Everyone has one of those drawers in their kitchen, office or garage. You know, that drawer…that is the landing place for all the stuff we don’t know exactly where to put. The one benefit of that drawer, if there is a benefit, is that it provides one place to hide our disorderliness so that hopefully the rest of our house appears a bit more orderly.

Orderliness is the ability to arrange ourselves and our surroundings in ‘order’ to achieve greater efficiency. The more order we have in our lives, the more efficient we will be. Orderliness helps us to limit confusion and disorder, and makes us more productive. It is the counter to chaos, and it helps us to keep our lives more manageable over long periods of time. Author Julia Cameron said, “When we clear the physical clutter from our lives, we literally make way for inspiration and ‘good, orderly direction’ to enter.”

The Gospel of Mark records that before Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 people, He instructed them to first sit down in groups of hundreds and fifties. I’ve always thought this request by Jesus was very interesting. Before performing one of the greatest miracles in the Bible, feeding over 5,000 people, He required a certain level of order. He didn’t say, “Yeah, just have the people come up here and grab some food.” I believe Jesus’ method of feeding all those people teaches us the benefit of having orderliness in our lives; that we better position ourselves for greater productivity, creativity, and yes, even unexpected blessings, when we incorporate orderliness into our daily lives.

Financial advisor Suze Norman said, “I am a big believer that orderliness begets wealth.” Orderliness helps us to see clearly both the forest and the trees, and it helps us to ensure that we keep all our ducks in a nice neat row. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

We all, from time to time, experience some level of disorder in our lives. The important thing is to always know your limits, and to always be ready to activate orderliness measures whenever necessary. It might be time to tackle that drawer, that closet, or maybe your email inbox.

I remember as a little boy, my mom would tell me to “straighten up my room”. That meant do a quick check and make sure your bed is made, and there’s nothing on the floor. Other times, she would tell me to “clean up my room, make up your bed, get everything from under your bed, clean and organize your closet, organize your drawers, and no cartoons until it’s all done!” Sometimes, only a “straighten up” is needed to get things in order, but other times a more thorough job is required. It’s up to us to determine what we need to maintain order in our court.

I’ll close by giving you the same simple advice I’d give you just before you pull away from a fast-food drive-thru; and that is this: Check your order…because the last thing you want is to get down the road and realize you don’t have something that you really needed or wanted.