your organizing preferences, and then get organized for good. When you learn how to make the most of your style to increase flow in your life, you’ll have less tension.

EMBRACE your natural organizing style preferences and live with less tension! Use your style preferences to finally get organized for good.

Make it work for you!  Take the Time & Space Style Inventory™ to get your clutter under control today!