Get Organized Day is celebrated on April 26 every year. It’s a day dedicated to cleaning up and decluttering your homes and offices. Did you know? Research has shown that not only does an organized space help you to save time, it also gives you a sense of mental clarity. Many people are swimming in a sea of clutter, frustrated, and confused. Getting organized also enhances productivity, and is closely linked with happiness, restfulness, and a sense of fulfillment!
History of Get Organized Day
Every year, on April 26, the day is dedicated to proper planning, cleaning up, and decluttering — Get Organized Day! While the exact origin and actual history of Get Organized Day are unknown, the aim is obvious — to eliminate the mess.
You probably know someone whose living space is an awful mess, or whose working space is an eyesore — or maybe that ‘someone’ is you! Mountains of clothes scattered across the room, books and papers lying loose everywhere, and dozens of Post-Its unattended. Calls, emails, and unreturned texts. Appointments and missed deadlines. Laundry and dishes undone. If you often find yourself hurtling through heaps of papers, bills, and books to find your keys while dashing off to work every morning, you need this day to organize your space and life.
Disorganized people are rarely productive. Many of them are grumpy, anxious, stressed, and exhausted even before their day begins. This is because they waste ample time trying to locate necessary documents or some other important stuff they need to start their workday.
Organization has many amazing physical and psychological benefits. First, there’s a sense of happiness and bliss that comes with living or working in a clean space. Next, you save time as you no longer have to dig through a heap of clutter — or recruit a recovery team — to help you find whatever essential item you need for your workday. Since you know where your things are, and how to find them, you’re in better control of your space.
While getting organized may seem like a daunting task at first, you’ll get to love it more as you get into it. In the end, you’ll discover that taking time to organize your things is not as difficult as it seems if you’re willing to put in the effort!
Get Organized Day timeline
Julius Caesar introduces his calendar in which the year begins on January 1.
Italy, Spain, and France become major producers of soap due to their ready supply of raw materials, such as oil from olive trees.
Pope Gregory XIII introduces a modified Julian calendar in October.
Edwin G. Seibels invents the filing cabinet.
Get Organized Day FAQs
How do you organize your life in a day?
Organizing your life is more than just what you can achieve in a day. Rather, it’s a habit you’ll need to develop one day at a time. A few of the daily routines to follow to live an organized life include: writing things down to avoid forgetting; using schedules and deadlines; avoiding procrastination; packing everything in a designated place, and decluttering regularly.
How do I become more organized?
Becoming more organized requires an intentional effort. To get more organized at work, consider the following tips. Create task lists according to urgency and priority, and avoid distractions by focusing on the most important task(s) at hand. Use calendars and planners to proactively manage your time. Delegate and outsource tasks you can’t handle, and reduce clutter as much as possible.
Is January National Organization Month?
In 2005, January was designated as Get Organized Month, and a national public awareness campaign on organizing and productivity began. Twelve years later, in 2017, Get Organized Month was rechristened Get Organized & Be Productive (GO) Month.
Get Organized Day Activities
Declutter your living space
Celebrating Get Organized Day begins with decluttering your messy space. This is the perfect day to open up your drawers, closets, storage rooms, and empty them! Carefully scan through your closet and get rid of every unnecessary item — clothes, shoes, makeup items, bags, everything! If you haven’t used them in a year, you probably won’t be needing them anymore. Donate the usable ones to any charity organization accepting used items in your local community.
Clean up your workspace
If your office or corner at work is a mess, it’s time to take some time off work and do the cleaning. Pack up related documents in folders and label them appropriately. Do away with torn pages and Post-Its you’ve attended to. Even your personal laptop or work computer could use some organization. Delete duplicate files, clear caches, and create labeled folders for your files.
Hire extra hands
Overwhelmed by just the thought of cleaning out your space? You’re not alone. You could use the company of your friends, spouse, coworkers, or kids. If no one’s willing to do it for free with you, there are professional organizers who specialize in decluttering and restoring order to your home and office.
5 Fun Facts About Clutter
Finding what’s lost
According to the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), the average American spends about 8,700 hours (one year) of their lives searching for lost or misplaced items!
All that extra baggage
According to NAPO, we end up not using 80% of the items we keep.
Items we look for
Research by Ikea says the top five items men look for in their homes are clean socks, the remote control, wedding album, car keys, and their driver’s license; while for women, they are a favorite pair of shoes, child’s toy, wallet, lipstick, and the remote control!
Benefitting from decluttering
According to The National Soap and Detergent Association, decluttering the average home removes 40% of the housework.
It's the messiest in Texas!
In 2015, Molly Maid, a cleaning organization, listed two Texan cities — Houston and Austin — as the top two of the 10 messiest cities needing a deep clean.
Why We Love Get Organized Day
It’s a day to clean up
Time and other valuable resources are lost at home and work due to clutter and mess. Get Organized Day reminds us that we can avoid these losses by investing time to clean up and clear out the messy clutter.
It promotes better mental health
Research shows that excessive clutter and disorganization are closely related to various health issues, such as attention deficit disorder (A.D.D.), stress, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (O.C.D.). Disorganization can also worsen the occurrence of these health issues. With organization comes better mental health, reduced stress, enhanced productivity and creativity, and improved mood.
It enhances resource management
A notable significance of Get Organized Day is how it helps offices to develop proactive strategies towards the organization and management of corporate resources. Companies lose a lot of time and other corporate assets due to mismanagement, disorganization, and missed deadlines every year. However, these losses can be averted by proper planning, scheduling, and strict compliance with organizational policies.
Get Organized Day dates
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | April 26 | Friday |
| 2025 | April 26 | Saturday |
| 2026 | April 26 | Sunday |
| 2027 | April 26 | Monday |
| 2028 | April 26 | Wednesday |
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