We all know the benefits of being better organized – less stress, greater productivity, better work/life balance, more time and overall more happiness. Below is a list of stats (some totally fun like #7 “Men were three times as likely to cook dinner if they owned a spice rack than if they did not own a spice rack” and some totally scary. Check out # 3 about multitasking and IQ (Yikes!) Let me know your thoughts – Leave a note in the comments section!
- In a 2009 NAPO Survey of 400 consumers nationwide, 27 percent said they feel disorganized at work, and of those 91 percent said they would be more effective and efficient if their workspace was better organized. 28 percent said they would save over an hour per day and 27 percent said they would save 31 to 60 minutes each day.
- A recent Harvard Business Review post said multitasking leads to as much as a 40% drop in productivity, increased stress, and a 10% drop in IQ.
- People today check their email from the strangest of places. Where you ask? 67% in bed, in their pajamas; 59% from the bathroom (up from 53% last year); 50% while driving (up from 37% last year); 39% in a bar or club; 38% in a business meeting; 34% during happy hour; 25% while on a date and 15% from church (up from 12% last year.)”
- Women with shoe racks were seven times more likely to be on time for work than women without shoe racks.”
- The troubled economy has prompted a need for empowerment, and they’re finding that the acts of cleaning, organizing and decluttering the home can provide that much needed sense of control. In a survey of our IconoCommunities panel, 25% of respondents acknowledge that they’ve been more active and interested in cleaning their homes since the start of the recession (2.1.10).
- What would you say is the biggest challenge to improving your home’s organization? 32.9% Lack of space in the home, 27.3% finding the time, 25.2% too much stuff, 6.7% not sure what product to use, 2.7% products at local retailer don’t meet my need, 5.1% other
- Men who organize their home offices are more likely to spend time playing with their children than men whose home offices are in disarray.
- Household order, characterized by routines and cleanliness, was positively associated with a range of early reading abilities in a sample of 455 kindergarten and first-grade twins. However, this association only held for mothers whose own reading abilities were above the national average.
- The top reasons professional organizers are hired were: too much clutter, general disorganization, difficulty determining what to keep and/or discard, difficulty finding things, selling a home or moving.
- Men were three times as likely to cook dinner if they owned a spice rack than if they did not own a spice rack.
- In the June 2009 NAPO public quick poll 1397 people answered the following question: How long would it take you to get your house ready for dinner guests? The results are as follows: 65% said “4 hours or fewer” (913 votes), 11% said “I’ll never invite anyone inside” (151 votes), 10% said “8 hours” (142 votes), 7% said “24 hours” (104 votes), 6% said “40 or more hours” (87 votes).
- The average employee today has about 37 hours of unfinished work on his or her desk at any one time
- The average U.S. executive wastes one hour per day or six weeks per year searching for missing information in messy desks and files.
- We wear 20 % of the clothes we own 80% of the time. The rest hangs there, just in case.
- According to a New York Times article in 2001, IKEA did a survey of customers in which 31% reported they were more satisfied after clearing out their closets than they were after sex.
References
- NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers), 2009 Get Organized Month Survey (of 400 Consumers Nationwide). 06/30/2009Von Bergen, Jane M.. So many reasons to neaten up, but it’s too imposing. Boston Globe 03/12/2006
- Bergman, P. (2010, May 20). How (and why) to stop multitasking. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://hbr.org
- Gifford, Erin. It’s 3am – Are You Checking Your Email Again?. AOL Corporate Newsroom 07/30/2008
- Goode, Stephen. Couples Best Steer Clear of Closet Organizers. Insight on the News 05/14/2001. Statistic by/from IKEA, “You Can’t Be Too Organized” survey of 620 consumers
- Hanna, Nissa. www.Iconoculture.com. Iconoculture e-newsletter 03/02/2010
- Storage Consumer Survey. Homeworld Business Magazine 10/01/2008
- Goode, Stephen. Couples Best Steer Clear of Closet Organizers. Insight on the News 05/14/2001
- Johnson, Anna D. Order in the House! Associations among Household Chaos,the Home Literacy Environment, Maternal Reading Ability, and Children’s Early Reading. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, October 2008, Vol. 54, No.4, pp. 445-472 10/01/2008
- NAPO 2009 Membership Survey. 06/30/2009
- Statistic by/from IKEA, “You Can’t Be Too Organized” survey of 620 consumers
- NAPO, . NAPO Public Quick Poll. 01/06/2009
- Marlene Caroselli Author of “Empower Yourself”
- The Wall Street Journal From a survey of 2,600 executives by Esselte, maker of Pendaflex
- NAPO
- IKEA
LOL. Totally relate to the 37 hours of undone work on my desk. Unfortunately, it’s clean enough to find it all!
Thanks Deb, I love that one. It reminds to flex my muscles in applying the 4 Ds – Delete, Diminish, Delegate or Delay.